Lady Patagonia

Lady Patagonia
 AUTHOR: María Eugenia Allende Correa
 Uc Editions

 Number of pages: 478

 GENDER: Magallanes and Chilean Antarctic Region
 Biographies, Literature and Literary Studies

 REVIEW
 In 1879, a group of British aristocrats arrived in the remote colony of Punta Arenas to embark on an unprecedented journey through the interior of a land unknown to tourists and the general public. This book delves into the story of the woman who led this adventure: the eccentric and multifaceted Victorian traveler Lady Florence Dixie (1855-1905), the first woman to traverse Patagonia and to write a literary account of it. Considered the first tourist in this region, Dixie brought to light places that are now major tourist landmarks of the Chilean Patagonian landscape, such as the famous Torres del Paine, peaks that this British woman christened "Cleopatra's Needles." Following the successful publication of Across Patagonia (1880), Florence became a famous and controversial globetrotter, writer, journalist, and political activist who championed causes considered unusual at the time, such as animal and environmental protection, and full equality between men and women. By comparing her experiences with those of other Victorian travelers, this work seeks to reconstruct, in a dynamic and engaging style, the story of the first to explore and appreciate, from a recreational perspective, a territory characterized for centuries as remote, alluring, and mysterious.