This paper addresses geographies of internationalism, feminism, pacifism and anticolonialism, by especially investigating the case of pacifist and feminist activist Clementina Batalla Torres de Bassols (1894-1987) and of her son, geographer Ángel Bassols Batalla (1925-2012). Based in Mexico and involved in global conferencing on pacifism, women’s rights and geography, this activist and scholarly family provided examples of voluntary commitment to internationalism as both an ethical stance and a political option. Although not extraneous to Cold War logics as they explicitly sympathised with the Eastern Bloc between the 1950s and the 1980s, the Bassols Batallas acted independently from Party logics, following their family history inserted in the independent socialist traditions of Cardenismo and of the Mexican Revolution. They voluntarily contributed to international circulations of ideas without seeking any top leading role in the international associations with which they worked. My main argument is that this case allows for constructing ideas of voluntarism and individual agency as drives for internationalism and informal diplomacy. Furthermore, although some aspects of their pacifism and feminism may seem outmoded, these scholars and activists fostered ideas of social and cultural struggles across plural axes through transnational, anticolonial and multilingual engagement that can still inspire critical and decolonial geographies.