Episode 116: Teresa Gisbert
The time was November 30, 1926. The place La Paz, Bolivia. Teresa Gisbert Carbonell was born. She attended Santa Ana Catholic School before joining UMSA’s engineering school, where she pursued architecture. Teresa was among the first women architects to graduate in 1950, with José de Mesa, her childhood friend and later husband, also in attendance. They married and moved to Spain, where they earned master's degrees in art history.
Teresa and José shared a passion for colonial-era art, particularly Andean art, encouraged by professors Diego Angulo Iñiguez and Enrique Marco Dorta. They began cataloging Bolivia’s architectural history, often traveling under modest conditions. Teresa also taught at UMSA and wrote books like *Holguín y la Pintura Altoperuana del Virreinato*, pioneering mestizo art studies.
Teresa balanced her career and family, raising four accomplished children, including Carlos, a future Bolivian president. Her work extended to restoring cultural landmarks, like the National Art Museum in La Paz. She and José received multiple Guggenheim Fellowships, enabling international research.
Teresa became the first woman in the Bolivian Academy of Science and won the National Culture Award in 1995. Her later works included *El Paraíso de los Pájaros Parlantes* and *Art, Power, and Identity*, which highlighted Andean art's unique cultural value. She was a visiting professor at prestigious institutions worldwide and directed the Bolivian Institute of Culture.
Teresa passed away on February 19, 2018, leaving behind a legacy of scholarly contributions to Andean art and culture, which continue to inspire.
Caryatid: Laura Otero Pedraza
Laura Otero Pedraza is the creator and owner of ateliermadera a design firm based out of Bolivia. Just like Teresa, her interest in design and creation is highly rooted in nature and historical context. Even the location of her studio reflects her ethos, she practices inside a home built in the 1920s in the middle of nature surrounded by monkeys, sloths, and countless birds. She grew up in Bolivia, studied architecture in the University Torcuato Di Tella in Buenos Aires, Argentina and did an internship in South Africa. It was there where she felt she started to really see and feel the soul in things, in people, in nature, and in context. Today her work spans from architectural installations, to furniture creations inspired by local methods and nature. One can’t help but notice the parallels between Laura and Teresa in how both being architects from Bolivia they draw from and highlight culture in their work even though they have different ways of expressing and materializing that interest.
Agora: María Inés Saavedra
We want to congratulate María Inés Saavedra for starting her own firm in Bolivia. It's called M Studio. She is an architect with experience in residential design and now she is exploring Textile Art and furniture design using wood and local artists and laborers. You can find her instagram under the handle msart_e.
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This transcript was prepared during the development of the episode.
Final recorded episode may deviate slightly from the content presented below as changes, edits, or improvements may be made during the recording and editing process.
Norgerie: Hi! Welcome to She Builds Podcast, where we share stories about women in the design and construction field, one lady at a time.
Jessica: This season’s theme is: “Pairs, Duos” . We are talking about ladies who were a part of a professional pair in some fashion.
Lizi: As always, we are not experts, we are just sharing stories about the information that we find, as friends having a fun conversation. If you find an error, send us an email and we will all continue learning.
Norgerie: Today we're talking about Teresa Gisbert, Bolivian architect and art historian. I’m Norgerie Rivas, very hungry, in Houston Texas
Jessica: Hi, I’m Jessica Rogers getting ready for some lunch in Miami, FL
Lizi: Hi, I’m Lizi Raar, ready to eat lunch in San Francisco.
Norgerie: The time was November 30, 1926. The place La Paz, Bolivia. Teresa Gisbert Carbonell was born. Her parents were immigrants from Spain. She went to the catholic private school Santa Ana in La Paz. She also had at least one sister that was mentioned in passing in my research. But I could find no names of family members to give you today other than mom and dad.
Lizi: Ok, Hola a Bolivia.
Jessica: Hola hola Familia Gisbert Carbonell
Norgerie: Growing up she had a little guy friend who rolled in the same circles as her, José de Mesa. Born in Bolivia too, a year before Teresa, José had a Spanish dad and a Bolivian mom. Apparently José's and Teresa's parents were friends.
Lizi: cute! Is this young love brewing?
Norgerie: Perhaps.
Jessica:ooooh
Norgerie: In 1946 she went to the engineering school of the Universidad Mayor de San Andrés which translates to either Major or Higher University of San Andrés. I saw it written both ways in my research. Anyway, we're gonna call it UMSA for its acronym in Spanish. The university is in La Paz.
Lizi: Nice. It sounds like a good school.
Norgerie: So she went to the engineering school because the faculty of architecture was a part of the engineering school, and when you graduated you were an engineer architect. We've run into this with other ladies we've talked about.
Lizi: Ohhh that’s very interesting. An Engineer Architect.
Jessica: yeah it’s interesting to see which schools would allow the School of Architecture to be apart of which department Engineering or Art
Norgerie: Eventually the school of architecture broke away from the school of engineering, becoming its own school. According to some sources Teresa was a part of the first classes to graduate from the independent Architecture School when she received her diploma in 1950. But when I went on the schools website to research their history they say the school became independent in 1955.
Lizi: Hmmm discrepancies. But it sounds like regardless, she went there studied architecture and possibly engineering and got a degree. Good for her!
Norgerie: No matter what, if she graduated from the engineering or a new architecture school, she graduated as an architect and she was one of the only women in her class.
Lizi: WOO! Congrats Teresa!
Jessica: That’s right! She got her degree and okay only woman in her class
Norgerie: You know who else was in architecture school with her?
Lizi: Her little childhood friend!?
Norgerie: That's right, Mr. de Mesa. Oh yeah! And they went from friends to couple. Cause architecture school can be so romantic.
Lizi: CALLED IT!
Jessica: que cute!!! Yeah why mention a childhood friend from the beginning if it’s not gonna become something more, toooo cute!
Norgerie: Yep. After Teresa graduated from college in 1950, José and Teresa went from boyfriend and girlfriend to married couple and then traveled to Spain to get a masters in art history in Sevilla.
Lizi: Que cute. Honeymoon/higher education.
Jessica: Sevilla is so beautiful, sounds like a great time.
Norgerie: Teresa was going to school and also working at the University of Sevilla and if that's not enough she was also working at the Diego Velazquez Art Institute.
Lizi: Dang girl. She was hustling.
Jessica: okay but like with what time - how does she do this??!!!
Norgerie: While doing all the things Teresa and José discovered their shared interest for Arte Virreinal which is art that had been developed in the colonies of Spain from the time Spain had colonized the land until the time of the territories’ independence .
Jessica: interesting - sometimes they call this Colonial art similar art work is what we find in the Caribbean too
Norgerie: Teresa's professors Diego Angulo Iñiguez and Enrique Marco Dorta encouraged her to pursue her passion for cataloging and studying art of the Andean region because it was an area that was, at that moment, pretty undocumented. And why not her, to bring all this information to light.
Lizi: Yeah that’s super cool. Especially since she had a personal connection to that area.
Jessica: its’ the encouragement from the professors for me.
Norgerie: While Teresa and José were very career focused, studying, working, advancing their interests they also made time to grow their family. In 1953 she gave birth to whom I believe was her first child Carlos de Mesa Gisbert who grew up to be a President of Bolivia.
Lizi: Wait WHAT!?!? Our girl was the mom of a president?
Jessica: oooh casual plug there - giving birth to the future president of Bolivia
Norgerie: Casual as always. The reason I say I believe Carlos was the first is because she had another boy, Andrés whose birth date I could not find but I know he grew up to be an architect that focuses on restoration. He worked on the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona for a while and he is also an expert in 3D Modeling techniques. He went to his parents alma mater UMSA and he has taught there too.
Lizi: OMG her kids are no slouches. Just casually worked on the Sagrada Familia.
Jessica: yeahhh love to see it
Norgerie: By 1954 they got back to their homeland and started a decades long adventure of uncovering, documenting, and cataloging Bolivian architectural history. They took pictures, drew as-builts, and started a register of Bolivian monuments.
Lizi: This is so cool! And so important I would imagine.
Jessica: Yeah or even Yasmeen and her husband, preserving there culture - very cool
Norgerie: This sounds so amazing to me. I imagine them on these fancy expeditions, but in the beginning it wasn't very glamorous. It was very grassroots; she and her husband borrowed a car and a camera from a friend. And the boys, cause they were so little, would stay with her sister. But as they grew older I believe they joined mom and dad on those adventures because Andrés mentioned in an interview that that is how he became interested in becoming an architect, because not only did he see his parents doing that, he also got to do it with them.
Lizi: That’s such a cool experience for a kid to have. No wonder he got interested in it. But yeah I can imagine that at first it wasn’t super glamorous because I’m sure a lot of these places were very hard to get to, very isolated and rural. But so important to document.
Jessica: Yeah I wouldn’t imagine it being glamorous at all - remote places that probably weren’t accessible but talk about an Archventure - - that must have been awesome as a kid
Norgerie: Upon Teresa's return to Bolivia she also started teaching at her alma mater, UMSA, first at the architecture school and then also in the department of history, philosophy, and literature.
Lizi: Of course. Can’t have just one job.
Jessica: And not just in one department at that - it’s gotta be multiples!
Norgerie: Hahaha. Around this time, in 1956, Teresa and José published their first book Holguín y la Pintura Altoperuana del Virreinato. This book was about that colonial era art they had begun to study in school. With this book they started the concept and study of mestizo art.
Lizi: What’s that?
Norgerie: Well the word mestizo is what we call the mix of Spanish and Indigenous. And when I say Spanish I always mean from Spain, which is what that means, people use the terms Hispanic and Spanish interchangeably and they're not. To be honest this is the first time I heard about Mestizo art. I've always heard it in the context of people, to call someone mestizo, which to me is not necessarily a slur, it depends on the context, but for me it's just a term. At least when I was growing up in Puerto Rico it was never used as a bad word. But in my research I learned that in other Latin American countries it's not a harmless word like I thought if you call a person mestizo but mestizo art is ok.
Jessica: Yeah it really depends on the context and tone - Mestizo to me kind of meant like indigenous or native - for example on my mom’s side of the family she would be called mestizo because she had dark hair and features compared to the rest of my aunts and uncles. In the case of art when I think of Mestizo I think artisanal but in the same concept as indigenous or native to the land and culture.
Norgerie: Another term to know is mulato, which is of Spanish and African descent. I'm both mestizo and mulata. Most Puerto Ricans assume they are both. Maybe that's why to us those terms are not bad words. A lot of hispanics are inherently mixed race. Ok that was a large tangential answer to your question, sorry.
Lizi: No need to apologize, good to clarify and explain.
Jessica: agreed
Norgerie: In 1958 they received their first Guggenheim Fellowship Grant.
Jessica: That’s really great The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation offers fellowships to exceptional individuals in pursuit of scholarship in any field of knowledge and creation in any art form, under the freest possible conditions.
Norgerie: Their field of study was architecture planning and design. Apparently there are different categories you can apply to get. They received money to fund their research into mestizo art and lived for a while in New York, and traveled to Mexico and Peru.
Jessica: okay I was wondering if their work would take them to Peru or Mexico - which had alot of Mestizo Art - very cool.
Lizi: Amazing! It sounds like their efforts and work were being recognized if they were able to win this grant to further the research.
Jessica: yeah very true
Norgerie: During this period she wrote a book that became popular among historians, History of Cuzco Paintings.
Lizi: ooooo that sounds cool.
Jessica: I know this must sound childish but Cuzco just reminds me of the emperors new groove lol
Norgerie: In 1960 she gave birth to her third child Isabel de Mesa Gisbert. Today known as Isabel Mesa de Inchauste she's an author. And a year later the baby of the family was born, Teresa Guiomar de Mesa Gisbert she grew up to be an artist.
Lizi: I love it. Also wow, she’s doing all the things and has 4 kids. Impressive.
Jessica: yes - I cannot fathom it but I also like learning that all of her children will end up doing great things, author, architect, president, artist.
Norgerie: Don't think that because she was writing books, creating multiple lives, she wasn't practicing architecture. No no no. She was still practicing. In fact she had high profile projects, during the 60s she and hubby restored the National Art Museum in La Paz.
Lizi: Oh my gosh. How does she do it?
Jessica: ok high profile project!
Norgerie: Then they won the Guggenheim Fellowship again in 1966 to work for a year in Europe, mostly based out of Madrid, furthering their studies on mestizo art.
Lizi: As one does.
Norgerie: All this time she was still a professor at UMSA. And José taught there too. This duo did everything together. They even got kicked out of school together.
Lizi: hahahaha wait what?! I need more information. As kids? Or as adults?
Jessica: right?! Need more info kicked out as students or professors lol
Norgerie: This part of the story was a little hard for me to find information to corroborate so I'm gonna share with you what I understood.
Lizi: Ok, go for it.
Norgerie: Ok, one source I found said that, in the 1970s, after more than a decade teaching there, they were expelled for being “hispanistas” during the university revolution of 1970. Now I could not find information on what it meant to be an hispanista. The students led a revolution in 1970 but it was very quickly shut down by the government, so I'm not sure which one of these two forced Teresa and José out. Long story short they weren't teaching at the University no mo’.
Lizi: Hmm. That’s really too bad, but fascinating. What was the revolution in reference to? Do you think it was because they were researching hispanista type art and architecture? Was the revolution anything to do with those sympathies?
Norgerie: Well no, the revolution had to do with students thinking the educational system was corrupt, that there was a form of nepotism going on and professors were making a lot more money than the students saw as fair. It was a little bit of capitalism vs socialism too.
Lizi: ahhh I see.
Jessica: interesting so it seemed like a mixture of things? There is professors pay but maybe about culture the sentiments of hispanistas? - without fully understanding what it means I imagine people’s reaction to mestizo and Hispanic terms can cause people to feel a certain type of way and maybe that’s the cause for an up roar
Norgeri: But, not to worry Teresa bounced back, she directed the National Art Museum, yeah the same one she restored. She also worked on the restoration of the Tambo del Cacique Quirquincho, a museum and the Templo de Jesús de Machaca, a church.
Lizi: Restore a building….get a job there… you know. Normal stuff.
Jessica: yeah despite not working at the university, I’m sure she had plenty of other opportunities because she did so much.
Norgerie: Always. During this time, she was part of a group of international restoration experts that, with funding from UNESCO and the Organization of American States, developed a Master's degree specializing in monumental restoration in Cuzco.
Lizi: Wow that degree sounds really cool! Ok, so the Organization of American States or the OAS are a coalition of countries in the Americas that focus on human rights, electoral oversight, social and economic development in the western hemisphere.
Jessica: okay we know UNESCO in terms of places called UNESCO Heritage sites, right? But the organization stands for the United Nations educational scientific cultural organization, it’s all about the identification, protection, and preservation of cultural natural heritage considered to be of value to humanity
Norgerie: In 1980 we had the start of really questionable fashion, and also Teresa's second book that she wrote on her own: Indigenous Iconographies and Myth in Art. And seven years later, alongside Silvia Arz Carla and Martha Caría, she authored the book Textile Art and the Andean World.
Lizi: She’s churning out the books.
Norgerie: Then she made it to the 90s, Jessica, Lizi and I were now breathing oxygen at the same time as Teresa. In 1995 she received the National Culture Award and was the first woman to be included in the Bolivian Academy of Science!!
Lizi: hahaha. So happy that we were alive when Teresa was being recognized!
Jessica: woop wooo and I’m glad she alive to receive her flowers too hahaha
Norgerie: In 1999 she published El Paraíso de los Pájaros Parlantes: La imagen del otro en la cultura Andina, The Paradise of Talking Birds: The image of other in Andean Culture, apparently this is one of her best books. I’m thinking of buying it, but I barely make time to read physical books anymore, so TBD if I purchase this.
Lizi: oooo that sounds cool. I know what you mean about physical books…so rare that I do that
Jessica: totally get it, at this point I feel like I’m just collecting books
Norgerie: She kept writing for many years. In 2016 she published her last book Art, Power, and Identity focusing on the overlap between image and power, stating the value of Andean Art which had been seen as less important than its colonial counterparts. She set out to prove the great quality and craftsmanship of these works, as well as it being a style all of its own, not found anywhere else in the world.
Lizi: That’s so cool. I love that she kept writing about these topics. It wasn’t like ok, I wrote a book and now people know. She felt there was lots more to explore and share with people.
Jessica: agreed - I love it! Also love seeing the explore these topics colonialism and its counter parts. And she did this on top of her other work too!
Norgerie: Yes. She was involved in academia all over the world, throughout her career she was professor Emeritus of the Private University in Santa Cruz de la Sierra and Our Lady of Peace University, both in Bolivia. She was an Honorary Member of the Catholic University of Chile, visiting professor at the School of High Social Studies in Paris, Rabida University in Spain and the University of Puerto Rico. This lady was on my turf you guyz, we could have crossed paths at the mall for all I know!
Lizi: WOAHH! You were so close!
Jessica: you guys could have shared the same grocery store? It’s interesting to see that she taught at all of theses institutions too
Norgerie: She somehow found time to also be the Director of the Bolivian Institute of Culture
Lizi: Of course she did.
Jessica: yeah she had an opening in her calendar somehow
Norgerie: She passed away on February 19, 2018. There were many events in celebration of her work, colleagues, and scholars continue to study, publish and discuss her great contributions and her work.
Lizi: As there should be! She did so much for bringing these types of art and architecture to light.
Jessica: and across multiple countries and institutions her life is very inspiring. And I’m 2018?? This woman who as born in 1926 like what
Norgerie: One great point and analysis made in a piece after her death, named “In Memoriam Teresa Gisbert” by Ramón Mujica Pinilla, was that not only was she a pioneer of art research in the Andean region, Teresa showed the importance of considering art in its context. When viewed through a western lens one might not understand that in Andean Art textiles were more of an artistic expression than painting, so it's important to understand culture, context, as one studies art. We could say this about anything really but she was leading that charge in the art history world.
Lizi: So well put. You can definitely see that she was working to promote and explain the context of these artisans and artists from the Andean region. I love that we got to learn about her and all of her work in exposing these types of art!
Jessica: agreed, her work was so important.
Norgerie: Alright, now we have reached the second part of our episode, the Caryatid. A caryatid is a stone carving of a woman, used as a column or a pillar to support the structure of a Greek or Greek-style building. In each episode we choose a “caryatid” -- a woman who is working today, furthering the profession through their work, and who ties into the historical woman of our episode.
Norgerie: Drum roll please…
Norgerie: Laura Otero Pedraza
Lizi and Jessica: (applause) Yeay!
Norgerie: Laura Otero Pedraza is the creator and owner of ateliermadera a design firm based out of Bolivia. Just like Teresa, her interest in design and creation is highly rooted in nature and historical context.
Lizi: Feeling a connection.
Jessica: love to see it
Norgerie: Even the location of her studio reflects her ethos, she practices inside a home built in the 1920s in the middle of nature surrounded by monkeys, sloths, and countless birds.
Lizi: Very connected to nature.
Jessica: middle of nature? Middle of a zoo: jungle? If she likes it we love it lol inspiration everywhere
Norgerie: She grew up in Bolivia, studied architecture in the University Torcuato Di Tella in Buenos Aires, Argentina and did an internship in South Africa. It was there where she felt she started to really see and feel the soul in things, in people, in nature, and in context.
Jessica: beautiful- sounds like a well rounded exploration
Norgerie: Today her work spans from architectural installations, to furniture creations inspired by local methods and nature. I was inspired by the parallels between Laura and Teresa in how both being architects from Bolivia they draw from and highlight culture in their work even though they have different ways of expressing and materializing that interest.
Lizi: That’s really cool. Yeah it sounds like Laura is also pulling from the culture of Bolivia and South America in her work which is what Teresa was trying to expose and promote.
Jessica: exactly and how they choose to express it between preservation vs furniture’
Norgerie: We have an agora today! The Agora is where we share news big or small. We want to congratulate María Inés Saavedra for starting her own firm in Bolivia. It's called M Studio. She is an architect with experience in residential design and now she is exploring Textile Art and furniture design using wood and local artists and laborers. You can find her instagram under the handle msart_e.
Jessica: Maria! Oh how exciting. Full disclosure we went to school with Maria so it’s exciting to see what she is doing over 10 years since we’ve graduated. And y’all know me I love to see how architects look at how they apply their architecture skills to alternative practices
Norgerie: Before we say goodbye we want to say thank you to CMYK for the music, John W our technical advisor. And most of all thank you for listening!
Lizi: Remember to check out our show notes for links to all of our resources on this episode as well as pictures of projects we’ve talked about.
Norgerie: We hope you enjoyed learning about today’s lady and caryatid along with our banter, and that you are inspired to find out more about them and other amazing professional ladies. Again, thank you.
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References
De Mesa, Carlos. “Andrés De Mesa Gisbert En La Piel De Gaudí.” Carlos Diego De Mesa Gisbert, 28 Aug. 2018, carlosdmesa.com/2018/08/28/andres-de-mesa-gisbert-en-la-piel-de-gaudi.
Dictionary of Art Historians. “Gisbert, Teresa - Dictionary of Art Historians.” Dictionary of Art Historians, 19 Apr. 2024, arthistorians.info/gisbertt/#:~:text=Teresa%20Gisbert%20was%20the%20daughter,San%20Andres.
“Laura Otero Pedraza | Architect | Founder — Ateliermadera.” Ateliermadera, www.ateliermadera.com/es/about.
Navarro, Pedro. “Andrés De Mesa. Sagrada Familia: Old and New 3D Techniques.” METALOCUS, 23 Nov. 2011, www.metalocus.es/en/news/andres-de-mesa-sagrada-familia-old-and-new-3d-techniques. Accessed 18 Nov. 2024.
Ojeda, Gueni. “TERESA GISBERT 1926-2018.” UN DIA | UNA ARQUITECTA 4, 4 July 2019, undiaunaarquitecta4.wordpress.com/2019/07/04/teresa-gisbert-192. Accessed 18 Nov. 2024.
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