The interpretation of the revisionist historiography of the Mexican Revolution (1910-17) has focused primarily on revolutionary leaders who were men, pushing the heroines of the war to the sidelines. If women happened to be mentioned, they appeared only as symbols, not as social agents. However, the role of the Adelitas, the Cristeras, the Hijas del AnAhuac, and the women of the Acrata Group were essential to the revolution. In Freethinkers and Labor Leaders MarIa Teresa FernAndez Aceves tells the stories of five militant feminist women who aided in the creation of a modern culture in revolutionary and postrevolutionary Mexico and, in some ways, Latin America as a whole: BelEn de SArraga HernAndez (1872-1950), Atala Apodaca Anaya (1884-1977), MarIa Arcelia DIaz (1896-1939), MarIa Guadalupe MartInez Villanueva (1906-2002), and MarIa Guadalupe UrzUa Flores (1912-2004). These five women formed part of two cultural generations that participated together in the Mexican Revolution, in the consolidation of state cooperative institutions, and in the antiestablishment and dissident politics that evolved in the late 1940s. Through these social processes and their struggles as women, mothers, and workers, these women fought for secular education, labor rights, and the civil and political rights of women, redefining cultural and social constructions. Based on original, pathbreaking research, Freethinkers and Labor Leaders demonstrates how five women transformed Latin American society's ideas of citizenship, femininity, masculinity, and politics.
MarIa Teresa FernAndez Aceves is a professor of social anthropology at Centro de Investigaciones en Estudios Superiores en AntropologIa Social-Occidente in Jalisco, Mexico. She is the author of a book in Spanish about women in twentieth-century Mexico.
List of Illustrations Acknowledgements List of Abbreviations Introduction Chapter I. The "Modern Woman," Politics, and the Mexican Revolution in Guadalajara, 1910-1917 Chapter II. BelEn de SArraga HernAndez (1872-1950): Anticlericalism, Freethinkers and the Mexican Revolution (1910-1917) Chapter III. Atala Apodaca Anaya (1884-1977): Anticlericalism, Civic Education, Progressive Forces, and the Mexican Revolution Chapter IV. MarIa Arcelia DIaz (1896-1939): Labor and Women's Politics Within the Context of the Construction of the Post-Revolutionary State of Guadalajara Chapter V. MarIa Guadalupe MartInez Villanueva (1906-2002): The Mobilization of Women and Corporatist Politics Chapter VI. Guadalupe UrzUa Flores (1912-2004): Advocate and Modernizer of Jalisco Rural Politics Epilogue Appendex Notes Bibliography Index
"Freethinkers and Labor Leaders adds significant depth to our knowledge about Mexican women in the twentieth century, provides new avenues of historical inquiry, and reminds us of the centrality of gendered ideologies in the making of modern Mexico."-Sonia HernAndez, author of Working Women into the Borderlands
