Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 December 2015
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.
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.
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.
3 Von de Ellen, Fritz Arno, “Mexican Camp-Followers,” Harper’s Weekly 58:19 (May 2, 1914), 19.Google Scholar
4 Most notably, Salas, Elizabeth, Soldaderas in the Mexican Military: Myth and History (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1990).Google Scholar Salas gathered a wealth of otherwise dispersed information. She builds upon the work of Alatone, Angeles Mendieta, La mujer en la revolución mexicana (Mexico City: Talleres Gráficos de la Nación, 1961).Google Scholar Other studies also deal with the battleground women: Macías, Anna, Against All Odds: The Feminist Movement in Mexico to 1940 (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1982);Google Scholar Soto, Shirlene Ann, Emergence of the Modern Mexican Woman: Her Participation in Revolution and Struggle for Equality, 1910–1940 (Denver: Arden Press, 1990);Google Scholar Deutsch, Sandra McGee, “Gender and Sociopolitical Change in Twentieth-Century Latin America,” Hispanic American Historical Review 71:2 (1991), 259–306;CrossRefGoogle Scholar Pablos, Julia Tuñón, Mujeres en Mexico: una historia olvidada (Mexico City: Editorial Planeta, 1987);Google Scholar Turner, Frederick C., The Dynamic of Mexican Nationalism (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1968);Google Scholar and “Los efectos de la participación femenina en la revolución de 1910,” Historia Mexicana 44:4 (1967), 603–20. See also Fisher, Lillian Estelle, “The Influence of the Present Mexican Revolution Upon the Status of Mexican Women,” Hispanic American Historical Review 22:1 (1942), 221–28.Google Scholar For recent historiographical reviews of this subject see Asunción Lavrin, “La mujer en México: veinte años de estudio, 1968–1988,” and Escandón, Carmen Ramos, “(Qué veinte años no es nada? La mujer en México según la historiografía reciente,” in Memorias del simposio de historiografía mexicanista (Mexico City: Instituto de Investigaciones, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, 1990), pp. 545–79 and 580 93, respectively.Google Scholar
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6 Corrido, “La chinita maderista,” translated by Turner, Frederick C., The Dynamic of Mexican Nationalism, pp. 284–85.Google Scholar
7 El Imparcial, June 8, 1911.
8 Katz, Friedrich, The Secret War in Mexico: Europe, the United States, and the Mexican Revolution (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1981), pp. 36–37.Google Scholar The exact composition of these bands is not well known. See Karush, Matthew B., “Assessing a Revolutionary Contribution: The PLM in Chihuahua, 1906–1912,” unpublished paper, University of Chicago, 1993, passim.Google Scholar
9 The most famous women of the Maderista revolution were wives and relatives of the leaders: Sara Pérez de Madero, Francisco’s wife; María Ochoa de Robles Domínguez, wife of Alfredo; Carmen Serdán, sister of Aquiles, and others. See Alatorre, Mendieta, La mujer en la revolución mexicana, 66–77.Google Scholar
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11 El álbum de la mujer: antología ilustrada de las mexicanas, 4 vols. (Mexico City, Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, 1991), 4, pp.83–85, 236 includes a letter from a female soldier to Madero offering her services. See also Casasola, Gustavo, Historia gráfica de la revolución mexicana, 5 vols. (Mexico City: Editorial Trillas, 1967), 1, p. 241;Google Scholar Alatorre, Mendieta, La mujer en la revolución mexicana, pp. 77–78, 86, 89. For female soldiers with Orozco see The Sun (New York), September 21, 1913, William Buckley Collection of Papers (hereafter BP).Google Scholar
12 La Opinión (Los Angeles), October 19, 1930; Excélsior (Mexico City), November 23, 1930; Uroz, Antonio, Hombres y mujeres de Mexico (Mexico City: Editorial Lic. Antonio Uroz, 1974), p. 261;Google Scholar Alatorre, Mendieta, La mujer en la revolución mexicana, p. 89.Google Scholar
13 Excélsior, November 23, 1930.
14 La Opinión, October 19, 1930; Excélsior, November 23, 1930. Photographic evidence can be found in Casasola, , Historia gráfica de la revolución mexicana, 1. p. 241.Google Scholar
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17 “Corrido del Desertor,” in Flores, Jesús Romero ed., Corridos de la revolución mexicana (Mexico City: Costa-Amic, 1979), 30.Google Scholar
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21 American vice consul John R. Silliman to State Department, Saltillo, May 17, 1913, National Archives, Washington D.C., Records of the Department of State Relating to the Internal Affairs of Mexico, 1910–1929 (hereafter cited as SD), 812.00/7726, 422.
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24 Kelley, Jane Holden, Yaqui Women: Contemporary Life Stories (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1978), pp. 127–98.Google Scholar
25 The enganche was an advancement given to a laborer who then had to work off the debt thus acquired. In Yucatán this system was so corrupted that it resembled bondage.
26 Ibid., pp. 130–38, 157–63.
27 Ibid., pp. 138–39, 163.
28 Baerleìn, Henry, Mexico: The Land of Unrest (Philadelphia: Herbert and Daniel, 1913), pp. 30–31.Google Scholar
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47 The Mexican Herald, April 13, 1913. Quoted in Salas, , Soldaderas, p. 40.Google Scholar
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53 See interview with doctor Juan Olivera, PHO/Z/1/11. Reproduced in El Álbum de la mujer, 4, pp. 83–85. There is also a photograph of Rosa Bobadilla with the military staff of General Pacheco.
54 García, General Rubén provides the description in El Nacional (Mexico City), November 29, 1959.Google Scholar Reproduced in Alatorre, Mendieta, La mujer en la revolución mexicana, pp. 92–93.Google Scholar If we are to believe the General’s account, Margarita Neri was a cold-blooded fighter ready to torture and kill. She stoned a man to death and cut a young woman’s breasts off.
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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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75 Gray, Thord, Gringo Rebel, p. 212;Google Scholar Salas, Soldaderas, p. 43. An entire army could be housed in trains. Before entering Mexico City, Villista General Felipe Angeles stopped at the Hacienda de los Morales. Many people went in automobiles, taxi-cabs, and coaches to greet the army. They found long lines of boxcars strung out over the tracks on both sides of the hacienda station for a distance of several miles. The Mexican Herald, December 3, 1914.
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
77 Soldaderas riding on top could even cook while the train was in motion so that it seemed as if each boxcar had a chimney. Casasola, , Historia gráfica de la revolución mexicana, 2, p. 664.Google Scholar See also Whitaker, , “Villa and his People,” p. 362;Google Scholar The New York Times, November 9, 1913; Plenn, , “Forgotten Heroines of Mexico,” p. 60.Google Scholar
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85 Duncan, Louis C., “The Wounded at Ojinaga,” Military Surgeon 34 (May 1914), 412;Google Scholar Whitaker, , “Villa and his People,” p. 363.Google Scholar There were middle-class women serving as nurses. See Macías, , Against All Odds, p. 39;Google Scholar and Alatorre, Mendieta, La mujer en la revolución mexicana, p. 83.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
93 First Captain Jesús Herrera Calderón, PHO/1/66, 13. Cited in Salas, , Soldaderas, p. 44;Google Scholar Lewis, Oscar, A Death in the Sánchez Family (New York: Vintage Books, 1969), p. 17.Google Scholar
94 Dr. Francisco Ruiz Moreno, PHO/1/155, p. 22. Quoted in Salas, , Soldaderas, p. 44.Google Scholar See also the account of Jacobo Estrada, PHO/1/121, p. 31.
95 Duncan, , “The Wounded at Ojinaga,” p. 435.Google Scholar For prostitution among soldaderas see also Pozas, Ricardo, Juan Pérez Jolote: biografía de un Tzotzil (Mexico City: Editorial Jus, 1948), p. 302.Google Scholar We can get some glimpses of this world in the reports of United States officials concerned with the internment of the Federal army commanded by General Salvador Mercado at Fort Bliss, Texas and Fort Wingate, New Mexico in 1914. There is evidence that some soldaderas were prostitutes. American officers at Fort Wingate decided to set up a detention area for camp followers who “engaged in repeated acts of infidelity or who appeared incorrigible,” and were at the brink of expelling Guadalupe Ramirez from the camp. Salas, Soldaderas, p. 64.
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99 The Sun, September 21, 1913, BP.
100 Interview with doctor Juan Olivera, PHO/Z/1/11. Reproduced in El Álbum de la mujer, 4, p. 83–85. See story of Jiménez, Angela, in Those Years of the Revolution, 1910–1920, p. 35–64;Google Scholar La Opinión, August 15, 1937; Alatorre, Mendieta, La mujer en la revolución mexicana, pp. 89–90.Google Scholar
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102 Macias draws the distinction very clearly: Macías, , Against All Odds, p. 41.Google Scholar Salas, on the contrary, contends that the difference is less than clear-cut and argues that because of the changing configurations of battle lines, many times camp followers by necessity had to perform as soldiers. Salas, , Soldaderas, pp. 73, 77.Google Scholar
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104 See declarations of General Ramón F. Iturbe in Alatorre, Mendieta, La mujer en la revolución mexicana, pp. 108–09;Google Scholar Casasola, , Historia gráfica de la revolución mexicana, 2, p. 720;Google Scholar El Nacional, November 8, 1959; Gray, Thord, Gringo Rebel, p. 212;Google Scholar King, , Tempest Over Mexico, p. 69.Google Scholar
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110 El Nacional, March 5, 1954.
111 The Sun, September 21, 1913, BP. From an independent source, Soto tells almost the same story so the character, probably called Josefina Ranzeta, may have been real. Soto, Emergence of the Modern Mexican Woman, 38.
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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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135 Macías, , Against All Odds, p. 43.Google Scholar The entire roster of women recognized as veterans of the revolution by the Mexican War Ministry is reproduced in Alatorre, Mendieta, La mujer en la revolución mexicana, pp. 112–122.Google Scholar For biographies of female fighters see El Popular (Mexico City), April 29, May 1, 4, and 7, 1939.
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