The First Sephardic Writers, between Tradition and Modernity: Two Texts by Reina Hakohen from Thessaloniki

Abstract

The modernization process that changed the social role of Sephardic women from Turkey and the Balkans at the end of 19th Century and the beginnings of 20th Century represents one of the major transformations occurred among the Sephardim. However, we have very few texts by women who reflect about this evolution. One of the first women writers is Reina Hakohen, from Salonika, author of two inedited texts about the social changes and the new role of women: Las muchachas modernas. Una buena lisyón a siertas mujeres de muestra époka por kitarlas del kamino yerado (1898) and Por los modernos: un razonamiento kontra la mansebez de muestra époka (1899). In this article we present an edition of both texts, accompanied by an analysis of their content.