De los inicios de la protección de la infancia en España al reconocimiento de los derechos del niño a través de la revista "La Madre y el Niño" de Manuel Tolosa Latour

Abstract

Starting from the varied context in which childhood and adolescence are situated at the beginning of contemporary era, this paper aims to analyze the origins of social concern for the realities of those boys and girls who found themselves in situations of precariousness and social risk until protective legislation began to take shape that would lead to the recognition of the rights of this especially vulnerable group. We use the press as a source of study, focusing especially on the magazine La Madre y el Niño, founded in 1857 by Manuel Tolosa Latour. This hygienist doctor stood out, among the social reformers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, as a precursor in the care of children and in the methods and instruments implemented for this purpose. Likewise, he prioritized the socialization of both fathers and mothers, as well as teachers, in the adequate and correct attention to minors, using as an instrument to disseminate his ideas the pages of the magazine La Madre y el Niño. This publication, which has hardly attracted the attention of researchers, was a pioneer in the popularization of issues related to childhood in its most varied perspectives, its pages contributing to exert pressure on the State to move towards a regulation of the children’s problems of the time.