Women soldiers (soldaderas) of the Mexican Revolution
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Women soldiers (soldaderas) played an important role during the Mexican Revolution which began in 1910. It has been noted that "practically every soldier" in that war was "accompanied by his soldadera" (Thompson, 1921, p. 233). These women were found in the rebel bands of Emiliano Zapata, Francisco Villa and Venustiano Carranza, as well as in the troops of the regular Mexican army (federales) (Miller, 1985, p. 292). For the most part, the soldaderas held traditional feminine roles during the Revolution. As such, their main functions were "to cook and care for the men" (Salas, 1990, p. 39). The soldaderas also served an important purpose by raising the morale of the male troops. In the words of the American journalist John Reed, "the soldadera served as more than a modern commissary, she provided the comfort and companionship that kept the soldier on the move for so many terrible years" (1969, p. 97). In addition to caring for the men, the soldaderas often joined in the fighting. For example, the women would often "take up arms to defend their husbands" while the soldiers were resting or eating (Salas, 1990, p. 44). Some women took up arms because of their commitment to the revolutionary cause, and many of these women soldiers became distinguished fighters who had a great impact on the outcome of the Revolution. According to the historian Robert Ryan Miller, these heroic women were referred to as soldadas, in contrast to the camp followers known as soldaderas, "unar
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te the use of soldaderas during the years of the Revolution, they were unable to do so, because the tradition of women accompanying men in war was too strongly ingrained in the consciousness of the Mexican military at the time (p. 43). Despite their disagreements over the soldaderas, almost all of the men held stereotypical views regarding the role of women in the Revolution. For example, John Reed, an American writer in Mexico during the Revolution, showed a typically condescending, sexist attitude toward the soldaderas. In his book Insurgent Mexico, Reed described his encounter with a woman named Elizabetta, soldadera to Captain Felix Romero. According to Reed, the Captain had ordered her to follow him and she had done so, "unquestioningly, after the custom of her sex and country" (p. 98). A bit later, Reed described her as speaking in "the harsh, whining voice that all Mexican women have" (p. 98). Still later in his account, Reed indicated that Elizabetta slept with him that night because she was not yet ready to sleep with the Captain so soon after her husband's death. However, by the next morning she had changed her mind and become totally committed to her role as the Captain's servant. This story, told from the male
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Approximate Word count = 2194
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page)
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