5594371 a century of women in latin american revolutionary conflict by emily bergstrom

A Century of Women in Latin American Revolutionary Conflict

Emily Bergstrom Michigan State University

Women have fought in armed conflicts throughout Latin American history, from

rural riots in 17th century Mexico, to the Andean Insurrection of the 18th century, to the

struggle for independence in Bolivia in the 19th century, to the Cuban and Central

American revolutions of the 20th century, and many in between.1 This female

involvement has been poorly documented and largely ignored until recent decades for

various reasons. First, many of the women who fought in these conflicts, especially in

rebellions and revolts, came from marginalized sectors of the population: often poor,

rural, and racially or culturally oppressed peoples. Therefore, though women regularly

made up large percentages of these revolts or rebellions and fought in leadership roles,2

historical texts tend to identify the entire mass movements by racial or cultural signifiers

and do not specify or separate the women from the multitudes. In other circumstances,

especially in the more organized or militarized ranks of an armed conflict, small numbers

of usually elite women were able to become female soldiers. These women have also

traditionally been excluded from historical writings, possibly because their low numbers

made mentioning them seem inconsequential or because they were understood to be

more of an eccentric faction of the army than a significant element within it.

This trend of historical exclusion, however, has been rapidly and significantly lessening

over the last century. Here, I reason that this incorporation of women into the telling of

Latin American revolutionary conflict is a result of two forces: social context and

globalization. In other words, changes in the social context of various nations has

1 Susan Socolow, The Women of Colonial Latin America 159 2 Socolow, Women Colonial Latin America

The Impact of Globalization on the Americas: Bergstrom An Undergraduate Conference on Scholarship and Career Paths Michigan State University October 23 – 24, 2003

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allowed or encouraged larger numbers of female combatants and globalization and

international interaction has steadily transformed revolutionary rhetoric in all parts of the

world, specifically in Latin America in the later part of the 20th century and has

fundamentally altered in posture towards women in armed conflict. Three conflicts of

the last century have contributed particularly meaningful elements towards the recent

evolution of women’s place in the history of Latin American revolutionary conflict: the

Mexican Revolution of 1910-1914, the Cuban Revolution of 1959, and the Nicaraguan

Revolution on 1979.

The Mexican Revolution

Social Context and Roles in the Fighting: Mexico in the early 20th century was a

vastly polarized society with great demographic differences between the urban and rural

spheres. For women who participated in the Mexican Revolution, their roles in the

conflict were greatly determined by their class, race and other factors. Women of the

countryside, most likely poor, uneducated, and of mixed race or indigenous decent, are

often described as being "swept up" by the revolution. In other words, these women

were not in a position to choose to participate for political or ideological reasons, but

were instead implicated for more localized reasons of economical or personal

relationships. These women, called soldaderas, followed the soldiers as the army

traveled across the country and "…forged for food, cooked meals, nursed the wounded,

washed clothes, collected the soldiers’ salaries, and performed a multitude of tasks not

provided by the Mexican military…"3 Some women aided the troops in this way because

of their relationship to a particular soldier (a husband, lover, son, brother, etc.). Many

3 Shirlene Soto, Emergence of the Modern Mexican Woman: her participation in Revolution and Struggle for equality, 1910-1940 (Denver, Colorado: Arden Press, 1990), 43-4


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women performed the task as a job since the wage-earning troops provided a constant,

if meager, commerce opportunity for the women, which they translated into a livelihood

by selling food or other services.

Women also occupied another role in the Mexican Revolution, that of the female

fighter. These women were generally urban, white, educated, and affluent. They are

more likely to have chosen to participate in the insurrection for political or ideological

reasons rather than for economic ones. Female fighters were not commonly associated

with the lower ranks of fighters. They were many times uniformed, experienced

members of cavalry units (though many provided their own horse, gun, and attire, as "it

was unlikely that an officer would deprive a male soldier of his animal to give it to a

woman." 4) Sometimes, these fighters had a relationship to someone in the military and

were economically or socially powerful, allowing them the chance for a higher ranking or

some degree of respect. Others concealed their identity and worked their way up

through the ranks disguised as men. Many became lieutenants and colonels and were

known in their ranks for their bravery and for their harsh punishments of deserters or

anyone who disobeyed orders.5

Globalization and Revolutionary Rhetoric: Though globalization had less of a

direct impact on the women of the Mexican Revolution than it would have on the

women of the two following revolutions to be discussed here, both the history of the

soldaderas and the female fighters of Mexico were heavily influenced by revolutionary

rhetoric. The soldaderas provided a motherly image of suitable behavior (feeding,

nursing, caring) for women during wartime. They have been depicted by "José 4 Andrés Reséndez Fuentes, Battleground Women (Found in Americas: A Quarterly Review of Inter-American Cultural History, 1995 51 (4)) 525-553 5 Ester R. Pérez and James and Nina Kallas, Those Years of the Revolution 1910-1920, Authentic bilingual life experiences as told by Veterans of the War, (San José, California, Aztlán Today: 1974), 163


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Clemente Orozco [who] immortalized them in his paintings of Zapatistas, the graphic

artist José Guadalupe Posada [who] glamorized them on the covers of widely distributed

popular ballad sheets, and the lens of the photographer [Gustavo] Casasola [who]

captured their true image."6 The soldadera is portrayed as an archetype of female

sacrifice and dedication to the revolution and if often taken to represent the ultimate

(and only) example of Mexican women's participation in the insurrection. The female

soldiers, however, while not receiving the same historical attention as (or distinction

from) the soldaderas, are also a fairly visible part of the traditional chronicles of the

Mexican revolution. They have survived through the history of the country most notably

as a figure of Revolution-era corridos, famous photographs, and Mexican cinema.

Interestingly, Chicana feminists of the United States Chicano movement later adopted

the image of the female soldier of the Mexican Revolution for use in their

demonstrations, propaganda, and literature.7

Cuban Revolution 1959

Social Context and Roles in the Fighting: Just as Mexico saw a small number of

female fighters and a great deal of women participating in the revolution as a type of

support network for the soldiers, so, too, did the Cuban Revolution. While that trend

continued, however, other aspects of female participation changed. For example, in the

Mexican Revolution, there was a direct relationship between class, race, and other

demographics that determined roles in the conflict. While more college educated, urban

women participated in the Cuban Revolution than uneducated, rural women, the

correlation was no longer so acutely defined. Also, "support" work in the Mexican

6 Anna Macías, Against All Odds (Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1982) 41 7 Macías, Against


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Revolution had meant cooking, nursing and washing. Most women who participated in

support work in the Cuban Revolution "organized demonstrations and worked in the

underground, collecting supplies for the guerrillas, selling bonds to raise money, creating

hospitals, sewing uniforms, and hiding revolutionaries in their houses. They served as

messengers and spies."8

Eleven female combatants in the Sierra Maestra formed the Mariana Grajales

Platoon (named after an Afro-Cuban female fighter of Cuba’s first war of independence)

and were the only women organized into combat during the armed struggle.9 They

were women who began their work early on in the movement in the "traditional" female

support roles and who, over time, proved their valor, dedication, and aptitude before the

other troops and were incorporated into the fighting ranks.10 The later formation of the

all-female platoon is important to this analysis. The Cuban Revolution becomes an

intermediary step where the idea of women fighters is tested out, along with many

other ideas about female equality.

Globalization and Revolutionary Rhetoric: The Cuban Revolution was, perhaps,

the first truly global revolution of the Americas. To begin with, its roots were in

Communist ideology devised by German socialists. Furthermore, it was led in part by

8 Elizabeth Stone, Women and the Cuban Revolution (New York, NY: Pathfinder Press, 1981) 7 9 Margaret Randall, Cuban Women Now: Interviews with Cuban Women (Toronto, Canada: The Women’s Press, 1974) 138 Chapter is an interview with Isabela Rielo, one of the combatants. Later propaganda (Stone’s Women and the Cuban Revolution, page 7) claims the platoon grew to a company during the final stages of the conflict. I do not know how this percentage compares to female fighters of the Mexican Revolution as I have not been able to find a hard number or any kind of estimate of the total numbers of female fighters in the revolution – and this may impossible considering the lack of distinction between soldaderas and female fighers. For the sake of this analysis, I feel that the identification and incorporation of female fighters is a progression. The fact that the women formed their own platoon shows that they were organized as women, which may also be seen as an evolution from the Mexican Revolution. That they fought in an entirely separate platoon, however, also indicates a separation from the "normal" army, and may indicate a "separate but equal" mentality or a crafted and false presentation of equality. 10 Randall, Cuban Woman, 140 Information from Randall’s interview with Capitan Isabel Rielo, former Mariana Grajales Platoon member


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Che Guevara, an Argentine medical student who met Fidel Castro in Mexico after

traveling the length of South America and witnessing the American-lead removal of a

Guatemalan president. What is more, the Cuban revolutionary government sent citizens

to Russia for conferences and training and sent diplomats across the world in an effort

to receive recognition, exchange ideas, and facilitate trade.11

Then as the Cuban Revolution created its own ideology and iconography, it was

exported quite literally across Latin America, Africa, and the world. Within that exported

ideology and iconography was the "ideal guerrillera" Tania Bunke. Described by Cuban

propaganda printed in Peru, "Tania is, furthermore, a symbol whose significance

transcends continental boarders: she is the definition of internationalism, the concrete

realization, brought to life, from Marx and Engles’ Communist Manifesto: "proletariat of

the world, unite"… she portrays the most authentic image of the women of our times:

the revolutionary combatant."12 A truly global women, born in Argentina of Communist

German parents, she lived in Germany working for the government, moved to Cuba to

support the revolution and was then sent by Guevara to Bolivia as a spy and to lay

groundwork for revolution there.

Though few women participated militarily in the Cuban Revolution, she was

described as the "most authentic image of the woman of our times." She was a standard

for Cuban (and other revolutionary) women to strive towards. She represents an

11 Jon Lee Anderson, Che Guevara, A Revolutionary Life (New York, NY: Grove Press, 1997) 12 Mercedes Santos Moray, "Al Compas de los Fusiles y de las Ametralladoras." In editorial collection by CAUSACHUN, La Mujer y la Revolución: Discursos, entrevistas, artículos, ensayos (Lima, Peru: Libreria Editorial Minerva, Miraflores) 70-1 "Tania es, además, un símbolo cuya significación trasciende los márgenes del continente: es la interpretación del internacinoalismo, la realización concreta, elevada a la práctica, de las palabras de Marx y Engles, en su Manifiesto Comunista: "proletarios del mundo uníos". Translated to English by author. Marx and Engles’ phrase from the Communist Manifesto in English is: "workingmen of all countries, unite!" However, I choose to translate literally from Spanish to maintain the syntactical differences of the phrase’s Spanish version.


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attempt by the Cuban Revolution to inspire women’s participation as well as

simultaneously exaggerate its presentation of women’s actual role in the revolution.

Though the revolutionary government had its female citizens in mind as it

developed its specific ideology, most efforts were at best a token inclusion and at worst

an intrusion into people’s daily lives. Perhaps the best example of this phenomenon is

the Family Code of 1974. It stated that men and women should be equals in marriage

and that men should share in housework and child rearing. The law could be described

as a brainchild of global society (ironically of western feminism) that the very global

Cuban Revolution incorporated into its revolutionary rhetoric.

There was also a great deal of informal discussion on the street corners, in shopping lines, or wherever people got together…there were Cubans, men in particular, who strongly objected. For example, a typical comment made by one military officer was that after sacrificing the best years of his life fighting for the revolution, "I’ll be damned if I’m going to do housework." Another remark often heard from the recalcitrants was that "there are some things even Fidel cannot change.13

The law was not a real threat since it was virtually unenforceable and only a few

social programs attempted to incorporate the idea into Cuban life. The question, then,

becomes: Why create a law that the population did not request, that cannot be

enforced, and that has very little programming to encourage its success or incorporation

into the culture? Perhaps globalization and its role in the Cuban Revolution hold the

answer. The law could have been passed merely for the superficial consumption of

other nations or for the future export to other nations, in a global market of ideas.

Nicaraguan Revolution 1979

Social Context and Roles in the Fighting: Nicaragua was one of the many places

the ideas of the global Cuban revolution were exported to. At the time, the Sandinista

13 Stone, Women and Cuban Revolution, 17


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revolutionary forces were taking hold in the country. Nicaragua’s social context was,

however, strikingly different than that of Cuba two decades earlier. Underemployment

and unemployment had forced many male laborers to migrate in search of work. This

economic situation had caused a great deal of movement in the countryside, leading to

many broken homes and single mothers. In 1977, an estimated 1/3 of Nicaraguan

families had a single mother as the head of household. At the same time, 29% of the

economically active population was female (as opposed to 14% in 1950). Furthermore,

33% of students in higher education were women, as compared to 10% fifteen years

earlier.14

These factors may help explain why unprecedented numbers of women

participated in the Nicaraguan Revolution, with perhaps up to 30% of the Frente

Sandinista Liberación Nacional (FSLN) comprised of female soldiers. Unlike in Mexico

and Cuba where women principally participated in logistics, communication and other

support services, the majority of these women participated in military combat and

earned positions of command.15 Also, unlike the Cuban women’s group Federación de

Mujeres Cubanas (FMC), the all women-developed organization Associación de Mujeres

Nicaragüenses Luisa Amanda Espinosa (AMNLAE) saw a huge participation and was an

important faction of the FSLN at the end of the revolution. Similarly, while Cuban

female militia members had been targets of rock throwing16 and other insults for their

participation, female numbers in the Nicaraguan militia and the Sandinsita Defense

14 Norma Stoltz Chinchilla, "Women in Revolutionary Movements: The Case of Nicaragua." In Stanford Central America Action Network, ed., Revolution in Central America (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, Inc., 1983) 427 15 Chinchilla, Case of Nicaragua, 422 16 Stone, Women Cuban Revolution, 16


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Committee (CDS) were both near 50%.17 Like in the Cuban Revolution, the Nicaraguan

revolutionary government enacted several laws concerning equal pay for equal work and

other women’s equality issues, though they also did little to improve the everyday lives

or situations of most of the country’s women.

Globalization and Revolutionary Rhetoric: Dora María Tellez, one of the most

recognized female military leaders of the Nicaraguan Revolution said:

The Nicaraguan Revolution has had the largest participation of women because it is the most recent. In the next revolution, no matter where it happens, there are going to be more women. The Latin American woman has awoken and begun to take stock of herself, and as this happens, she will be able to undertake more and more tasks within her true capabilities and limitations.18

In many ways her statement, made twenty years ago, has proven to be quite

true. The globalization-dependent (both in cause for discontent and method of making

its discontent known) Zapatista rebellion of Chiapas, Mexico is proving to be the next

step in the incorporation of women in the revolutionary process in Latin America.

17 Maxine Molyneux, "Women: Activism without Liberation?" In Peter Vosset and John Vandermeer, ed., Nicaragua: Unfinished Revolution (New York, NY: Grove Press, 1986) 478-480 18 Chinchilla, Case of Nicaragua, 426

5594371 a century of women in latin american revolutionary conflict by emily bergstrom

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