Soldaderas in the Mexican Revolution Talia Sicoly

Home , Pancho Villa, Soldaderas, Venustiano Carranza

About the Author Talia is a fourth-year History major at the University of Guelph. She wrote Soldaderas in the Mexican Revolution to bring attention to women who were instrumental in the success of the Revolutionaries in that conflict. She enjoys researching various individuals and topics that relate to female advocacy and empowerment. After graduating, she plans to teach in South Korea before returning to Canada to study law.

The Mexican Revolution was a bloody, armed conflict that officially lasted from 1910 to 1920, though fighting continued for many years afterwards. Rebel armies under many different banners rose to fight for social and political reform in a country where people felt misrepresented and mistreated for centuries. The Mexican Revolution was unique in that individuals from almost every background, race, and social class participated in one way or another. Women also joined armies from the very beginning and would serve as an integral part of the Revolution. Author Friederich Katz mentions that “in many respects, the Mexican Revolution was not only a men’s, but a women’s revolution.”1 This essay aims to prove that statement through an examination of the role of soldaderas, the women of the Revolution. They served in two main ways: as camp followers and as female fighters in the army forces. Both played an equally significant role in keeping the Revolution alive. The camp followers kept the armies fed, foraged for food and supplies, provided medical care, served as spies for their respective forces, and smuggled ammunition for the fights. The fighting soldaderas joined from different parts of Mexico and became known for their courage and fighting prowess in battles. Many women, both camp followers and fighters, entered the war voluntarily, while military leaders conscripted many others. Soldaderas played such a significant role in the Revolution that their legacy continues to this day. The word soldadera has become synonymous with bravery for many, including those fighting for the rights of indigenous Mexican women. This essay will discuss the vital role soldaderas played in the Mexican Revolution, both in the camps and in the military, as well as the legacy and modern interpretations of the soldadera. When the word soldadera is said, many only think of the fighting women brandishing their rifles and wearing ammunition belts. In reality, the term soldadera encompasses both the camp followers and the female fighters.2 The name soldadera itself comes from the word soldada, which was the wage given to common soldiers.3 Historically speaking, many camp followers were paid servants. In Mexico, however, many women joined the army as camp followers because members of their family, such as their brothers, fathers, sons, or husbands, were enlisted. In the early days of the Revolution, women were only allowed to be with the armies as camp followers and rarely saw the battlefield.4 Thus, at the time of the Maderista Revolution (1910-1911), the most famous

1 Friedrich Katz, “The Life and Times of Pancho Villa,” The Journal of Military History 63(2) (1999): 460. 2 Sarah A. Buck, “Rosa Torre González”, in The Human Tradition in Mexico, ed. Jeffrey M. Pilcher (Wilmington, De.: Scholarly Resources, 2003): 138. 3 Ibid., 141 4 Andrés Fuentes, “Battleground Women: Soldaderas and Female Soldiers in the Mexican Revolution,” The Americas 51(4) (1995): 527.

women in the military camps were the wives and relatives of leaders.5 In the northern regions of Mexico, where there was a strong presence of middle class, unemployed or migrant workers, peasants, and hacienda peons, many armies rose up, and soldiers’ wives wanted to join them.6 The men generally did not want women with them at first, since they relied heavily on cavalry to move around, and thought the walking camp followers would only slow them down. During this time, many men were wounded in battle, and the armies had to create units using the very few women present, as well as fighting men to staff medical stations. This led to the realization that women played a vital role in the war effort and needed to be included in the army for nursing purposes, among other things.7 Women played vital roles in the everyday management of the camps as well. An example would be in Tamaulipas, where a band of rebels under the command of Alberto Carrera Torres took the town of Tula and held it. His mother, Doña Juanita, took charge of the logistics of the camp operation.8 She oversaw obtaining food and ammunition for the forces – two things that armies cannot operate without – and “exercised authority in all administrative affairs.”9 This is one example of how armies could not function without camp followers. This case was from a small band, though, and larger rebel militias soon realized that they also needed women in their camps to help the daily operations run smoothly. Women were only encouraged to join the army as camp followers at this point, but the volume of women that did was so great that a New York Times correspondent wrote on several occasions that most of the passengers on military trains were women and children.10 These women took care of the daily management like Doña Juanita, but they also performed other, more dangerous, tasks. Many camp followers were given the task of smuggling ammunition and spying on other armies. The need for ammunition and weapons was so tremendous that women set out to smuggle them from the United States. These women crossed the border, grabbed whatever ammunition and weapons they could, and hid them under their skirts and breasts.11 Since men perceived them as harmless and meek, they were rarely questioned on these missions and, as a result, very few smugglers ever got caught.12 Without this service, one could argue that the rebel armies would not have been able to fight on account of not having enough ammunition. Another role played by women that helped their forces considerably was as spies.

5 Ibid. 6 Friedrich Katz, the Secret War in Mexico: Europe, the United States, and the Mexican Revolution (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1981), 36-37. 7 Fuentes, “Battleground Women,” 528. 8 Ibid. 9 Ibid. 10 New York Times, November 9, 1913. 11 Fuentes, “Battleground Women,” 542 12 Ibid., 543. 93

Some women pretended to join other armies as camp followers to collect information on them and relay their findings back to their army.13 This was a role that was difficult for men to play since they were more likely to arouse suspicion as spies. The information the camp follower spies brought back could include anything from rumoured battles, to how well-armed an army was, as well as other vital information. The largest and easily most important role the camp followers played in the Revolution was in feeding the armies. In the beginning of the war, before camp followers started travelling with armies, soldiers stopped in towns, and if the women there supported their side, they fed them. The Zapatista insurgency, for example, was maintained by women since they would voluntarily feed the soldiers tortillas wherever they went.14 As a result, many Carrancistas (followers of José Venustiano Carranza) tried to stifle the Zapatistas by capturing the women of a village and forcing them to make tortillas for them.15 By capturing these women, they obtained their own food source while cutting off supplies for Zapatistas.16 This shows that food and the women who supplied it were significant to the Revolution. When the women started travelling as camp followers, they were relatively safe from capture since they were close to the fighting men most of the time. Some women continued ahead of the main travelling camp to forage for food.17 In this way, women formed the front lines, as an Englishman observed: “They descend like locusts upon the outraged villagers, robbing the roosts, capturing squawking fowls and even squealing piglets, gathering the scanty sticks for the fire over which to have a black pot simmering and flat maize tortillas heating on the embers as soon as the dust-masked troopers might be ready for their fare.”18 After they finished gathering, they would take to the gruelling task of grinding corn to make tortillas. Grinding corn took hours of labour bent over a small grinding stone. The tasks these women performed daily, including grinding corn, took so much effort that historians have said without the soldaderas, there would be no Mexican Revolution because without having the women to keep them going, the men would have all deserted.19 So many women had joined the armies as camp followers that the armies relied on them completely to handle their

13 Elena Poniatowska, Las Soldaderas: Women of the Mexican Revolution 1st edition (El Paso: Cinco Punto Press, 2006): 20. 14 Fuentes, “Battleground Women,” 535. 15 Ibid. 16 Ibid. 17 Buck, “Rosa Torre González,” 141. 18 Patrick A. O’Hea, Reminiscences of the Mexican Revolution (London: Sphere, 1981), page 85. 19 Buck, “Rosa Torre González,” 142.

foraging, cooking, and camping services.20 Without women, these tasks would have taken too many fighting men away from the actual fighting so that they could forage and feed the troops. The men acknowledged this fact as well. One fighter, named Pedro Martínez, wrote about how hard life was without the soldaderas. He tells of a battle in Milpa Alta, a Southern district of Mexico City that borders the state of Morelos, after which Zapatista men had to beg for tortillas and coffee in neighbouring houses.21 This story suggests that the Zapatista forces were ineffective because of they lacked camp followers. Most of the rebel forces in Mexico would not have been able to achieve the success they did without the camp followers feeding them and performing the other duties previously mentioned. While the camp followers served as the foundation of the armies, many women chose to fight as soldiers. Journalist John Reed, who was in Mexico during the Revolution, wrote that while many women did join the Revolution of their own volition, brute force at the hands of soldiers served to recruit many others. Male soldiers went through cities and kidnapped women with the intention of making them join their army.22 Other times, male soldiers arrived in villages and simply demanded that all the women in the town enlist.23 In a few cases when women refused this demand, they were threatened until they accepted or were killed.24 The number of female combatants in the Mexican Revolution cannot be known for sure since many joined in disguises.25 Many women became combatants by joining the armies as men. They would take on men’s names, speak in deep voices, wrap their breasts tightly to hide them, and dress in men’s clothing.26 One of the first famous female fighters was named Esperanza Echeverría of Yautepec. She is described in a Mexican newspaper from 1911 as “being dressed in men’s clothes, brandishing her sabre while directing her escort.”27 She escorted Francisco Madero to many of his events, all the while guarding him from throngs of reporters and photographers.28 The description of Echeverría as directing an escort suggests that she must have been in a high position in the army. Additionally, the newspaper’s descriptions of her indicates that many knew she was a woman despite the way she dressed. This suggests that

20 Fuentes, “Battleground Women,” 539. 21 Oscar Lewis, Pedro Martínez: A Mexican Peasant and His Family (New York: Random House, 1964), p. 100. 22 John Reed, Insurgent Mexico (1914). New York: International Publishers 1969, p.108. 23 Ibid. 24 Ibid. 25 Poniatowska, Las Soldaderas, 20. 26 Ibid. 27 El Imparcial, June 8, 1911 28 Ibid. 95

even in the early days of the Revolution, women were able to fight and obtain ranks in the armies as fighters. An example of a soldadera that gained prominence was María Quinteras de Meras.29 She was one of the most well-known soldaderas fighting under Pancho Villa. Of course, this could be because Villa was very open about his dislike of soldaderas and fighting women. She joined Villa’s army in 1910 and never attempted to hide her identity; she was always open about the fact that she was female.30 Between 1910 and 1913, María fought in over ten battles and displayed just as much courage and skill in battle as any of the men, and eventually earned the rank of colonel for her efforts.31 This was a monumental feat considering Villa’s dislike of soldaderas, but even he respected María as a skilled fighter. Her new position of authority gained her so much respect that her husband, who was of a lower rank in the army, had to report to her.32 For María, respect was payment enough for her efforts, and she refused Villa’s payments for her participation in the battles.33 Interestingly enough, her fighting was so exceptional she was thought, by some, to have supernatural powers. María is a testament to the importance of women in the armies. She was just one of the few faces that represented the thousands of fighting women that helped win battles in the Revolution. Another such woman is Angela, also known as Ángel, Jiménez. Angela was known to be female as well, but still chose to keep her male façade.34 She insisted on being called Ángel, the male version of her name. She joined the army with her father after an attack on her family home. Her sister killed the attacker that came into their home but, unable to accept what she had done, took her own life shortly after.35 Jiménez fought as a male in the Revolution in many forces before finally settling on fighting in the army of Carranza.36 After she joined, she revealed her identity as a woman to her comrades. She was an explosives expert as well as a soldier and was well known for her skill in battle. She also insisted that she be treated the same as the men and refused sexual or sentimental links with her fellow soldiers, promising that she would shoot anyone who tried to

29 Poniatowska, Las Soldaderas, 21. 30 Ibid. 31 Ibid. 32 Ibid., 22. 33 Ibid. 34 Heather Fowler-Salamini and Mary Kay Vaughn, Women of the Countryside, 1850-1990: Creating Spaces, Shaping Transitions (Tucson: The University of Arizona Press, 1994), 98. 35 Ibid. 36 Ibid.

seduce her.37 There are no reports of her shooting anyone in her ranks, indicating she was respected enough for them to heed her warnings. Angela eventually rose to the rank of lieutenant in her army, proving that women were capable of occupying leadership roles as soldiers of the Revolution. The soldaderas of the Revolution played such a significant role that their image lives on to the present day. They are memorialized in popular and folk culture, though not in their full complexity. One phenomenon that has occurred is that the Mexican press has effectively phased out camp followers from the soldadera image. The soldadera has become synonymous with a fighting woman, while the camp followers are portrayed simply as prostitutes.38 As a result, the camp followers have largely been forgotten in recent years, despite the enormous role they played in keeping the Revolution alive. One way in which female fighter soldaderas have been immortalized is through corridos, which are ballads or folk songs that gained popularity after the Revolution.39 Many corridos have been written about the soldaderas since the fighting, many serving as battle hymns. However, most corridos were written with romanticised elements, which have been emphasised in more recent retellings. One very famous corrido, called La Adelita, is based on a woman who served as one of Madero’s troops.40 This corrido and the woman in it have become the symbol for soldaderas to the extent that soldaderas are sometimes referred to as “Adelitas.” In early versions of the corrido, she is praised for her femininity, loyalty, and beauty instead of her bravery and skill in battle, demonstrating the sexualization and romanticizing of soldaderas.41 Some see this as Mexico’s Arthurian legend because no one knows for certain if La Adelita was actually a real person or if she was an amalgam of several soldaderas during the Revolution.42 Regardless of whether she was real or not, La Adelita has become a symbol for women who fight for their rights. She is regarded with such respect that the Mexican Consulate placed a headstone in San Felipe Cemetery to honour her. It is called La Adelita Del Rio Texas and is claimed by a local news outlet to be the resting place of Adelita herself.43 Even though her portrayals are often romanticised, La Adelita continues to serve as a symbol for female empowerment and strength born out of the Revolution. The sexualization of the soldadera continues to be an issue to this day, with many media outlets depicting them in provocative ways. The traditional image of a soldadera is a female fighter wearing belts of ammunition and wielding

37 Ibid. 38 Fowler-Salamini & Vaughn, Women of the Countryside, 102. 39 Shirlene Ann Soto, Emergence of the Modern Mexican Woman Her Participation in Revolution and Struggle for Equality, 1910-1940 (Denver, Co: Arden Press, 1990): 44. 40 Ibid. 41 Alicia Arrizón, “’Soldaderas and the Staging of the Mexican Revolution,” TDR 42(1) (1998): 92. 42 Soto, Emergence of the Modern Mexican Woman, 44. 43 Arrizón, “’Soldaderas’ and the Staging of the Mexican Revolution,” 93. 97

a gun. In many modern portrayals, however, the soldadera is portrayed as a sexy figure, rather than the soldiers and revolutionaries they were.44 They are still depicted wearing ammunition belts, but little else. They may be stretched out in sexualised poses, and their participation in the Revolution is not referenced at all. This has influenced the perception many have towards soldaderas in modern Mexico and even the Southern United States, where there is a large Mexican population. While women still praise them for their courage in battle, men will praise soldaderas for their loyalty to their husbands.45 This illustrates the machismo [masculine] culture and split ideology among the sexes in Mexico. As previously mentioned, there were many instances where soldaderas, especially those who fought, were above their husbands or male relatives in rank, not below them and serving them. Many modern women are trying to combat this image, though, and have the soldadera represented as she would have existed in the Revolution – as an admirable and skilled fighter. Mexican women and American women with Mexican heritage have tried to reclaim the image of the soldadera by using her as a symbol of revolution.46 The legacy of the soldadera has become a role model for self-empowerment for women with Mexican ancestry in the United States that fight for the advancement of the American Chicano minority.47 The Chicano movement adopted the image of the soldadera and their mindset - that of hot-blooded and violent when necessary revolutionaries.48 They are just one example of individuals trying to re- revolutionize the soldadera image. The fight is still ongoing in many parts of Mexico and the United States, but the fact that the image survived in any form showcases the impact that women had on the Revolution. There are many newer murals and street artworks all over Mexico that showcase women in proud poses, holding their guns, wearing their ammunition, and appropriate clothing. These showcase the image of the soldadera as she was in the Revolution and, in time, images like these may be the most common ones. Overall, it is undeniable that women played a monumental role in the Mexican Revolution. The camp followers and female fighters influenced their armies and battles in which they fought in ways that have a lasting legacy today. As camp followers, women cooked, foraged, served as nurses, and performed other long and laborious tasks that the fighting men in the army could or would not have done on their own. As soldiers, women played a large role in the battles,

44 Ibid., 108. 45 Elizabeth Salas, “Soldaderas: New Questions, New Sources,” Women’s Studies Quarterly 23(¾) (The Feminist Press at the City University of New York, 1995): 116. 46 Arrizón, “’Soldaderas’ and the Staging of the Mexican Revolution,” 108. 47 Salas, “Soldaderas: New Questions, New Sources,” 116. 48 Ibid.

proving with their combat and leadership skills that females were just as worthy of titles and high-ranking positions as men. Their actions helped create the image of the soldadera today through corridos, art, and the adopting of the symbol by women’s rights groups. The revolutionaries could not have functioned in as organized a manner as it did, if at all, without soldaderas in the camps and on the front lines. Without these brave women who took a stand for their rights in the Mexican Revolution, the country might be very different today.

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