They are easy to miss, but there are two plaques affixed to the wall where Rue des Bahutiers meets Rue du Cancéra in the centre of Bordeaux. They commemorate the life and death of 19th-century French-Peruvian writer and socialist activist Flore Célestine Thérèse Henriette Tristán y Moscoso, better known as Flora Tristan.
Flora Tristan was born in Paris in 1803. Although she often speculated about the grandeur of her ancestry, she was actually the product of an affair between Mariano Eusebio Antonio Tristán y Moscoso, a colonel in the Spanish Navy and a member of one of southern Peru’s most powerful families, and Anne-Pierre Laisnay, a Parisian bourgeoise. The couple had met in Bilbao, Spain.
This informal family unit (the parents never married) appears to have lasted until her father’s death in 1807, after which mother and child were unable to maintain their high-society lifestyle, in large part because their home had been repossessed by the French State (as it was part of the Spanish empire, Peru was regarded as an enemy nation at the time).
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Source: Wikipedia / Les Belles Femmes de Paris et de la Province |
Tristan’s first means of escape from relative poverty was aged 17 when she married a wealthy engraver, André Chazal (she was already pregnant with their first child, they were to have three in all). However, the relationship soon turned sour, as Chazal proved to be a jealous and violent husband. She fled in 1825 and obtained a property settlement in 1828, but was never able to successfully file for divorce, a driving factor in her commitment to fight for women’s rights.
After spending time in England, Flora Tristan set off from Bordeaux to Peru in 1833 to stake her claim to her paternal inheritance, which was controlled by her uncle. As her family regarded her as illegitimate, she failed in this endeavour, although she was granted an allowance for a number of years, enabling her to gain some degree of financial independence. Feeling socially out of place in Lima, she eventually returned to Paris, where she wrote a travel diary about her time in Peru called Pérégrinations d'une paria (Wanderings of a Pariah).
Her status as a published author enabled her to begin operating within Paris's literary and socialist circles, and she continued to build on her experience in Peru, where she believed women were freer and more influential than elsewhere. She went on to produce seminal works on women’s equality, feminism, and workers’ rights, becoming one of the leading figures of the utopian socialist movement of the 1840s. Notable books on the theme of social justice included Les promenades dans Londres (1840) and L’union ouvrière (1843).
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| The ceramic tribute on Rue des Bahutiers. |
In April 1843, she set off from Bordeaux on a trek which aimed to gauge working conditions in various locations and share her thoughts about equal rights between women and men in conference settings (100 meetings were planned in 20 cities). The journey, which had been conceived one year earlier during a stay in Bordeaux, sought to replicate the 'Tour de France' model applied by 'compagnon' apprentices who perfected their skills while travelling around the country.
However, after 13 stops, she was both physically exhausted and unwell. She returned to Bordeaux for treatment, but died unexpectedly from typhoid fever at the home of the journalist Charles Lemonnier and his wife, Elisa. She was buried the next day at the Chartreuse Cemetery in central Bordeaux.
However, after 13 stops, she was both physically exhausted and unwell. She returned to Bordeaux for treatment, but died unexpectedly from typhoid fever at the home of the journalist Charles Lemonnier and his wife, Elisa. She was buried the next day at the Chartreuse Cemetery in central Bordeaux.
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| The house where Flora Tristan's wanderings came to an end. |
The two plaques on Rue des Bahutiers therefore mark the spot where Flora Tristan’s “wanderings came to an end”, as is inscribed on the slightly damaged ceramic tiles of the older installation, unveiled in 1992 and also featuring the coat of arms of the Peruvian capital, Lima, one of Bordeaux’s twin cities. The second plaque, which is made of metal and provides concise biographical information of the self-described “fallen aristocrat, socialist woman, and feminist worker”, was added in 2021 to mark the 200th anniversary of Peru's independence.
A large column, topped off with a couple of stone books (one featuring the title of her work L'union ouvrière) was installed on Tristan’s grave at Chartreuse Cemetery five years after her death. Funded by workers, it is collectively signed "Les travailleurs reconnaissants" (the grateful workers) and bears the inscription “liberty, equality, fraternity”. A ceremony is held there every 14 November to mark the anniversary of her death, traditionally attended by women’s rights associations, trade union representatives, local dignitaries and historians.
Finally, Flora Tristan's legacy was to extend beyond her thoughts and writings. Her daughter, Aline Chazal, married Clovis Gauguin, and the couple had a son, Paul Gauguin. He of course went on to become a celebrated Post-Impressionist and Symbolist painter and sculptor.
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