From the 1970s to modern day the understanding of Mexican feminism has changed dramatically. The women’s movement has evolved from a topic that very few historians wrote about at all, to a topic that continues to develop and change through the context of social issues today. The books and articles assessed below outline the making of historical records of the Mexican Women’s movement as it transitioned from the idea of women imitating men, to understanding how events affect women separately from men, to understanding intersectionality and that the women’s movement is made up of individuals, and finally revising historical narratives to better understand gender roles and gender portrayals during the Mexican feminist movement. By reading and …show more content…
Macias’s experience was not singular, it was a time of discovery for all historians who had begun to work on topics focused on women. Her work in the archives of Mexico was met with skepticism. Once, when she was asked in 1973 about her research she was met with a vehement assertion that “there never has been a feminist movement in Mexico.” The feminists that Macias researched were received in a similar manner as Macias’ research was. Macias’s book discusses the feminist movement in Mexico, highlighting the major events in the chronology, the Mexican Revolution, The Yucatan Women’s Movement, and then Felipe Carrillo Puerto’s work with women and the movement after his assassination. The main point of Macias’ work is to highlight the reasons that feminism was not well receive in Mexico. Her main point include how the pronounced machismo in Mexico caused feminist ideas to fall on deaf ears, the hatred of feminism by the Church, non-agreement on issues within the feminist movement, little support or encouragement from government leaders and ridicule by the press all contributed to the trouble feminists has in getting their voice heard in Mexico, hence Macias’ title Against All …show more content…
The series has its own objectives as well, in the series’ editor introduction it is noted that “whether women are able to enter this world and challenge its limitations is crucial to assessing the results of any activism,” and that “it is important to emphasize the significance of comparative studies” of women in revolution. By “making sense of [the] differences, we can begin to understand the possibilities and limitations for women’s participation in the world of politics” then as well as
Blackwell was able to conduct with the pioneering Chicana activist and theorist Anna NietoGomez, along with the members of Las Hijas de Cuauhtémoc. She talks about the families of Anna NietoGomez, Corinne Sanchez, and also Sylvia Castillo; and what brought them to activism. She uses Foucault’s archaeology of knowledge to help understand the ways in which the Chicanas have been omitted from the social histories of the Chicano and women’s movements.
North Americans and Mexicans must also attempt to overcome the ideas that women should be seen and not heard. In Anzaldúa’s words, “Hocicona, repeloma, chismosa, having a big mouth, questioning, carrying tales are all signs of being mal criada. In my culture they are all words that are derogatory if applied to women – I’ve ever heard them applied to men” (2947).
The popular revolutionary poem “I am Joaquin” by Rodolfo Corky Gonzales influenced many Chicana/os to embrace their heritage in the Chicano Movement in the 1960s. The poem created psychological work for the Chicano identity. Moreover, this poem developed and promoted social consciousness, commitment to activism, and cultural pride for many Chicanos. However, Gonzales primarily focuses on the identity and struggles of a Mexican-American male which excludes other narratives. Thus, the lack of inclusivity influenced me to recreate the popular poem, which centers on women from Central America who are rarely acknowledged in Chicano Studies. Therefore, our poem “I am Dolores” is focused on these three main themes: empowerment of women of color, resistance
The role of strong female roles in literature is both frightening to some and enlightening to others. Although times have changed, Sandra Cisneros’ stories about Mexican-American women provide a cultural division within itself that reflects in a recent time. The cultural themes in Cisneros’s stories highlight the struggle of women who identify with Mexican-American heritage and the struggle in terms of living up to Mexican culture – as a separate ethnic body. The women in Sandra Cisneros’ stories are struggling with living up to identities assigned to them, while trying to create their own as women without an ethnic landscape. In Sandra Cisneros’ stories “Woman Hollering Creek: and “Never Marry a Mexican” the role of female identities that are conflicted are highlighted, in that they have to straddle two worlds at once as Mexican-American women.
Using both English and Spanish or Spanglish the author Gloria Anzaldua explores the physical, cultural, spiritual, sexual and psychological meaning of borderlands in her book Borderlands/La Frontera: A New Mestiza. As a Chicana lesbian feminist, Anzaldua grew up in an atmosphere of oppression and confusion. Anzaldua illustrates the meaning of being a “mestiza”. In order to define this, she examines herself, her homeland and language. Anzaldúa discusses the complexity of several themes having to do with borderlands, mestizaje, cultural identity, women in the traditional Mexican family, sexual orientation, la facultad and the Coatlicue state. Through these themes, she is able to give her readers a new way of discovering themselves. Anzaldua alerts us to a new understanding of the self and the world around us by using her personal experiences.
Martinez, Demetria. 2002. “Solidarity”. Border Women: Writing from la Frontera.. Castillo, Debra A & María Socorro Tabuenca Córdoba. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 168- 188.
This book as mentioned before is a great addition to academia; Dr., García’s thorough research, and vast amount of statistics, give new light to the Mexican immigration into the United States in the nineteenth century, As well as the many contributions of the Mexican people in this country. Which has many times been overlooked by scholars, who choose to focus on immigration from the other side of the Atlantic, as the greater contributor of talent and greatness in this country. García’s book not only includes the struggle of men but also the struggle of the many women who sacrificed much, and had to endure even more while working as domestics for many racist patronas. Dr., Mario García obtained a PhD. At the University of California in San Diego, and is currently a professor of Chicano/Chicana studies at the University of California in Santa Barbara.
In the United States, women fought not only against the patriarchy, but against racism and xenophobia. While in Mexico, women were prepared to take up arms and defend their country, despite the fact that they were unable to vote.
A revolution occurs when a need for drastic change is necessary to alter ones way of living. The change they are fighting for would end up to be a positive impact once victory prevails, but of course with every battle there are disagreements and violent quarrels. Revolution may seem to be a negative connotation, but there are always two sides to every story. Just like many other countries around the world a Latin American country called Mexico went through a revolution of their own. Although the Mexican Revolution was mainly fought for the distribution of land, it opened a gateway for the women. One of their main issues during the Mexican revolution dealt with women and their struggled determination for equality. Having many roles in society with restrictions placed upon them, an urge for mobilization, and a wonderfully strong woman role model named Hermila Galindo, it gave them all a reason for the extra push they needed for the change they wanted for the future. Being able to finally put their voice in action the women of Mexico fought proudly for what they believed was right.
As much as men are working, so are women, but ultimately they do not face the same obstacles. For example, “Even if one subscribes to a solely economic theory of oppression, how can one ignore that over half of the world's workers are female who suffer discrimination not only in the workplace, but also at home and in all the areas sex-related abuse” (Moraga 98). This gives readers a point of view in which women are marginalized in the work place, at home, and other areas alike. Here Moraga gives historical accounts of Chicana feminists and how they used their experiences to give speeches and create theories that would be of relevance. More so, Moraga states how the U.S. passes new bills that secretly oppress the poor and people of color, which their community falls under, and more specifically, women. For instance, “The form their misogyny takes is the dissolution of government-assisted abortions for the poor, bills to limit teenage girls’ right to birth control ... These backward political moves hurt all women, but most especially the poor and "colored." (Moraga 101). This creates women to feel powerless when it comes to control one’s body and leads them to be oppressed politically. This places the government to act as a protagonist, and the style of writing Moraga places them in, shines more light to the bad they can do, especially to women of color. Moraga uses the words, “backward moves”
This was likely due to the confusion of power that these ladies could have: ‘a reflection of military thinking, which seeks to use women when necessary but yet keeps them marginal in what is essentially a male preserve’ (Salas, 1990). The main two labels for female ‘revolucionarias’ that appear within the Mexican Revolution are: ‘soldadera’ and ‘soldada’. The differences between these indicate the corresponding respect that the labelled female maintained. Therefore, “Camila is the epitome of the benign soldadera: a helpmate and companion to Demetrio. In contrast, Pintada embodies the active and malevolent soldada” (Baker, 2012). These two given labels show how each of these characters and stereotypes were viewed in this period. Camila, is only a helper to the revolution, not taking part in any of the actual activites and just aiding the male. On the other hand, Pintada takes an active role within the fighting, looting and other activities giving her the respect of being a soldier and not just a carer, which previously most females had been. However, often this respect that Pintada carried was not maintained. When many of the Mexican intellectuals revised these texts after the revolution the fighting was romanticised, thus overtime the thought of women involved in the revolution has become heavily idealised. This idea has led to the label of an ‘Adelita’
In addition, these women were often subjected to control, domination, and violence by men” (Global). This validates Azuela’s stance on how women should stay within their traditional roles because fighting for equality has been ineffective even today.
For a long time, feminism has failed to include the issues of Latina women. When the feminist movement began, it focused on the issues of one specific group: white, American, middle-class women; therefore, it excluded Latinas, and women of color in general. Latina women realized that they needed to stand up for themselves because if they did not do it, then no one would. Mainstream feminists were not acknowledging their issues; thus, it pushed the need for Latina feminism. Without Latina feminism, Latina issues would not have came to light and would be ignored by many, even non-Latina women. Even though women were fighting for their rights, they seemed to lack the inclusion of all women of any color, ethnicity, race, and class.
The contrast between the Mexican world versus the Anglo world has led Anzaldua to a new form of self and consciousness in which she calls the “New Mestiza” (one that recognizes and understands her duality of race). Anzaldua lives in a constant place of duality where she is on the opposite end of a border that is home to those that are considered “the queer, the troublesome, the mongrel and the mulato” (25). It is the inevitable and grueling clash of two very distinct cultures that produces the fear of the “unknown”; ultimately resulting in alienation and social hierarchy. Anzaldua, as an undocumented woman, is at the bottom of the hierarchy. Not only is she a woman that is openly queer, she is also carrying the burden of being “undocumented”. Women of the borderlands are forced to carry two degrading labels: their gender that makes them seem nothing more than a body and their “legal” status in this world. Many of these women only have two options due to their lack of English speaking abilities: either leave their homeland – or submit themselves to the constant objectification and oppression. According to Anzaldua, Mestizo culture was created by men because many of its traditions encourage women to become “subservient to males” (39). Although Coatlicue is a powerful Aztec figure, in a male-dominated society, she was still seen
Suaréz, Lucia M. “Julia Alvarez And The Anxiety Of Latina Representation.” Meridians: Feminism, Race, Transnationalism 5.1 (2004): 117-145. SocINDEX with Full Text. Web. 25 Mar.2014.