Soldaderas in the Mexican Revolution Talia Sicoly 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. 91 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. 92 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. 94 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.