Mara La Madrid, a psychoanalyst who "always spoke out in solidarity with social issues," dies.

Angel Vargas

La Jornada Newspaper, Friday, August 1, 2025, p. 5

At the age of 82, Argentine psychoanalyst Mara La Madrid, widow of poet Juan Gelman (1930-2014), passed away yesterday. She was widely recognized for her commitment to the best causes and her professional performance.

His death occurred in the early morning hours due to natural causes at his home in Mexico City, where funeral services were held hours later in accordance with his last wishes. His remains will be cremated this Friday, and his ashes will remain in the country, Verónica Moore and María Inés Roqué announced on behalf of the family.

It is the end of an unclassifiable and very full life, with all the great difficulties she lived through, but also with the enormous strength and sensitivity she had , expressed Moisés Hernández, her friend and colleague, member along with her and Gabriel Meraz of the editorial board of Epeele (psychoanalytic publishing house of the AC letter).

Born in the Argentine capital on August 22, 1942, Mara La Madrid studied psychology at the University of Buenos Aires. Since the early 1970s, she participated in study and reading groups on the works of Sigmund Freud and Jacques Lacan.

He was a member of the École Lacanienne de Psychanalyse and part of the editorial committee of the Spanish version of Litoral —when the journal published by that school moved from Argentina to Mexico—as well as of Epeele—as already mentioned, a publishing house founded in 1991 to disseminate the contributions of Lacan's teaching in Spanish.

A romantic partner of Juan Gelman for the last 25 years of his life, she has also been recognized for her active role in the search for the poet's granddaughter, Macarena Gelman, born in captivity during the Argentine military dictatorship.

Missing in Argentina

She supported various causes. One of the most important was that of the disappeared in Argentina. She played a very active and key role in that issue, particularly in the search for Macarena. She and Juan were also very close to and supportive of the Zapatista movement in Mexico , said psychoanalyst Gabriel Meraz.

Juan would not have been able to do it without her (finding his granddaughter in 2000) , add Verónica Moore and María Inés Roqué, who remember that the poet and the psychoanalyst are co-authors of the book, Ni el flaco perdón de Dios , in which they summarize and tell the story of that feat.

According to Moisés Hernández and Gabriel Meraz, Mara La Madrid was always aware of the political situation in Mexico and around the world, and also showed solidarity with various causes and social movements, such as the feminist movement, in which she participated.

He had a deep sensitivity to social, political, and justice issues. He was completely supportive of the causes of the LGBT+ community. In that sense, he was ahead of his time, because he showed openness to this topic long before other psychoanalysts and everyone else .

Beyond her social commitment, according to both specialists, her main contribution is in the field of psychoanalysis and therapy. Mara was liberated territory for many people , adds Verónica Moore, as her work saved many people's emotional and professional lives.

Mara La Madrid arrived in exile in Mexico in the mid-1970s accompanied by her first husband, Enrico Stefani, and her two daughters. From then on, according to Verónica Moore and María Inés Roqué, she forged a strong network of friendship and solidarity with other exiles and psychoanalysts from around the world, which extended over the 25 years of her relationship with Juan Gelman to include artists and intellectuals.

Among them were the writers José Emilio and Cristina Pacheco, Carlos Monsiváis, the poet Alí Chumacero, the painters Arturo Rivera and Gabriel Macotela, and the Spanish singer-songwriter Joaquín Sabina, to name a few.

Gelman dedicated to him what would be his posthumous work, Amaramara , published four months after the author's death, consisting of 26 poems, most of them unpublished, and 23 paintings by Arturo Rivera.