Y’all, I am obsessed with this month’s Kickass Woman, Ynez Enriquetta Julietta Mexia. Born in Mexico, she didn’t become a botanist until she was in her fifties. She traveled all over the U.S., Mexico, and Latin America collecting specimens and discovering new plants and she usually traveled alone, wearing trousers and riding astride. And she did most of this in the 1920s and 1930s. A true badass.
Ynez’s father was a Mexican diplomat to the U.S. and her mother was American. Ynez was born in Washington, D.C. in 1870. Ynez’s parents separated when she was three. She was a shy child who comforted herself with reading. After attending private schools in Canada and the U.S. she moved to Mexico. She spent thirty years in Mexico running her father’s ranch in the later part of his life and after he died. Her first husband died and she divorced husband number two when he bankrupted a poultry and pet business that she had started.
The loss of the ranch and her divorce drove Ynez into a depression. She moved to San Francisco for treatment and became active in the Sierra Club, which awoke her interest in the Bay Area’s ecology.
At the age of 51, Ynez began her botany studies at U.C. Berkeley, and in 1921 she went with her class on a botany collecting expedition to Mexico. As the California Academy of Sciences puts it, “From then on, she was hooked.”
At first Ynez traveled with groups but by 1925 she was traveling alone, which she preferred. She collected plants in Alaska, Mexico, the Sierra Nevadas, and all over South America, including traveling the Amazon River from the delta to the Andes Mountains by steamship, raft, and canoe.
When questioned about her traveling alone, she said, “I don’t think there is any place in the world where a woman can’t venture.”
The California Academy of Sciences states:
Mexia was not keen on handling the plants after she collected them; hence, she never formally described any herself. However, over the course of her life, she collected more than 150,000 specimens, which would be categorized into two new genera and 500 new species with 50 of those species named after her.
Mexia was a passionate conservationist, especially pivotal in protecting the California Redwoods through her work with Save the Redwoods and the Sierra Club. Tragically her short but prolific and groundbreaking career ended with her death from lung cancer at the age of 68 in 1938.
Additional sources for further reading:
California Academy of Sciences: Untold Stories
Late Bloomer: The Short, Prolific Career of Ynez Mexia
Thank you, Carrie, for introducing me to this fascinating woman!
Ynez Mexia was a badass botanist who traveled all over the world collecting specimens and discovering new plants. She was a true pioneer in her field and is an inspiration to us all.