In Memoriam: Estrella Fernós
She had all of the early signs of becoming a future star. Advanced a couple of grades during primary and secondary education, Estrella Fernós graduated high school at the age of fifteen in 1938, to enter college the same year. Known for her precocious intellectual ability, she decided to major in mathematics—one of the very few women to enter the field at the time. Soon thereafter, she taught at what was then considered one of the foremost secondary educational institutions of the time: the “Central High”. She also briefly taught classes at the University of Puerto Rico. Family rumor has it that once upon a time, even Jaime Benitez was an interested suitor—doing all the favors suitors do to win their love.
Yet gradually things began to change, and her life would embark toward a different path. Her marriage to another man would end up in a messy divorce at the young age of thirty three, which in the Puerto Rico of the1950’s was still perceived as a grave moral flaw. Various attempts at different mathematics-related graduate degrees would never be completed. A four hundred page thesis on the economics of agriculture in Puerto Rico would remain unedited, and she would be unable to maintain her university position. These and others of life’s frustrations eventually had their effect. Her eternal optimism eventually turned into a persistent frown, and the keen mental alertness into an early dementia. Without a single publication to her name, her death at the age of 78 in 1999 marked a loss not only for her family, but for the world of mathematics. Why did her life turn out the way it did; why did her star not shine more brightly?
My aunt’s life is partly a reflection of the difficulties women faced during much of the twentieth century while attempting to pursue a career in science. Maria Goeppert Mayer, who received a 1963 Nobel Prize for her work in theoretical physics, would obtain her first full time paying job only at the age of 53. Similarly, Jocelyn Bell who first discovered pulsars while working on her doctorate, would move according to her husband’s professional appointments; Bell gave up her astronomical career soon after marriage. Statistics throughout the century reveal these persistent problems. In 1939, only 14% of all math doctorates in the US were awarded to women—a percentage which drastically declined to 6% in 1969. Even in Puerto Rico, only one woman obtained a masters degree in mathematics from the UPR last year; only two such bachelors degrees were also awarded.
Some extremist liberals might blame male hegemony and the like as the cause of this “repression” of the female mathematicians, but reality is seldom that simple. Many of the problems Estrella faced were as common in a male-oriented Hispanic society as anywhere else in the world, as Mayer’s case indicates. Dr. Mayra Alonso, mathematics professor at the Sacred Heart University, notes that currently there has been a widespread island-wide decay in applications for mathematics degrees during the last decade irrespective of gender. Some of Estrella’s problems might have been due to poor personal decisions. But, in the end, the gift of motherhood—the giving of life—has costs that cannot be ignored. The reasons why the annals of science are deficient in the female gender greatly has to do with love’s duty. “Sophie’s Choice” is felt by all women who have professional ambitions and well as genuine concern for their children’s well-being; the decision is not an easy one.
Shortly after her established independence, Estrella married, as was then so common at the time. Also, typical to its era, the couple had the “parejita”; the girl was named after her mother, “Estrellita”. But although the girl was physically normal as her brother, in an ironic twist of fate, she had been born slightly retarded. Apparently, there were complications during the pregnancy, and her brain did not receive the necessary oxygen. These complications were so difficult, that the physician thought he would have to sacrifice either the mother or the daughter, but that he would not be able to save both. Both survived—but at a price.
Initially, Estrellita’s problems were not so severe as to be overtly marked. Naturally jovial and extroverted, she seemed to get along with other classmates. But she increasingly lagged behind her peers’ gradual intellectual progression as the years went by: academically, socially, and eventually romantically. As an adult, Estrellita would become Estrella’s life-long burden. It was a difficulty compounded by an intelligence normal enough to be aware of her status as an outcast—a psychological problem which would manifest itself in hypochondria, vociferous outbursts, and further seclusion. Living twenty four hours a day at home, weary dark bands grew around her eyes.
One would imagine that when the mother outlived the daughter, a new beginning would have occurred. But Estrella never accepted the death of her daughter this last decade, and led herself to believe that Estrellita was still alive. She would even call a neighbor’s daughter by that name, mentally transporting herself back to that ‘normal’ time when Estrellita seemed to be no different from other children. But as the delusion came to seriously inflict reality when Estrella started following the girl, it was quickly stopped when the father naturally threatened Estrella.
Estrellita’s death thus ironically marked the onset of her mother’s dementia—the dimming of a star that never shone as brightly as it could have.