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Fem is the first major feminist magazine in Latin America. During a conference held in Morelia, Michoacán in 1965, the idea of Fem magazine was created and was later established by Alaíde Foppa and Margarita García Flores. In 2005, the director of the magazine, Esperanza Brito de Martí, claimed that the magazine would no longer be printed due to high costs but would be published online. The magazine focuses on social and political issues, art, cinema, news, poetry and short stories. The main topics in these articles are darker topics such as domestic abuse and violence, health care AIDS, etc. The goal of Fem magazine was to bring light to the idea of feminist struggles in foreign countries such as Mexico City, where the magazine's headquarters are located.

María Alaíde Foppa Falla was born 3 December 1914 in Barcelona, Spain to Tito Livio Foppa and Julia Falla. Her mother was a pianist of Guatemalan descent and her father was an Argentine- Italian diplomat. She grew up traveling, living in Belgium, France and Italy. She was educated in Italy, studying the history of art and literature. She spoke fluent Italian and worked for several years as a translator.Foppa fled to Guatemala after her husband was killed in a car accident. She was captured in Guatemala city by government forces and her 2 sons were killed in a fight with the government. In December of 1980, she went to get flowers from a local market and was never seen again.

In the beginning, Fem Magazine was not accepted by most of the population. In interviews of women that held a spot in the public eye, women were able to speak out about their views and positions on feminist movements(i.e. first female governor of Mexico, Griselda Alvarez).. This gave voice to co-founder Elena Poneiatowska. Although Poneiatowska was the co-founder of Fem, she did not identify as a feminist herself. This lead to misleading thoughts on the magazine.

Fem gave women the ability to see their sexuality as something not only personal but also political, especially in the Latin American society. Highlighting the fact that men and women's biological differences were not a downfall for females, Fem brought taboo topics into context such as rape, abortion and lesbianism.

Although Fem was very progressive on the conversation of the LGBT community, the rest of the population was not. Fem Magazine was also one of the first to publish images and articles on these dark topics such as violence of women because they knew that this topic had to have some light shed on it and many other magazines feared the backlash of these topics.

Refrences

Fem (magazine)

Alaíde Foppa