Mercedes Cabello de Carbonera

She was a contemporary of Manuel González Prada, who, like Cabello, was a sui generis positivist; and an attendee of Juana Manuela Gorriti's tertulias, which provided her an opportunity to meet other female writers and discuss literature and feminist ideologies.

Her literary works Sacrificio y recompensa, Blanca Sol, Las consequencias and El conspirador contain a recurrent theme of women portrayed as "helpless, suffering creatures or as fallen heroines.

The Department of Moquegua, where she lived during her childhood, was one of the areas affected by the presence of Chilean troops, which would later be a feature of her novel El Conspirador.

[1] During her developmental years Ramón Castilla was the president of Perú and his liberal politics led to the expansion of the subjects women could be taught in school, including French, English, geography and arithmetic.

With regard to religion, Cabello de Carbonera was not against Catholicism, but she did criticize when women from the bourgeoisie used religious holidays to flaunt their high fashion.

[1] Therefore, Cabello de Carbonera used “the language of positivism to court the liberals who were flexible regarding fixing higher standards for women’s education.”[2] We can see a small glimpse of the limited education Peruvian women were exposed to in Cabello de Carbonera's novel Blanca Sol where the protagonist has an inadequate education and no strong female role models to guide them away from antiquated social norms.