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Battleground Women: Soldaderas and Female Soldiers in the Mexican Revolution1
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 December 2015
Extract
Revolution and women did not mix well, at least in the eyes of most leaders of the insurrection that swept Mexico in 1910-17. Moreover, common wisdom suggested that armies were no place for the “gentler sex” and hence the two kinds of women that did accompany men to the battleground–female soldiers and soldaderas–were generally regarded as marginal to the fighting and extraordinary, or strange, in character.
Female soldiers received much notice in the press and arts during the revolution and in its aftermath. They were portrayed as fearless women dressed in men's garb flaunting cartridge belts across the chest and a Mauser rifle on one shoulder. But they were invariably shown in the guise of curiosities, aberrations brought about by the revolution. Soldaderas received their share of attention too. They were depicted as loyal, self-sacrificing companions to the soldiers or, in less sympathetic renderings, as enslaved camp followers: “the loyalty of the soldier's wife is more akin to that of a dog to its master than to that of an intelligent woman to her mate.” But even laudatory journalistic accounts, corridos, and novels did not concede soldaderas a prominent role in the revolutionary process, much less in the success of the military campaigns.
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- Research Article
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- Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 1995
Footnotes
This essay was written for the seminar on Revolutionary Armies of Mexico held at the University of Chicago in the fall and winter quarters of 1992-93. I want to thank all the members of the seminar. I am especially indebted to professor Friedrich Katz and to Christopher Boyer and Matthew B. Karush. Katherine Bliss, Peter Guardino, Mary Kay Vaughan, and Jaana Remes made valuable comments. I am also grateful to the editorial board of The Americas and the two anonymous readers for their suggestions.
References
2 I use the terms soldadera and camp follower synonymously. Although some authors object to this usage on the grounds that it conveys negative overtones, the term is nevertheless apt to describe the unofficial status accorded to these women. Soldadera will not be italicized hereafter. By female soldier I mean a woman who volunteered as a soldier and who was officially recognized as such. She often commanded her own unit.
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73 Corrido “La adelita,” in Flores, Romero ed., Corridos de la revolución mexicana, 94.Google Scholar This corrido became a battle hymn of Villistas. Soldaderas were known as “adelitas” among Villa’s troops while the soldaderas of the Federal army were pejoratively called “guachas.” See Kallas, and Pérez, eds., Those Years of the Revolution, 1910–1920, pp. 32–33;Google Scholar and Soto, , Emergence of the Modern Mexican Woman, p. 44.Google Scholar
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76 H. O. Harris, United States Senate Hearings, Subcommittee on Foreign Relations, 62nd Congress, 1913, 663. Casasola confirms the story: soldaderas had plants hanging from the boxcars, dogs with military names such as Napoleón, El Sargento, and Trompeta. Boxcars were like moving homes. Casasola, , Historia gráfica de la revolución mexicana, 2, p. 664.Google Scholar
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91 El Paso Morning Times, January 24 and May 6, 1914. Quoted in Salas, Soldaderas, p. 56.
92 Estes, Captain George H., “The Internment of Mexican Troops in 1914,” Infantry Journal 11 (May-June, July-August, September-October 1915), pp. 54–55.Google Scholar Cited in Salas, Soldaderas, p. 64. Rivalries among soldaderas could have serious consequences since they had easy access to weapons. Whitaker describes how one soldadera blew off the head of a rival with a bomb that she had picked up on the battlefield. Whitaker, , “Villa and his People,” p. 254.Google Scholar
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99 The Sun, September 21, 1913, BP.
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117 La Opinión, October 19, 1930 and January 31, 1932. See also Excélsior, November 23, 1930. Enriqueta Martínez was not the only female leader encouraging women to join; Petra Ruiz also commanded a brigade of female soldiers. El Nacional, November 8, 1959. Cited in Salas, , Soldaderas, p. 47.Google Scholar
118 La Opinión, January 31, 1932.
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136 Lewis, , Pedro Martínez, pp. 162–77;Google Scholar and A Death in the Sánchez Family, pp. ix-x. See also Knight, , The Mexican Revolution, 2, p. 523;Google Scholar and Salas, , Soldaderas, p. 80.Google Scholar
137 Martínez, , Border Boom Town, pp. 41–43, 57Google Scholar; Knight, , The Mexican Revolution,2, p. 523.Google Scholar
138 The story of Maria Villasaña López sheds light on the bad reputation of soldaderas after the revolution: “Ya no podíamos regresar a nuestro hogar pues habíamos quedado descreditadas [sic], yo entonces decidí venirme a este país.” López, María Villasaña in Those Years of the Revolution, 1910–1920, p. 80.Google Scholar See also Salas, , Soldaderas, pp. 80–81.Google Scholar
139 Kelley, , Yaqui Women, p. 208;Google Scholar García, Mario T., Desert Immigrants: The Mexicans of El Paso, 1880–1920 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1981), pp. 60, 74–79.Google Scholar
140 See testimonies of López, María Villasaña and Angela, “Angel” Jiménez in Those Years of the Revolution, 1910–1920, passim.Google Scholar
141 This is question that has been frequently raised and seldom been answered. See Carmen Ramos Escandón provides a brief historiographical review on the subject: Escandón, Ramos, “¿Qué veinte años no es nada?,” pp. 592–93.Google Scholar
142 The impact of the Mexican Revolution on women has many parallels in other wars and revolutions. See Berkin, Carol R. and Lovett, Clara M. eds., Women, War and Revolution (New York: Holmes and Meier Press, 1980);Google Scholar and Higonnet, Margaret R., Jenson, Jane, Michel, Sonya and Wetz, Margaret C. eds., Behind the Lines: Gender and the Two World Wars (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1987).Google Scholar
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