PDF hosted at the Radboud Repository of the Radboud University Nijmegen The following full text is a publisher's version. For additional information about this publication click this link. http://hdl.handle.net/2066/173926 Please be advised that this information was generated on 2021-09-30 and may be subject to change. MOTHERHOOD POLITICIZED MOTHERHOOD UITNODIGING Op vrijdag 30 juni 2017 This thesis investigates the many ways in which the notion of motherhood is politicized verdedig ik mijn proefschrift in Mexican politics and what this means for women who participate in politics, either as holding elected office, as party official or being activists. In Mexico, motherhood MOTHERHOOD POLITICIZED Gender and political subjectivities in Mexico is an important part of the gender repertoire, surfacing time and again as a decisive identity marker that is used either to include or exclude women from the political arena. De openbare plechtigheid By analysing how individual women construct their political identities and subjectivities vindt plaats om 16.30 uur precies, this study shows how women, particularly right-wing women, politicize motherhood in de Aula van de Radboud Universiteit, in order to create room to maneuver between competing notions of femininity. Comeniuslaan 2, Nijmegen. Using a multidimensional approach to gender this study provides insight into the U bent van harte welkom workings of boundaries related to political participation, as well as the agency women bij de verdediging have in entering and creating a sense of belonging to the political arena. It is shown en de aansluitende receptie. that the politicization of motherhood figures importantly in understanding of women’s Gender and political subjectivities in Mexico political participation in Mexico and Latin America and beyond. Tine Davids Kruisweg 4, 6522 JX Nijmegen [email protected] PARANIMFEN Bibi Straatman Karin Willemse Tine Davids MOTHERHOOD POLITICIZED Gender and political subjectivities in Mexico Tine Davids 510221-L-os-Davids Processed on: 31-5-2017 MOTHERHOOD POLITICIZED Gender and political subjectivities in Mexico Tine Davids 510221-L-bw-Davids Processed on: 31-5-2017 PDF page: 1 © Tine Davids, 2017 cover illustration © 2011 Los Niños On My Mind, Kathy Sosa graphic design Cremers visuele communicatie, Nijmegen printed by Ipskamp Printing, Enschede ISBN 978-94-028-0668-7 All rights reserved. No part of this thesis may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without prior permission from the author. 510221-L-bw-Davids Processed on: 31-5-2017 PDF page: 2 MOTHERHOOD POLITICIZED Gender and political subjectivities in Mexico Proefschrift ter verkrijging van de graad van doctor aan de Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen op gezag van de rector magnificus prof. dr. J.H.J.M. van Krieken, volgens besluit van het college van decanen in het openbaar te verdedigen op vrijdag 30 juni 2017 om 16.30 uur precies door Tine Davids geboren op 20 augustus 1960 te Leeuwarden © Tine Davids, 2017 cover illustration © 2011 Los Niños On My Mind, Kathy Sosa graphic design Cremers visuele communicatie, Nijmegen printed by Ipskamp Printing, Nijmegen ISBN 978-94-028-0668-7 All rights reserved. No part of this thesis may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without prior permission from the author. 510221-L-bw-Davids Processed on: 31-5-2017 PDF page: 3 Promotor Prof. dr. M.C.L. van den Brink Copromotor Dr. F.T.M. van Driel Manuscriptcommissie Prof. dr. H. Ghorashi Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam Prof. dr. M.H. Marchand Universidad de las Américas Puebla, Mexico Prof. dr. M.J. Spierenburg 510221-L-bw-Davids Processed on: 31-5-2017 PDF page: 4 MOTHERHOOD POLITICIZED Gender and political subjectivities in Mexico Doctoral Thesis to obtain the degree of doctor from Radboud University Nijmegen on the authority of the Rector Magnificus prof. dr. J.H.J.M. van Krieken, according to the decision of the Council of Deans to be defended in public on Friday, June 30, 2017 at 16.30 hours by Tine Davids Born on August 20, 1960 in Leeuwarden, The Netherlands 510221-L-bw-Davids Processed on: 31-5-2017 PDF page: 5 Supervisor Prof. dr. M.C.L. van den Brink Co-supervisor Dr. F.T.M. van Driel Doctoral Thesis Committee Prof. dr. H.Ghorashi Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam Prof. dr. M.H. Marchand Universidad de las Américas Puebla, Mexico Prof. dr. M.J. Spierenburg 510221-L-bw-Davids Processed on: 31-5-2017 PDF page: 6 dedicated to Stans Brouwers 510221-L-bw-Davids Processed on: 31-5-2017 PDF page: 7 VIII | Contents Contents Acknowledgements XV chapter one Introduction | The multiplicity of motherhood 1 Political participation: Context and identity construction 4 The multiple dimensions of gender: Agency and structure 10 Motherhood at the crossroads between tradition and modernity 13 Political subjectivity and agency 18 Methodology 21 Outline 23 chapter two The unhappy marriage between globalization and gender 31 Debates and orthodoxies 33 Global enemy versus female victims/heroines 34 Global versus local 36 The gender lens 38 An example 41 Conclusion 45 chapter three Political representation and the ambiguity of Mexican motherhood 51 Setting the Stage: Modernization at the end of the 20th century 53 Motherhood politicized and political subjectivity 55 The discourse of the PAN and nationalism 60 History and repetition 61 Interpretations and reflections: Motherhood and parallel modernities 64 chapter four Motherhood politicized: Gender, morality, and political right-wing activism at Mexico’s northern border 71 Introduction 71 A governmentalities perspective 72 Mother’s day turned into governmentality 75 510221-L-bw-Davids Processed on: 31-5-2017 PDF page: 8 VIII | Contents Contents | IX Political activism of women at the border region: Women for democracy 78 The struggle in defense of the vote: Ciudad Juárez, 1986 80 Moral agents in the struggle to defend the vote, Ciudad Juárez, 1992 82 Changing sceneries, 2013 87 By way of conclusion 91 chapter five The micro dynamic of agency: Repetition and subversion in a Mexican right-wing, female politician’s life story 97 Becoming a politician: A play between being shaped by tradition and self-made women 99 A design of naturalness: A narrative strategy 102 Moral motherhood: A discursive strategy 104 Towards a conclusion: Agency discursively constructed 108 chapter six Trying to be a vulnerable observer: Matters of agency, solidarity and hospitality in feminist ethnography 115 Meeting Marina 117 Situated in Dutch academia 119 Repetition and subversion in agency 122 From resentment to vulnerability 124 From vulnerability as a problem to vulnerability as an asset 126 From solidarity to vulnerability and hospitality? 128 chapter seven Concluding reflections 135 Introduction 135 Outcomes | From the macro to the micro and back 137 Discussion | The gender lens: Moving between the represented and the representable 144 Motherhood as rhetorical trope 147 References 151 Appendix I, II 169 Notes 175 Summary | Samenvatting | Resumen 185 About the author 217 510221-L-bw-Davids Processed on: 31-5-2017 PDF page: 9 X A la Madre (original) To the Mother Gloria Trevi, 2006* (double meaning written between parenthesis) ** Madres, les canto Mothers, I sing to you toda esta canción this whole song canto esta canción I sing this song ! a toda Madre! to all mothers (also: very cool/powerful)! Vales, You are worth todo el oro del mundo all the gold in the world todo el oro del mundo all the gold in the world ! vales Madre! you are worth mother (also: you are worthless)! Me pongo I place en ti mi amor in you my love mi amor yo pongo my love I place ! en la Madre! in the mother (also: oh fuck! Oh God!) ! Es poca Madre! How very little mother (also: it’s really cool)! la dicha que te doy is the joy I give you la dicha que te doy is the joy I give you ! es poca Madre! How little mother (it’s really cool, but also: it is worthless)! ! Es poca Madre! How very little mother (it’s really cool)! todo el mundo me hace recordarte everyone makes me remind you (think of you), me mandan siempre a saludarte, they always ask me to say hello to you (fuck you/go fuck your mother), ! por eso hoy canto a la Madre! that is why today I sing to the mother! te menciono a cada frase, I mention you in every phrase, ¿que hará yo sin esta Madre? For what would I do without this mother? ! por eso hoy canto a la Madre! that is why today I sing to the mother! 510221-L-bw-Davids Processed on: 31-5-2017 PDF page: 10 X XI Madre, eres Mother, you are pura como el agua, as pure as water, ! como el agua eres pura Madre! like water you are ’pure mother’ (also: a lie) Te doy I give you todo lo que soy all that I am pues lo que tú me diste for what you gave me ! es una Madre! is a mother (also: is nothing) Quiero, I want, que me des un beso you to give a kiss yo quiero que un beso I want a kiss ! me des Madre! from you Mother (also: you give me nothing) No tengo I don’t have más que decir anything else to say más que decir but to say ! no tengo Madre! I don’t have a mother (I am worthless/I am mean or bad)! ! No tengo Madre! I don’t have a mother (I am worthless/I am mean or bad)! todo el mundo me hace recordarte everyone is always reminding me of you me mandan siempre a saludarte, they always ask me to say hello to you (fuck you/ your mother) ! por eso hoy canto a la Madre! that is why today I sing to the mother! te menciono a cada frase, I mention you in every phrase, ¿que hará yo sin esta Madre? what would I do without this mother? ! por eso hoy canto a la Madre! that is why today I sing to the mother! 510221-L-bw-Davids Processed on: 31-5-2017 PDF page: 11 XII (Declamacion) Las madres me enseñaron en la escuela Mothers taught me at school (nuns as in Catholic schools are also referred to as mothers) en la escuela me enseñaron puras Madres… In school they taught me ‘pure mothers’ (fucking nothing) que la Madre da la vida en el parto… that the mother gives her life in childbirth… (parto in Spanish means labor as in giving birth but also breaking) que da la vida en el parto la Madre… that the mother gives life at birth labor (in hurting her/yourself).