HELIA BRAVO HOLLIS: BIOGRAPHY, CONTRIBUTIONS, DISCOVERIES - ARTE - 2024

Helia Bravo Hollis was one of the most important scientists in Mexico, and even in Latin America. Her contributions remain current thanks to her contribution to biology and botany. Known as "Maestra Bravo", she dedicated her work to the study of cacti.

In this context, he was able to give a lecture on the variety of flowers related to cacti, with which he was able to identify and classify some 700 endemic species of cactus from the Mexican Republic.

Helia Bravo Hollis was the first female biologist in Mexico. Source: Planckarte

During his prolific career he produced more than 170 articles and two books, in addition to describing 60 scientific classifications and reviewing 59 nomenclatures. Thanks to this and other contributions, Bravo Hollis developed a very productive work for biology.

This scientist is considered the first female biologist in Mexico, which made her a pioneer in this science. This was evidenced throughout her career with different works, such as the founding of the Botanical Garden of the National Autonomous University of Mexico.

Biography

From a very young age, Helia Bravo Hollis showed her interest in plants and nature, which she woke up thanks to the Sunday walks she took with her parents, Carlota Hollis and Manuel Bravo, through the oak forests of her town. At that time, people could take quiet baths in the Mixcoac River and enjoy the rugged landscape.

Helia was born in 1901, specifically on September 30, in the Villa de Mixcoac. Her life started at the same time as the century during the government of Porfirio Díaz, before the Mexican Revolution.

He lost his father shortly before his 12th birthday, as he was shot for sympathizing with President Francisco I. Madero, who had been assassinated a year earlier, in 1913.

This event, framed in what is known as the “tragic decade”, complicated the life of Helia, who had already excelled in her primary education.

His outstanding school performance earned him many accolades at an early age; even Porfirio Díaz himself sent him an acknowledgment.

Despite the Mexican conflict, the young Bravo Hollis managed to attend her baccalaureate in 1919. At the National Preparatory School she was a disciple of Isaac Ochoterena (among other great teachers), who made her feel passion for biology.

Medicine

When he graduated from high school, he had to start studies in Medicine in order to channel his interest, since the Biology career was not yet open at the university. Just one year later, in 1925, she managed to change her career and train in what really awakened her vocation.

Although he was not formally studying biology, in 1921 his first scientific article was published in the Revista Mexicana de Biología, entitled Monografia de Hydatia senta.

In 1931 he received a Master's degree in Biological Sciences. At the time, he carried out the research work "Contribution to the knowledge of the Cactaceae of Tehuacán", which would be his degree thesis.

In this way, she was the first woman to obtain a university degree in biologist, marking a milestone in the history of women's participation in Mexico.

Research and teaching work

Recently graduated, she received the honor of being invited to work as a biologist at the Institute of Biology that was beginning to practice her work. Only a year later she became the head of the Botany section and was in charge of the herbarium.

During her professional career, devoted entirely to the study of cacti -a species native to the American continent-, she worked as a teacher in several institutions, in which she was known as “Bravo teacher”, an affectionate nickname that filled her with pride.

Bravo Hollis taught at the National School of Biological Sciences of the National Polytechnic Institute in Tacuba; There she gave the chair of Botany. She was one of the main researchers at the UNAM biology center.

In addition to the indelible influence of his youth teacher, Isaac Ochoterena, he worked alongside great naturalists, such as Faustino Miranda, Maximino Martínez and Eizi Matuda, a botanist of Japanese origin.

Great women also passed through their classrooms who, following their example, devoted their lives to science. Among them are her sister Margarita, an outstanding teacher and researcher focused on research on worms; Leonilda Vázquez, entomologist; and Agustina Batalla, dedicated to botany.

Personal life

Helia Bravo Hollis married one of her classmates from medical school, José Clemente Robles, who years later became one of the first neurosurgeons in Mexico.

However, after more than a decade of married life they divorced without leaving children.

His whole life was devoted to science. Her love for cacti, for research and teaching made her a woman of admirable serenity, exemplary pragmatism and contagious passion because she devoted herself with true love to studying such particular species.

Retirement and death

Being 90 years old and with full mental faculties, he had to go through the disappointment of retiring because of arthritis that caused him a lot of pain and prevented him from moving easily.

For his work, Bravo Hollis traveled diverse landscapes, with extreme climatic conditions, full of solitude and inhospitable. Perhaps these conditions forged her character and her lucidity, which always accompanied her until she died on September 26, 2001 in Mexico City, just 4 days before her 100th birthday.

Contributions and discoveries

Her dedication to the study, analysis and discovery of Mexican cactus species led her to travel hundreds of kilometers, take many photographs to be able to record and classify them, and hundreds of hours of dedication to systematize her findings.

In seven decades dedicated to science, he produced a prolific production of scientific articles in both national and international journals, conferences, speeches at conferences and class hours.

Cactaceae and succulents

One of his main contributions is that he managed to organize and systematize a living collection of cacti and succulent plants with the aim of being able to register any type of modification in the plants and also to study their characteristics.

Thus, he managed to classify some 700 endemic species of Mexico, whose study served as the basis for the publication of his first book: Las cactaceas de México. Published in 1937, it was the text that allowed botany to put itself at the forefront.

The second edition of Las Cactaceas de México is a collection of three volumes that he produced together with one of his most prominent disciples, Hernando Sánchez-Mejorada.

He also published Keys for the identification of the cacti of Mexico, The interesting world of the cacti and Memories of a life and a profession. In addition, he produced more than 170 articles.

He proposed some 60 scientific classifications; that is, it discovered some new taxa indicating genera, species and varieties. Likewise, it reviewed 59 nomenclatures.

Botanical Garden Foundation

Another of her important contributions was the formation of the Sociedad Mexicana de Cactología, founded in 1951, of which she was president. This group published the magazine Cactaceae and Mexican succulents, whose edition was in charge of the well-known doctor Jorge Meyrán, following the inspiration of Ochoterena.

Thanks to the tireless work carried out by the members of this society, directly in the areas to be investigated, they managed to collect important material with which they could lay the foundations for the foundation of the UNAM Botanical Garden, which was directed with excellence and leadership by Bravo Hollis in the 60s.

During his time at the helm of the gardens, he dedicated himself to promoting plant collections to promote their study and conservation.

Although he excelled in Botany, particularly in his dedicated study of cacti, he also made contributions to biology in general, especially with the analysis of Mexican aquatic flora, the flora of tropical and arid zones, and protozoology.

Recognitions

Thanks to her dedication, passion, and many contributions to world science, Helia Bravo Hollis received many awards. Among these stands out the "Golden Cactus" that was given to him by the International Succulent Organization, in the Principality of Monaco, in 1980.

She was also recognized with an Emeritus Researcher Award from UNAM and an honorary doctorate.

Its name describes the section known as the Desert Garden within the UNAM Botanical Garden. The same occurs with a collection of cacti in Puebla in Mexico, in an area that is a unique forest of cacti that was extensively explored and studied by "teacher Bravo."

Six species of cacti and a subspecies have been named after him in his honor, such as Heliabravoa or Polaskia, which is a type of cactus whose specimens are almost trees, as they reach 4 or 5 meters in height. It is an endemic species from Puebla and Oaxaca.

In 1999 he received the last medal in his life, when President Ernesto Zedillo decreed the Metztitlan Canyon (located in the state of Hidalgo) as a Biosphere Reserve. This area was one of those for which Bravo Hollis felt a special predilection during her youth, investing a lot of study and research time in it.

References

1. "Bravo Hollis, Helia (1901-2001)" in JSTOR Global Plants. Retrieved May 20, 2019 in JSTOR: plants.jstor.org
2. "Google celebrates the Mexican scientist and botanist Helia Bravo Hollis" (September 30, 2018) in La Razón. Recovered May 20, 2019 in La Razón: razon.com.mx
3. "Helia Bravo Hollis, exceptional pioneer of Botany in Mexico" in the National Union of Workers of the Mexican Petroleum Institute (SNTIMP). Retrieved May 20, 2019 in SNTIMP: sntimp.net
4. Herrera, A. (October 1, 2018) "Helia Bravo Hollis, the biologist and pioneer in the study of cacti" in Cultura Colectiva. Recovered May 20, 2019 in Collective Culture: culturacolectiva.com
5. López, A. (September 30, 2018) "Helia Bravo Hollis, the queen of cacti" in El País. Recovered May 20, 2019 in El País: elpais.com