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Ynes Mexia

Mexican-American botanist (1870–1938)

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Biography

Ynés Mexía was born on May 24, 1870, in Washington, D.C., to Enrique Mexia, a Mexican diplomat, and Sarah Wilmer Mexía. Her grandfather was José Antonio Mexía, a distinguished Mexican general. Sarah Wilmer was related to Samuel Eccleston, the fifth Catholic Archbishop of Baltimore.

In 1873, her father returned to Mexico, and her mother moved Ynés and her six half-siblings to a ranch in Limestone, Texas, later to be called Mexia. Later, the family moved around in various eastern cities such as Philadelphia and Ontario, where she received a private school education. They settled in Maryland, where Ynés attended St. Joseph's Preparatory School in Emmittsburg. In 1887, she moved to Mexico where she remained with her father for ten years.

While residing there in 1897, Mexia married her first husband, Herman de Laue, a Spanish-German merchant, who died in 1904. Around the time of his death, Mexia started Quinta, a pet and poultry stock raising business, at the hacienda she inherited from her father's estate. Later, she married D. Augustin Reygados, but the union ended in divorce in 1906, after he effectively bankrupted the business.

In 1909, at the age of 39, Mexía suffered a mental and physical breakdown and left Mexico for San Francisco in search of medical care. She was treated by Dr. Philip King Brown, founder of the Arequipa Sanatorium in Fairfax, for a total of ten years. While in Northern California, Mexía began going on excursions with the Sierra Club into the mountains, and thus became interested in the region's ecology such as redwoods, birds, and plants.

Ynés enrolled at University California Berkeley, where she was introduced to botany and went on her first expedition. Ynés wrote to Alice Eastwood in July 1925, advising Eastwood that she was about to accompany Stanford's Assistant Herbarium Curator, Roxanna Ferris, on a collecting trip to Mexico, which would be her first botanical exploration in that country. In middle age, Mexía had found her purpose in life, writing: "… I have a job, [where] I produce something real and lasting."

Over the course of the next 13 years, Mexía traveled from the northern regions of Alaska to the southern tip of Tierra del Fuego. Her habits often surprised people she met because she was not acting in a manner typical of a woman of the early 20th century: traveling alone, riding horseback, wearing trousers (knickers), and preferring to sleep outside even if beds or indoor accommodations were available. She wrote about her rejecting of such stereotypes and commented that "A well-known collector and explorer stated very positively that 'it was impossible for a woman to travel alone in Latin America,'" and emphasized that "I decided that if I wanted to become better acquainted with the South American continent the best way would be to make my way right across it."

In 1938, while on an expedition to Oaxaca, Mexico, Mexía became ill. Forced to abort the trip and return to the United States, she was subsequently diagnosed with lung cancer and died a month later at the age of 68. William E. Colby, then secretary of the Sierra Club, wrote "All who knew Ynés Mexía could not fail to be impressed by her friendly unassuming spirit, and by that rare courage which enabled her to travel, much of the time alone, in lands where few would dare to follow".

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