Mercedes Godoy (March 16, 1890 – after 1932) was a Mexican socialite in the United States, and author of When I Was a Girl in Mexico (1919).
Early life
Mercedes Godoy was born in Mexico City, the daughter of (1851–1930) and Adela Perrin de Godoy. Her father was a Mexican-born United States citizen, a writer, translator, and diplomat who served in Cuba, Guatemala, and the United States. Her grandfather, José Antonio Godoy, was Mexican consul in San Francisco.
Career Godoy was a debutante in the 1905–1906 social season in Washington, D.C.,"Miss Mercedes Godoy" Washington Times (May 17, 1914): 12. via Newspapers.com while her father was the Mexican consul in that city."Affairs at Washington" National Magazine (February 1907): 405. She was described as resembling Alice Roosevelt Longworth."Senorita Godoy" Indianapolis Star (January 24, 1906): 9. via Newspapers.com She was a delegation aide to the Women's Auxiliary Committee, at the Second Pan-American Scientific Conference in 1915.Report on the Women's Auxiliary Conference: Held in the City of Washington (U. S. Government Printing Office 1916): 68."Gala Scene at Pan American Reception" Washington Post (January 2, 1916): 5. via Newspapers.com
Godoy was a trained singer. In 1915, she sang at a musical evening given by the Musical Harmony Club at the Colonial School for Girls. In 1916, she became vice-president of the Harmony Improvement Society. In 1917, she was on the committee for a Red Cross benefit dance at the Cairo hotel. In 1918, she appeared in a one-act play in Spanish, at a benefit for earthquake relief in Guatemala.
In 1919 Godoy published a memoir of her childhood games, holidays, foods, and other details, When I Was a Girl in Mexico.Mercedes Godoy, When I Was a Girl in Mexico (Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co. 1919). "This book will be a revelation to those American children who imagine that Mexican is a synonym for bandits," predicted one reviewer."Books and Reviews" Ungraded (January 1920): 94. It was part of the "Children of Other Lands" series about childhoods in different cultures, including Hólmfríður Árnadóttir's When I Was a Girl in Iceland, Cornelia De Groot's When I Was a Girl in Holland, Mousa J. Kaleel's When I Was a Boy in Palestine, and Yan Phou Lee's When I Was a Boy in China.Hólmfríður Árnadóttir, When I Was a Girl in Iceland (Lothrop, Lee & Shepard 1919).
Personal life Godoy lived in Washington, Havana, and New York as a young woman, with her parents and her siblings. She was living in Mexico City when her mother died in 1923.
References