The Promise of Gender Progress: the Civilizing Project of Biopolitical Citizenship
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UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO The Promise of Gender Progress: the civilizing project of biopolitical citizenship A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in Anthropology by Raquel Pacheco Committee in charge: Professor Nancy Postero, Chair Professor Gloria Chacon Professor Joseph Hankins Professor David Pedersen Professor Elana Zilberg 2017 Copyright Raquel Pacheco, 2017 All rights reserved. This Dissertation of Raquel Pacheco is approved, and it is acceptable in quality and form for publication on microfilm and electronically: Chair University of California, San Diego 2017 iii DEDICATION To my grandparents Mama Sol and Payito who taught me that love buds from the humblest desire to give. To Judith Rosenberg whose feet no longer walk this earth but whose warrior dancing spirit still frolics in our hearts. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Signature Page .................................................................................................... iii Dedication ............................................................................................................ iv Table of Contents ................................................................................................ v List of Figures ...................................................................................................... vii List of Graphs ..................................................................................................... viii Acknowledgements .............................................................................................. ix Vita ..................................................................................................................... xiii Abstract of the Dissertation ................................................................................ xiv Introduction ........................................................................................................... 1 Chapter One: The Promises and Perils of Biopolitical Citizenship for Women and Indigenous Peoples ............................................................................................ 32 1.1. The Normative Citizen ...................................................................... 35 1.2. Mexico’s Liberal and Biopolitical ....................................................... 47 1.2.1. Colonial Period .................................................................... 47 1.2.2. Republican and Liberal Periods .......................................... 56 1.2.3. Revolutionary Period ........................................................... 66 1.2.4. The Eugenization of Biopolitical Citizenship ........................ 73 1.3. Women’s Rights: Developing a Modern Female Workforce .............. 81 1.4. Women in Development: Mexico’s New Interest in Population Control ........................................................................................................................... 84 1.5 Unfit for Self-determination: Indigenous Biopolitical Alterity ............... 97 Conclusion ............................................................................................. 100 Chapter Two: Cultural or Racial Impasses? The Limits of the “Sensitizing” State ......................................................................................................................... 102 2.1. 1970s: Feminist Revolutionary Imaginaries .................................... 103 2.2. 1980s and 90s: The Crucible of Rape ............................................. 113 2.3. The Gender Progressive Mexican State: An Uneven Topography . 122 2.4. “Autoridades Solidarias”: Instancias Municipales de La Mujer as the Local Face of the Gender Progressive State .................................................... 133 2.5. Sensitizing the Nahuas: The Gender Labor of Government Officials ......................................................................................................................... 147 v 2.6. The Gender Progressive Nahua Family: The Responsibilization of the Poor .................................................................................................................. 170 Appendix 1: Notification form to Municipal Prosecutor’s Office ........................ 175 Chapter Three: Indian Women and Bare Life ................................................... 176 3.1. A “Simple” Rape Victim at a Specialize Agency in Sex Crimes in the Metropolitan Area of Monterrey ........................................................................ 178 3.2. A “Simple” Rape Victim Reports at the CAVI in Huejutla, Hidalgo .. 191 3.3. The Bare Life of Rape and Social Reproductive Work .................... 203 3.4. Peasants No More: Migrating for Maid Work in Mexico’s North ...... 219 3.5. Living the Regio Dream? ................................................................ 233 3.6. Rancierean Politics ......................................................................... 236 3.7. Conclusion ...................................................................................... 238 Chapter Four: Mobile Indigenous Youth and a Dynamic Countryside: Lessons in the Value of Rural Indigenous Masculinities ..................................................... 240 4.1. A Desolate Countryside? ................................................................ 241 4.2. The Moral Career of the Peasant .................................................... 244 4.3. Striving for Peasanthood ................................................................. 248 4.4. The Revolving Door between City and Countryside ........................ 252 4.5. Fernando: At the Crossroads of Urban Conjugal Intimacy and the Peasant Family ................................................................................................. 253 4.6. Jacinto: The Desire for a White Professional Wife .......................... 270 4.7. Conclusion ...................................................................................... 282 Conclusion ........................................................................................................ 284 References ....................................................................................................... 296 vi LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: The “perpetrator” model of Violence. Physical, Economic, Institutional, and Sexual Violence. Excerpt from a booklet called “Ley de Acceso de las Mujeres a una Vida Libre de Violencia, Nuevo León.” ................................................... 173 Figure 2: Cindy la Regia, “Dude! I’m dead tired from going to the grocery! I brought back the whole store!” ...................................................................................... 229 Figure 3: “Muchacha para casa” (Maid for house); “Trabajador urgente para quinta” (Gardener for quinta or country rest house). Recruiting maids and gardeners at La Alameda Mariano Escobedo, Monterrey, Nuevo León ........... 230 Figure 4: El Chacal: “…He is one the purest chacales that I have seen and run into…” ............................................................................................................... 232 Figure 5: “A six pack is no good when you have the face of a street-sweeper” 233 Figure 6: “The gym won’t take away your face of a ‘prehispanic relic’” ............ 233 Figure 7: Drawing plan of public housing model, Municipality of Huejutla, Hidalgo. 2012-2016 ........................................................................................................ 266 vii LIST OF GRAPHS Graph 1: Opposite trends: Rapes reported to the public prosecutor’s office, consigned rape suspects, and those convicted of rape (Echarri Cánovas et al 2012, 78) ......................................................................................................... 123 Graph 2: Occupational insertion of indigenous language speakers by sex, Metropolitan area of Monterrey, 2000 (Durin 2009, 37) ................................... 226 viii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I thank my mother, Isaura Pineda, and my brother, Benjamín Pacheco, for believing in me and encouraging me to complete my doctorate. Their fighting spirit is my inspiration, the warmth that fuels and centers me. I thank my father, Miguel Pacheco, who has always kindly supported me. I thank my aunts and uncles Fernando Pineda, Marina Pineda Castañeda, Alejandro Pineda, Elizabet Díaz, Antonio Pineda, Elisabeth Sánchez, Graciela Pacheco, and Sergio Suárez for graciously hosting me in their homes. My Huastecan family generously trusted me despite the difficult tensions that arise from a relationship bred in part out of research. I especial thank the Díaz, Guzman, and Vera families whom I have come to love as my own. Our friendship has been sealed over many trips to the river for frolicking and fishing, the late-night dancing to the sound of huapango, and the many zacahuiles and huevinas we have shared with much delight. I hope to reciprocate this Huastecan spirit through a life-long commitment to solidarity and union. I thank every Instancia staff, especially Ivonne, Lic. Diana, and Maestra Olivia for offering me their time, trust, and generosity. The same goes for the municipal judges, school officials, nurses, and other local officials who opened their hearts and doors to me. I thank Nancy Postero for always challenging me. I was lucky to have a female graduate advisor of her academic caliber and humanity. It was her mentorship which allowed me to weather the uncertainty and hostility of graduate ix school as