Dora Mayer

[1] Mayer wrote on women's rights, philosophy, social concerns,[1] and 'extensively in denunciation of the endless abuses of landowners and authorities, and the absence of effective labor legislation' for the indigenous people of Peru.

[7] In his 1905 manifesto Nuestros Indios (Our Indians), Prada had argued that indigenous Peruvians had been ravaged by exploitation and discriminatory attitudes and practices, rather than inherently doomed by their perceived racial inferiority.

[10] The abstract of her paper, as described in a pamphlet produced for the Congress, read in part:The natives of Peru have been accused of dishonesty, hypocrisy, and idleness.

[10]In 1913, in her capacity as President of the Press Committee of the Pro-Indigenous Association, Mayer published The conduct of the Cerro de Pasco mining company.

[11] In it, she notes that although the initial operations of the North American mining company were legitimate:as the company became initiated into the secrets of the judicial and political habits of the country, it made up its mind to take advantage of the frailties which unfortunately are to be found in our social system, and entered fully into the ways of fraud, bribery and violence... We would make no remark upon the easy corruption of the businessmen who arrived here, if the Anglo-Saxon peoples did not brag so much about their moral superiority over the South-Americans and started in their diplomacy from the idea that, whilst protecting their countrymen in the exterior, they were defending the cause of civilization and morality.

[13] In 2019, philosopher Joel Rojas edited a collection of Mayer's writings entitled The Sun that Dispels the Clouds: Essential texts, and an exhibition was held in Lima about her life and work.