Tue 15 Nov 2011
Broadening Our View of Women in the Mexican Revolution
Posted by Bert Kreitlow under Seminar Guest[20] Comments
Portrait of Adelita
Professor Pilar Melero admits that it is partly her family roots in Durango state that feed her interest in the Mexican Revolution. Historians call that northern zone of Mexico “the cradle of the revolution” because of the leaders, battles, and ideas that nurtured the upheaval that erupted in 1910. Dr. Melero spent most of her childhood in Durango before immigrating to the U.S. Her research into the literature of the revolution focuses on women. In fact, her own family contains women revolutionaries. This was like a revelation. As celebrated as the revolution is, why have so many women been forgotten?
The fact is that there is a certain type of woman in the revolution that has been mythologized – a pretty, agreeable complement to the men. The image of “Adelita” comes immediately to mind, because she is celebrated in a famous ballad (or corrido). The work of Dr. Melero aims at bringing more of the women who fought and led attacks, and were perhaps not pretty and subservient, into the image of all those who participated in this movement.
November 16th, 2011 at 2:10 pm
I really enjoyed hearing from Dr. Melero about the role women played during the Mexican Revolution. It was interesting to see how movie representations of the war often depicted women as either sexualized beings or the traditional housewives who followed their men. I was surprised to learn that the Mexican government sponsored the movie industry in order to control the way in which the women were portrayed and further promote those traditional stereotypes.
The majority of women involved in the Mexican Revolution were not given credit and remain unmentioned in current history books. Women were often forced to dress in mens clothing in order to be taken seriously. Similarly, many women changed their names to more masculine or gender neutral names while writing political pieces, so that their work and ideas would be listened to. It is remarkable to think about all the networks of women throughout Texas and Mexico who worked together towards the same goals of overthrowing Diaz and fighting on behalf of peasant and women’s rights. Even women like Adriana Arismendi Mejia (who did not directly fight in the war) made a difference by founding our version of the Red Cross to help and heal injured people from both sides of the war.
I have learned about the Mexican Revolution in previous Spanish classes, but it was awesome hearing about it this time from the perspective of the women who were involved, since that piece of the story was never mentioned before.
November 17th, 2011 at 7:16 pm
There are only a few experts who study the Mexican Women Revolutionaries and we had the privilege to have one of them talk to our class. During her presentation, Professor Pilar Melero talked to us about the forgotten women who fought in the Mexican Revolution. Women like Carmen Serdán, who initiated the Revolution movement from her home, with help from her brother Aquiles, is now erased from history books. However, her brother Aquiles, who was killed, is a well -known revolutionary hero in Mexico. Professor Melero argued that women played a huge role in the Mexican Revolution. Most males during this period were scared to try to overthrow Porfirio Diaz’s regime where the rich became richer and the poor became poorer. Based on the idea of “la tierra le pertenece al que la trabaja” which means the land belongs to who works it, women like Juana Belén Gutiérrez de Mendoza and Dolores Jiménez y Muro started writing letters to Mexican activists. The letters demanded from them to start a Revolution, and if they failed to do so, then the women themselves would start to lead the attacks. Even though women played a major role during this period, many of them have been forgotten. A clear example being the book that Vicente Fox, former President of Mexico, published in 2006. His book is written in regard of the history of the Mexican Revolution and no women are mentioned throughout the entire novel.
In class, we have been talking about gender issues in Latin America. Professor Ellie Schemenauer already talked to us about the so called “Drug War” and how she interprets it as a struggle between the U.S. and drug cartels to control women’s bodies. Gender concerns are also brought up in Professor Melero’s presentation. She talked about the Mexican culture and its idea of women being “el angel del hogar” or the angel of the home, which is traced back to the Mexican Revolution. The idea of women back then being the ones who did the laundry, cooked, and took care of their men is widely accepted in Mexico, even though it is false. Many women participated as revolutionaries and their role was prominent to start the Mexican Revolution.
One question that I have for Dr. Pilar Melero is if she has ever thought about publishing her book in Spanish also? I have read Mexican History books and they only mention a few revolutionary women. Her book could shed light on these forgotten women and could become very popular in Mexico.
November 18th, 2011 at 12:20 am
This presentation focused on the women of the Mexican Revolution, something we quickly learned has received very little attention in the history books. What Pilar Melero was teaching to us was very much relevant to the history portion of our class early in the semester as we strive to gain strong, broad knowledge of Latin America. As a Social Studies Education major, I found it extremely interesting and informative learning how women got involved in the Mexican Revolution because a lot of men were “failing in their traditional roles as men or defenders of home and nation,” according to the writing of Professor Melero. You had famous women such as Petra Herrera (lead a battle that they won even though she died in battle), Juana Belen Gutierrez (sold her goats to purchase a printing press to write and distribute information around the time of the Mexican Revolution), Dolores Jimenez (who wrote to Mexico’s president at the time), and a handful of others who received some recognition for their efforts, however the vast majority of the women who served as soldiers or had other roles during the Revolution received no recognition for their services. Only 400 of the thousands of women that served were actually recognized as soldiers and received any type of pension for their service. These women receive such little recognition because “machismo” from men still plays a large role in many parts of the world, and for there to be records of women stepping up to fight when men were being cowards (as some would say) would tarnish their male honor. What has happened more recently is these women being “sexualized” to appeal to the public and make it look like they didn’t get their hands too dirty while they were serving in the Revolution. Another key point that Professor Melero mentioned in her presentation was the fact that these women were also fighting for their rights as women in a time where men dominated society (women’s main job / duty was motherhood). Despite their services and efforts to gain more rights, women in Mexico didn’t gain the right to vote until 1953. A great presentation by Professor Melero and the question I asked her in class was how many women didn’t get recognition for the service as soldiers, and she said there isn’t an exact number but she estimates that thousands never received pensions or recognitions as soldiers.
Additional question I would ask Professor Melero: If the women would not have served during the Mexican Revolution, what impact would that have had on the result of the Revolution?
November 19th, 2011 at 3:44 pm
Dr. Pilar Melero spoke to us Wednesday about the women who played an active role in the Mexican Revolution. Unfortunately, the women she talked about have been sexualized or altogether left out the history books. One example is of Carmen Serdán. The revolution began on her doorstep but she is not mentioned as having any part of it, even though she fighting right alongside her brothers who were killed and since have been immortalized in the history of the Revolution. Women not only participated as soldiers in the Revolution but were also involved politically. Juana Belén Gutierrez de Mendoza is a good example. Before the revolution began she bought a printing press and from her rural home began writing and publishing the newspaper called Vesper. She used this to encourage revolution against then dictator, Porfirio Díaz. She appealed to the male machismo saying if the men didn’t rise up against Díaz, then the women would. In the case of Adriana Mejía, who took neither side and founded La Cruz Blanca Neutral, similar to The Red Cross, which took in all wounded no matter what side they were fighting on. As Dr. Melero was talking to us, it was apparent that these women played no small role in the Mexican Revolution. They were leaders and warriors. But, even after playing such a crucial role their status in society did not change. To justify their place in the Revolution they would base it on their role as a mother fighting for her son or a voice for her husband who spoke through her, justification through a male. Characterized as the “ángel del hogar”, the subservient housewife was continually reinforced. The question I came away with from Dr. Melero’s presentation is this: What were the men doing pre-revolution to cause the women to take up such a prominent place in the revolution? What did they feel the men weren’t doing for them and for their country?
November 20th, 2011 at 2:16 pm
Professor Pilar Melero presented her research of the women involved in the Mexican Revolutionary War. Her work is gaining appreciation in part to many factors. One factor being the lack of recognition the women received not only in the past but still in the present. As Professor Melero had mentioned women of the Mexican Revolutionary War were instead sexualized, genderized or erased altogether. Professor Melero believes the lack of recognition is partially due to womens passiveness.
Her interest on the topic was created through her studies done in the United States. She was informed of one woman Juana Belen Gutierrez de Mendoza. She was a poor goat owner who learned to read and wright on her own. Prior to the Mexican Revolutionary War she sold her goats to buy a printing press to start a newspaper. Her paper would give her opinions speaking out against the president. Due to the rebellious nature of the writing against the president she was arrested. The most interesting factor of Juana was she was originally from same hometown as Professor Melero. However Juana was not mentioned in any history books nor were memorials created to recognize her work. Juana was not the only one not recognized. Aquiles Sarden was mentioned in their history books. Aquiles along with his sisteer Carmens home were broken in an attempt to kill the family after conspiracy against the Mexican government. Both drew up arms and were ruthelessly shooting at the soldiers. Aquiles who is recognized in the history books was killed during the home invasion. Carmen however survived and was jailed. Further more she continued fihting by writing letters speaking out against the government. Carmen Serdan was an intelligent women who like many other women would sign the letters in the name of a man fully aware if a women would sign the letter they would hold no relevance to the reader. Women would go to greater lengths to hide their sex in order to hold greater authority. Some women would dress as men in order to fight in the war.
Many factors led to the sexualized version of women during the war. Music and movies would portray women as a sexual object rather the heroins they truelly were. Thiss was portrayed in a song about Valentina Ramirez who was soldier during the war with litte romance behing it. However the song depicts a woman traveling and being chased by her lover.
During this time the women were scorned for their involvement. The reason was due to the culture and the governments long stood portrayal that women are “El Angel del Hogar” meaning the angel of the home. This angel was expected not to speak unless spoken to. Although the women in the Mexican Revolutionary strived to make difference during the war the rescinded once the war ended. Little is known of the woman after the war. As Professor Melero had stated the lack of knoweldge about the women and their lives after may be due to the passiveness of the women in the society.
November 20th, 2011 at 5:00 pm
Dr. Melero’s presentation on the forgotten women of the Mexican Revolution was very interesting. It was interesting to see how the Mexican Government portrayed the women who fought in the war. She showed us a picture of an actress on a front of a magazine, and then showed us the real person. You would have never guessed that the actress was portraying the real woman who was fighting in the war. What I thought was even more interesting is that no one knows who the woman actually is. For any of these women to be taken seriously they had to dress as a man. Cameron Serdán initiated the revolutionary movement along with her brother. It was supposed to start on November 20, 1910, but they were attacked two days early. Her brother Aquiles Serdán died during this battle at their home, and is considered a Revolutionary hero. I was really surprised to hear that in 2006 the former president released a book about the Mexican Revolution and left out the huge role that women played. It wasn’t just women from Mexico that played a role. Women in Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona also played a large role in the Revolution. Dr. Melero said she is currently writing a book on women of the Mexican Revolution. She is taking a sabbatical next semester so she can finish her book and do more research on women form the Revolution that come from her home town and even her family. The one question that I would ask has to be “how many women actually fought in the war?”
November 20th, 2011 at 11:45 pm
Reflection of Pilar Melero
The topic of the visit was women that were involved in the Mexican Revolution. Pilar Melero, said instead of women being credited with the actual fighting, they were many times objectified as sexual beings that were there to support their men. The war started November 18, 1910, with a woman and her brothers on a roof top. The woman was the only one to survive, but she has been erased from history and stories. Many times women fighting in the revolution would dress up as men, so they would be taken more seriously. At the end of the war, only 400 women were credited with benefits for serving. There were many more than 400women that served in arms, but history has sexualized, genderized, and forgotten the rest.
Pilar Melero spoke of a woman named Juana Belen, who had started making her own newspaper promoting the Mexican Revolution. Inside the newspaper you could find articles containing things such as, “if men will not fight, then women must take arms.” The President at the time became very angry about this and imprisoned her, and destroyed her printing press. The idea for the people was that the people who work the land (natives) should be the ones to own it. Along with dressing more like men, sometimes women would change their names to sound more masculine as well. Colonel Petra Ruiz, changed her name to Pedro Ruiz during the time of the war so her men would respect her more. Many women had been throughout this war, but Pilar Melero is trying to uncover their secrets and services.
One question I had during the presentation was if women were captured in the Mexican war, would they suffer more brutality such as rape, compared to men? The information talked about with Pilar Melero relates to our class, because it talked about a strong uprising for Mexican women. These women were a large part of Latin American history and are very much undercredited.
November 21st, 2011 at 9:55 am
Dr. Melero presented her research on the forgotten women of the Mexican Revolution. She opened her presentation by showing two pictures side by side: one of a revolutionary Mexican woman with dark skin and dressed in rags, and another of a fair-skinned, seductively dressed actress portraying the same woman in a film. Her point was obvious. The “sexualization” of woman in film has completely changed the way we view women and their accomplishments. Instead of seeing these women of the revolution as the strong and patriotic soldiers that they were, the media has turned them into nothing more than sex-objects who dutifully followed their men.
Many of the brave women who took part in the revolution seem to have been completely erased from history. Dr. Melero puts a lot of time and effort into resurrecting some of these names from the past and giving them the recognition and respect they deserve. Since history and text books have completely neglected the task, she has taken it upon herself to give these women a proper introduction to the world’s view of the Mexican Revolution and its participants. One of these women, Carmen Serdán, was the inciting force behind her now famous brother, Aquiles Serdán. Even though she was outside shooting right alongside her brothers, nobody knows her name simply because she’s a woman. Another woman Dr. Melero mentioned was Juana Belén Gutierez de Mendota. Juana Belén was just a poor goat farmer, but she was so outraged by the Mexican government that she sold all of her goats in order to buy a printing press. For years, Juana created a revolutionary newspaper that advocated for the rights of poor Mexicans.
Dr. Melero’s presentation came at a really good time in our class discussions. Since we have been talking about poverty in Latin America, it is fitting that we have a presentation about a revolution that was spawned on behalf of the poor in Mexico. It was very interesting to hear a side of the story of the Mexican Revolution that, until now, has had little to no coverage. If I were to ask Dr. Melero one question about her presentation it would be: “Do you think the field of your study would have changed at all if you hadn’t found out you had such a strong familiar connection to the women of the Mexican Revolution?”
November 21st, 2011 at 10:21 am
Dr. Melero’s presentation on the roles women had during the Mexican Revolution was very interesting. Dr. Melero explained how the women had such a huge impact on the war. She explained to us that women would dress like men and fight because some of the men did not have the guts to fight. She said women would fight because they wanted legal rights to vote and freedom. She also mentioned that the women formed a group called the White Cross which was similar to the Red Cross to help people. The difference between the White Cross and the Red Cross was that the White Cross helped all injured soldiers instead of just their own soldiers. I thought it was interesting when she told the story about Juana Rolen. How Juana Rolen lived up in the mountains and raised goats, then she sold the goats in 1901 to make money. Then with the money she earned from the goats she bought a printing press. She then used the printing press to send messages in the newspapers trying to get the people to start the Mexican Revolution, which would start in 1910. Dr. Melero mentioned that she is writing a book on all of research that she has done, so the question I have for her is “ do you enjoy writing this book because its on your research or does it feel more like a second job?”
November 21st, 2011 at 11:45 am
Dr. Pilar Melero visited our class to discuss the role of women in the Mexican Revolution. Women who hade an active role in the Mexican Revolution have been given no attention or have gone unrecognized by the history books and the Mexican government. Women of the revolution that have got recognized are generally being sexualized and portrayed has traditional housewives who do not get their hands dirty and would follow their husbands around. To be taken seriously and play an active role in the revolution women would have to change their names and dress to make it seem like they’re men.
Carmen Seran is a great example of a forgotten woman of the revolution. She helped begin the revolution along with the help of her two brothers who later killed. The two brothers have been recognized as revolutionary heroes, but their sister has failed to receive the same recognition. Of all the women who took part in the revolution only 400 have received recognition has soldiers. My question for Dr. Pilar Melero is, even with the passiveness of women in the Mexican society, how could the Mexican government and the rest of the Mexican society fail to recognize the large role played by women in the revolution?
November 21st, 2011 at 7:01 pm
Dr. Pilar Merilo presented on the overlooked women’s role in the Mexican Revolution. Dr. Merilo explained how the history books portray the women as “followers” who mainly just aided the men at war. Dr. Merilo clarifies how there are a countless number of woman who actually fought, but received little to no credit for it. They have been forgotten. She showed us a picture out of a recent magazine of a woman acting like a soldier in the revolution, and then proceeded to show us a real picture of woman coronel in the war. The pictures had no apparent similarities, only that they were both woman. Dr. Merilo did this to demonstrate how even today the Mexican society has painted women to be sexual, beautiful, and nicely dressed, rather than fierce soldiers like many women were.
Furthermore, Dr. Merilo began to talk about some of the specific and major roles Mexican women had throughout the war. For instance, Juana Belen sold her goats in order to buy a newspaper press. From here she would publish papers in attempt to rally men and women to overthrow the president. She also fought, sold weapons, and became a spy. However, once again, Juana Belen was never mentioned in the history books. Women didn’t just fight, but also used their bodies to hide important letters and money using their breasts. Women would write proposals to the president and tell him that he does not know his people because he doesn’t live and work with the people. They would disguise their names as males to ensure the credibility of the proposal. Adriana Arismendi founded the White Cross and took in the wounded from both sides of the war.
It’s hard to believe that so many women were never recognized for their bravery during the Mexican Revolution. As Dr. Merilo stated, only 400 women out of thousands were given pensions for fighting in the war. It seems that this gender issue comes from the Mexican men’s mentality of “machoism”. Men feel like they have to be the bread winners and woman should fill their traditional roles of taking care of the home. It can be related to the United States in the 1950’s. Even though thousands of women had stepped up and lead during the Mexican Revolution, there still is a retraction back to their original role as a woman.
After listening to Dr. Merilo’s interesting presentation I wonder, what made you study such a specific topic? How do the heroics of the women compare to that of the men?
November 21st, 2011 at 10:20 pm
Throughout the Mexican Revolution only 400 of the thousands of women who made an impact have been recognized. When Professor Pilar Melero mentioned this stat I was astounded. Dr. Melero is one of the first to research this area because there is almost no information on the impact women had played during the Mexican Revolution. She argued women were sexualized, genderized or erased from history. Just like in Professor Ellie Schemenauer’s presentation, the image of women played a big part. Dr. Melero brought in two different magazines that portrayed images of women during the revolution. The first showed a beautiful, nice dressed, colorful women; while in the other magazine the women didn’t look pretty and were all dirty. The second image is how women really were versus how we viewed them. Not only through these images, but women weren’t seen to lead soldiers or express their views. The men are supposed to assume these roles while the exact opposite was actually happening. Women like Juana Belen Gutierrez, who purchased a printing press to distribute information against the president. She argued that people who work the land should be the ones who own it; instead the rich were getting richer while the poor were getting poorer. She wanted “men to get some pants” and overthrow the president. Gutierrez became increasingly popular and then the president took her printing press and threw her in jail. Another lady who initiated the Revolution movement was Carmen Serdan. Although her brothers died alongside her in their home during battle, hthey were recognized and had streets named after them. They were also recorded in the history books, while Carmen was erased. Another women, Dolores Jimenez, wrote up a proposal to the Mexican president on how to get the country’s economy back on track. At the end she had to write, “I only did this because my husband made me,” otherwise the president wouldn’t have even looked at it. Although these are only a few of the women, there are many more that played crucial points. I really enjoyed Melero’s speech because it showed how many women go unnoticed for their courageous efforts while the men are getting all of the glory.
One question for Melero: With male dominate societies all over the world in the past, how many women in other countries have also went unknown and have also been erased from the history books?
November 23rd, 2011 at 12:05 pm
Pilar Melero is a dignified specialist on the topic of revolutionary women in Mexico. She focused on sharing descriptive stories and contributions that they gave to society even though they weren’t always recognized for their actions. Society believed that women in this generation were only thought of as sexualized and genderized individuals who couldn’t help during the revolutionary war; but Pilar’s stories prove this wrong.
Melero was first interested in this unique topic after seeing a picture of Juana Belen Gutierrez de Merdoza and wondering what story this female had. After doing research and discovering that she was responsible for starting a newspaper in 1901 that started ideas and rages about the revolution, she wanted to see what other women had been overlooked in their actions.
The story that fascinated me the most was about Carmen Jerdan. Camen was the perfect example of strong independent women after she had shot men trying to take over her house and killing her brothers. Before this attack she was a part of planning a revolution to occur on November 20, 1910, but after brutal attack on her house, the revolution started 2 days earlier. Jerdan’s story was a prime example of strength, rare ideas, and bravery that women brought into the world.
This bravery was perfectly exhibited by Petra Herrera, a female that was dressed up as a male so that men wouldn’t notice so she could fight for her country. Here she gained very high prestige and was in charge of leading a battle. Her ability to lead was so noble that they won this battle; however, it took the life of Herrera. This proves what great lengths females would go to in order to make a difference for their country, despite all the males discriminating their ability. Herrera along with countless other females such as Valentina Ramirez, Polares Jimenez, Andrea Villairea Gonzalas had stories worth being shared by Pilar Melero.
Overall, Pilar Melero was able to broaden our horizon on empowering stories that history books don’t share. This correlates to class because we are seeing what people had to overcome to achieve what they wanted to; the women would change their whole life to defend their country and Enrique from “Enrique’s Journey” would risk his whole life to be reunited with his mother. The only question that remains is, now that our knowledge has evolved why aren’t the history books changed to include the female heroes?
November 28th, 2011 at 1:14 am
For most people, the word “war” conjures up images of men, weapons, and violence. The topic of women is rarely spoken of in relation to this subject, but Professor Malero alerted us to the fact that women played lead roles in the 1910 Mexican Revolution. Though Malero is a Mexican native, she did not discover the large contributions women made through any schooling while living there. It was not until she took a Latin American history class in grad school that she learned of a woman named Juana Beleen Gutierrez de Mendoza was a hero in her own native town and played a role of leadership in revolutionary efforts. She began to dig deeper and research these unrecognized women, and was shocked at the results she found.
She discovered that many women attempted to shame the men into defending their country while still remaining faithful to their cultural roles in society. Others were not so modest and disguised themselves as men in order to gain access to higher combating ranks. This immodesty came with a high price. Women that decided to become involved were looked down upon and considered “dirty” or “trashy”. This reputation even broke generation barriers and Malero spoke of how, as a child, her mother would not let her associate with children whose grandmothers had fought in the wars.
Malero then went on to explain how women disappeared from stories and vanished from existence. The government would not acknowledge women soldiers, and women who worked as nurses or cooks received pension whereas women who had been in the battles themselves received nothing. Men emphasized the portrayal of “El angel del hogar” or “the angle of the home”, and the government began to sponsor movie making which fashioned an image of the sexual, passive woman known as an “adelita”. To this day, the names of extremely influential women such as Adriana Arismendi Mejia who founded the White Cross are not even mentioned in Mexican textbooks.
I was not extremely surprised that women have once again been under-appreciated, but to the extent where they were completely erased from existence? This did shock me. It is extremely disappointing to learn that because these people were women, and solely for this reason, they were not recognized. It was, however, very reassuring to know that Professor Malero is uncovering the stories of these heroic women, and bringing their names into the light once more.
One question I have for Professor Malero is do you think that the Mexican government will encorporate the names of these influential women into their textbooks? And if so, will it be in the near future?
November 29th, 2011 at 12:44 am
Dr. Pilar Melero brought forth to the class lots of interesting information of the women who played an undocumented role in the Mexican Revolution. An issue that was unfamiliar to most of us and an issue not recognized enough. Dr. Melero has written several articles on Women Revolution in Mexico and is currently finishing a book on the subject, showing how determined she is to bring a rise to the issue. Basically what the issue focuses on, is about all the courageous and worthy women who fought in the Mexican Revolution and afterwards received little to no credit, and often on purpose. Gender beliefs tell you that women are beautiful, followers, feminine, etc, and the Mexican historians and government wanted people to continue to follow that view, even though the women soldiers were actually very tough, carrying guns, having rough hands. The women were sexualized, generalized, and even completely erased from history. A cruel example of this is a story about Carmen (1910), who fought and was the definition of a war hero, yet she has no references in history books or anything, while her brothers have streets named after them for the same feats. Even the women who founded the white(red) cross hospitals in Mexico, Adrianna Mejia, has no recognition in the history books. Some women even knew of this at the time and would go into war disguised as men, even changed their names.
After learning of all this information previously unknown to me, I wondered, do these types of sexualizing happen with other topics or events than the revolution? Also, how long until after the revolution did this issue become recognized by any public?
All in all, I learned a lot of information I possibly would have never known before researching about Dr. Melero’s work and attending her presentation.
November 29th, 2011 at 12:53 am
Dr. Pilar Melero brought forth to the class lots of interesting information of the women who played an undocumented role in the Mexican Revolution. An issue that was unfamiliar to most of us and an issue not recognized enough. Dr. Melero has written several articles on Women Revolution in Mexico and is currently finishing a book on the subject, showing how determined she is to bring a rise to the issue. Basically what the issue focuses on, is about all the courageous and worthy women who fought in the Mexican Revolution and afterwards received little to no credit, and often on purpose. Gender beliefs tell you that women are beautiful, followers, feminine, etc, and the Mexican historians and government wanted people to continue to follow that view, even though the women soldiers were actually very tough, carrying guns, having rough hands. The women were sexualized, generalized, and even completely erased from history. A cruel example of this is a story about Carmen (1910), who fought and was the definition of a war hero, yet she has no references in history books or anything, while her brothers have streets named after them for the same feats. Even the women who founded the white(red) cross hospitals in Mexico, Adrianna Mejia, has no recognition in the history books. Some women even knew of this at the time and would go into war disguised as men, even changed their names.
After learning of all this information previously unknown to me, I wondered, do these types of sexualizing happen with other topics or events than the revolution? Also, how long until after the revolution did this issue become recognized by any public?
All in all, I learned a lot of information I possibly would have never known before researching about Dr. Melero’s work and attending her presentation.
November 29th, 2011 at 12:44 pm
From Steven B.:
On Thursday Doctor Melero Talked about how women in Mexico where a major part in the revolution. She talked about how they were not getting the credit that they were supposed to be getting. She talked about even in education book they were no mention of them.
Some examples of this could be about the women that was planning the Revolution with her brothers and when the police raided there house she actually shot people and stood up for it. In the after math her brothers where dead they are recognized but not her. I will believe that she has not had any credit because in not in any of my schools have I even heard of her. I am glad that her book is coming out and is going to be the first one that actually has the women in it so maybe more will follow and start teaching some in schools.
The one question that I would have to ask Doctor Melero would be why you think that no one wanted to give credit to women I mean with all the books that come out and everything. You would think there would have been on that would talk about this. Why do you think it’s coming out just now with yours? Thank you for the presentation as I learned a lot that I did not know.
November 29th, 2011 at 12:44 pm
From Rina S.:
On November 15th Dr. Pilar Melero attended my Introduction to Latin America’s class to talk about the importance of women’s participation in the Mexican revolution. Dr. Malero claims that the role of women in the revolution has been stereotyped as “soldaderas” and “adelitas,” which basically are sexualized representations of lovers of men.
According to Dr. Melero, there are many history books that describe the period of Mexican revolution; however, there is a lack of information in regards to women’s participation and roles in that time period. Additionally, Dr. Melero claims that the Mexican President Vicente Fox has been one of the few people in recognizing the importance of female participation in that time period. However, according to Dr. Melero President Fox recognized women’s role in the revolution in a forward to a book in which there is no such recognition.
Furthermore, Dr. Melero claims that although many women followed their traditional role as cookers, there were many who fought and performed roles that at the time were considered men’s roles; however, they were never recognized. Among those women are Juana Belen Gutierrez who was a writer but also bared arms and did a lot for the revolution. Another fighter was Carmen Serdan who although she played a huge role, only her brother, Aquiles Serdan, was recognized by his participation. Also, Dr. Melero talked about Adriana Arismendi Mejia, who was founder of the White Cross and helped whoever was in need regardless of his/her side in the revolution.
To conclude, Dr. Melero’s presentation helped us understand the importance of women’s participation in the mexican revolution and how it helps to the understanding of Mexico’s history. The only question I have is why, after many years since the revolution, there is still a lack of recognition of women’s participation in the mexican revolution?
November 29th, 2011 at 1:11 pm
From Calahan Miller:
On November 15th Dr. Pilar Melero came into our Introduction to Latin America class to speak about the women participation in the Mexican Revolutionary war. Dr. Melero’s thesis was that the role of women in the revolutionary war was one which was sexualized and essentially erased. She felt that the women were only looked at as the “lovers of men”. She said that the women that participated in the revolutionary war didn’t receive the credit they truly deserved because they were women.
The role of women in the Mexican Revolutionary war was one much different than the portrayals in various books, they simply weren’t recognized. The government felt that the women didn’t contribute much to the war, and that they only cooked, cleaned and did the laundry for the soldiers. Only 400 women received veteran benefits for their contribution during the war effort, showing that essentially no women received the credit they deserved.
Dr. Melero spoke about a women that in 1901, she learned to read and write on her own, due to her becoming fed up with the government. She then sold her goats and bought a printing press to publish a revolutionary revolt which shamed men to go into the war to fight for the poor Mexican’s. The main message that was portrayed was that the “land becomes to those who work it” or that the land should be owned by those who work it, or the poorer class.
Many women dressed as men to be taken seriously, since they otherwise wouldn’t be. One woman even wrote a proposal to the government but said her husband told her too to validate her writing it. It was proposed that women be more politically involved and the need for women’s rights became apparent. Later on, during Mexican’s golden age of movies the government sponsored film makers to portray women as passive. Due to this, the movie industry also helped in erasing women’s role in the war efforts.
The main point Dr. Melero tried to explain was that the importance and contributions of women during the Mexican Revolution need to be recognized, both publically and academically. I asked Dr. Melero if she felt that women’s efforts in the war were becoming more apparent and she said that academically, they were starting to get much more credit for their role in the war but unfortunately publically, they are still not given the recognition they deserve.
November 29th, 2011 at 5:53 pm
Dr. Pilar Melero spoke about broadening our view of the women in the Mexican Revolution on Wednesday, November 16th. I am very sad I had to miss this class period as I find great interest in strong women in history. I found it quite interesting the image portrayed by “La Adelita,” from one of the famous corridos. The woman is beautiful and not as domineering as her male counterpart. However, I like how Dr. Melero was trying to show that a majority of these women apart of the Mexican Revolution, or soldaderas, were probably not as beautiful as they were made out to be. They were also probably not as submitting as women were instructed to be during that era, but instead more dominant and forward. I am curious if Dr. Melero has pinpointed down specifically which famous soldaderas she is related to? I read that her sparked interest in the Mexican Revolution as well as the women of the Mexican Revolution was due to the fact that she is from the Mexican state of Durango. Would she say that the heart of the Mexican Revolution lies within Durango? It is also mentioned that many soldaderas have been forgotten. Is there still a current research on finding these women, who they were, and what role they played during the Mexican Revolution?