Soldaderas in the Mexican Military: Myth and History

By Elizabeth Salas and Elizabeth Blackshear Flinn

Book Overview

Since pre-Columbian times, soldiering has been a traditional life experience for innumerable women in Mexico. Yet the many names given these women warriors--heroines, camp followers, Amazons, coronelas, soldadas, soldaderas, and Adelitas--indicate their ambivalent position within Mexican society. In this original study, Elizabeth Salas explores the changing role of the soldadera, both in reality and as a cultural symbol, from pre-Columbian times up to the present day. Drawing on military archival data, anthropological studies, and oral history interviews, Salas first explores the real roles played by Mexican women in armed conflicts. She finds that most of the functions performed by women easily equate to those performed by revolutionaries and male soldiers in the quartermaster corps and regular ranks. She then turns her attention to the soldadera as a continuing symbol in Mexican and Chicano culture, examining the image of the soldadera in literature, corridos, art, music, and film. Challenging many traditional stereotypes, Salas finds that the fundamental realities of war link all Mexican women, regardless of time period, social class, or nom de guerre.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0292776306
• ISBN13: 9780292776302
• Release Date: January 1990
• Publisher: University of Texas Press
• Length: 201 Pages
• Weight: 6.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.5" x 0.8" x 6.5"

Customer Reviews

Great Research tool!

I bought this book to do research on the soldaderas and was amazed by the information I found. I had been searching everywhere for information about this topic and everywhere I looked, this book was referenced. I found everything I needed and more. There should be more books like this and about this topic. This is a must read!

this book represents an important and overlooked topic

This book does a lot to shed light on this very important topic. Soldaderas played a very important role in the Mexican Revolution and in the Mexican military from the time of the MesoAmerican Indians up though the period of the Revolution and even afterwards. Their role has, unfortunately, been overlooked, except in some of the songs of the period of the Mexican Revolution, which focus on certain almost mythical soldaderas, such as "La Cucaracha" and "La Adelita". The author of this book, Ms. Salas, whom one gets the impression is a sort of a chicana activist, does not mix chicano politics with the historical treatment of this book, much to her credit, but rather she gives a very serious treatment to the subject, and the whole account is moving and interesting. It is both historically relevant and easy to read, and in my opinion, it is a really important book for anyone who is interested in history of Latin America - specifically of Mexico. Whereas it has been demonstrated that Pancho Villa is the most famous Mexican of all time, and the most intriguing considering the amount of attention he has gotten in print, then the background of the Mexican Revolution is indispensable for understanding his own saga. However, the other characters are almost of equal importance - at least - and the most overlooked but deserving of the same kind of attention that Villa and otehrs have gotten are the soldaderas, who were, frankly, in my own opinion, fascinating. The one soldadera that I am most intrigued with is "La Generala" Petra Herrera, who was actually a general, and she had an all woman troop, and had any men caught sneaking into her camp at night summarily shot! I recommend this book! I read it, and I loved it.

the book told the truth about women's contribution in the

i feel that the book gives readers the ability to learn the history about the soldaderas.