Sex in Revolution

Jocelyn Olcott; Mary Kay Vaughan; Gabriela Cano

Description

Sex in Revolution challenges the prevailing narratives of the Mexican Revolution and postrevolutionary state formation by placing women at center stage. Bringing to bear decades of feminist scholarship and cultural approaches to Mexican history, the essays in this book demonstrate how women seized opportunities created by modernization efforts and revolutionary upheaval to challenge conventions of sexuality, work, family life, religious practices, and civil rights.Concentrating on episodes and phenomena that occurred between 1915 and 1950, the contributors deftly render experiences ranging from those of a transgendered Zapatista soldier to upright damas catolicas and Mexico City's chicas modernas pilloried by the press and male students. Women refashioned their lives by seeking relief from bad marriages through divorce courts and preparing for new employment opportunities through vocational education. Activists ranging from Catholics to Communists mobilized for political and social rights. Although forced to compromise in the face of fierce opposition, these women made an indelible imprint on postrevolutionary society.These essays illuminate emerging practices of femininity and masculinity, stressing the formation of subjectivity through civil-society mobilizations, spectatorship and entertainment, and locales such as workplaces, schools, churches, and homes. The volume's epilogue examines how second-wave feminism catalyzed this revolutionary legacy, sparking widespread, more radically egalitarian rural women's organizing in the wake of late-twentieth-century democratization campaigns. The conclusion considers the Mexican experience alongside those of other postrevolutionary societies, offering a critical comparative perspective.Contributors. Ann S. Blum, Kristina A. Boylan, Gabriela Cano, Maria Teresa Fernandez Aceves, Heather Fowler-Salamini, Susan Gauss, Temma Kaplan, Carlos Monsivais, Jocelyn Olcott, Anne Rubenstein, Patience Schell, Stephanie Smith, Lynn Stephen, Julia Tunon, Mary Kay Vaughan

Sujets

• Histoire
• México
• Cultural studies
• Mexico
• Gender studies

Informations

• Publié par: Duke University Press
• Date de parution: 17 janvier 2007
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780822388449
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Sex in Revolution

Sex in Revolution

Gender, Politics, and Power

in Modern Mexico

a

Edited by jocelyn olcott, mary kay vaughan, and gabriela cano

Foreword by carlos monsiváis

Duke University Press

Durham&London 2006

∫2006 Duke University Press All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper$ Designed by Katy Clove Typeset in Adobe Garamond by Keystone Typesetting, Inc. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data appear on the last printed page of this book.

Frontispiece:Guillermo Kahlo, ‘‘Frida poses in men’s clothing with family, 1927.’’ Photo, courtesy of Colección Isolda Pinedo Kahlo.

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Acknowledgments ix

Foreword

When Gender Can’t Be Seen amid the Symbols: Women and the Mexican Revolution carlos monsiváis 1

Introduction

Pancho Villa, the Daughters of Mary, and the Modern Woman: Gender in the Long Mexican Revolution mary kay vaughan 21

Part One: Embodying Revolutionary Culture

Unconcealable Realities of Desire: Amelio Robles’s (Transgender) Masculinity in the Mexican Revolution gabriela cano 35

The War onnaloPesLas: Modern Women and Their Enemies, Mexico City, 1924 anne rubenstein 57

Femininity,Indigenismo, and Nation: Film Representation by Emilio ‘‘El Indio’’ Fernández julia tuñón 81

Part Two: Reshaping the Domestic Sphere

‘‘If Love Enslaves . . . Love Be Damned!’’: Divorce and Revolutionary State Formation in Yucatán stephanie smith 99

Gender, Class, and Anxiety at the Gabriela Mistral Vocational School, Revolutionary Mexico City patience a. schell 112

Breaking and Making Families: Adoption and Public Welfare, Mexico City, 1938–1942 ann s. blum 127

Part Three: The Gendered Realm of Labor Organizing

The Struggle between theMetateand the MolinosdeNixtamalin Guadalajara, 1920–1940 maría teresa fernández-aceves 147

Gender, Work, Trade Unionism, and Working-Class Women’s Culture in Post-Revolutionary Veracruz heather fowler-salamini 162

Working-Class Masculinity and the Rationalized Sex: Gender and Industrial Modernization in the Textile Industry in Postrevolutionary Puebla susan m. gauss 181

Part Four: Women and Revolutionary Politics

Gendering the Faith and Altering the Nation: Mexican Catholic Women’s Activism, 1917–1940 kristina a. boylan 199

The Center Cannot Hold: Women on Mexico’s Popular Front jocelyn olcott 223

Epilogue

Rural Women’s Grassroots Activism, 1980–2000: Reframing the Nation from Below lynn stephen 241

Final Reflections: Gender, Chaos, and Authority in Revolutionary Times temma kaplan 261

Bibliography 277

Contributors 303

Index 307

Acknowledgments

his volume came out of a conference, ‘‘asOLadaslvid: Gender and T Women’s History in Postrevolutionary Mexico,’’ held at Yale Univer- sity in May 2001. We are extremely grateful for the institutional support for that event and this volume provided by Gil Joseph and Beatriz Reif- kohl, the Yale Center for Latin American and Iberian Studies, the Yale Center for International and Area Studies, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the Edward J. and Dorothy Clarke Kempf Fund. The discussions at that conference and the papers that emerged from it (some of which have been or are being published elsewhere) all benefited from intense engagement among presenters, commentators, and par- ticipants. In particular, we would like to thank Susan Besse, Katherine Bliss, Sarah Buck, Elizabeth Dore, Rob Bu≈ngton, Elaine Carey, De- borah Cohen, Matthew Gutmann, Kristin Harper, Elizabeth Hutchison, Tom Klubock, Rachel Kram, Sonya Michel, Stephanie Mitchell, Carmen Ramos, Marta Rocha, Karen Rosemblatt, Je√rey Rubin, Nicole Sanders, Eileen Suárez-Findlay, Ageeth Sluis, Heidi Tinsman, Ann Varley, and Peter Winn. Paul Li√man and Tanya Huntington provided translation assistance for the essays originally written in Spanish. Finally, we express our deepest thanks to Duke University Press Senior Editor Valerie Millholland for her unwavering support of and patience with this volume, as with so many others related to Latin America. We are also grateful to Miriam Angress, Mark Mastromarino, Katie Courtland,