Latin-American Studies

    No doubt women made tremendous contribution to the Mexican Revolution and although their support may have received little recognition after the Revolution came to its final end they were the unsung heroes without whose help, the armies may not have made much progress. A few working-class and wealthy women contributed to the Revolution in very professional ways. The womens army referred to as the Villista army consisted of trained doctors and nurses who provided modern and most needed medical services to the revolutionary armies. Other women such as Juana Gutierrez de Mendoza became voices of the Revolution zealously spreading propaganda for the Mexican cause with much boldness. Such women went around encouraging people to support the Revolution. Apart from serving the Revolutionary armies as nurses, propagandists and spies, some of these middle-class women also performed the simple act of posing for the camera with sombreros, rifles and bandoleers of the revolutionary troops actions that may have been overlooked but which spoke out the political purpose that these women were committed to as they sought recognition as Mexican citizens. Yet, it was the anonymous and more common soldier or camp follower popularly referred to as the soldadera who actually made the Mexican Revolution. Throughout history, women had always supported armies as camp followers. But the soldaderas of the Mexican Revolution became an exceptional case because of their unique ability to blend female support services and the masculine duties expected of a soldier. Besides providing domestic services in the camps, they also dressed as men, served in combat, acted as spies and even stole weapons from enemy camps and concealed them in a way that allowed the soldiers from their own camps to escape. Throughout the revolution, these women stood out as symbols of loyalty, standing besides their men for the greater course of the Mexican Revolution (Pilcher 142).

    In the years preceding the Mexican Revolution, educated and upper-middle-class Mexican women had already began penetrating into the public sphere and the possibility of incorporating the political and cultural concerns of women began taking shape. Mexico was changing dramatically and by the end of the 19th Century, a number of Mexican female teachers and journalists began making an impact in the field of publishing by producing newspapers and magazines for a female audience. By the first decade of the 20th Century, women participation had developed into a more political approach especially in challenging the dictatorial rule of Porfirio Diaz as well as supporting working-class women. It was these politically active women who eventually joined different battalions when the Mexican Revolution broke out. The experiences of these women however differed largely depending upon their various Revolutionary leaders or the battalions they were attached to. Although diverse groups of women took part in various ways in spearheading the Mexican Revolution, it was the participation of the uneducated and ignorant soldaderas that became symbolic of women participation in the Revolution.  The soldaderas became part of most of the armies that took part in the fighting during the Mexican Revolution becoming a common feature in both federal and Revolutionary armies (Linhard 34-35).

    The term soldaderas has widely been used to refer to the women who participated in various roles in the battlefield during the Mexican Revolution. Soldaderas originates from the Spanish term soldada which refers to a soldiers pay. Mexico had a long history of armed conflict and soldaderas had been part of the Mexican armies as way back as the conquest period. During this period, Spanish women followed their male relatives in the conquest against the Aztecs and several Indian women became part of both the ally and resistance forces in the Spanish conquest. During the struggle for independence, Mexican women also served in both the resistance and ally armies. After independence, Mexico continued with the old-aged tradition of encouraging soldiers to pay others to provide them with various services. According to the Spanish custom, a soldiers pay was given to another person who would then use it to source food and other provisions for the soldier. Through this tradition, soldaderas became part of various rebellions and wars during Mexicos 19th Century history. But it was the 1910 Mexican Revolution that brought into the limelight the actual participation of women in a rebellion. When opposition against President Porfirio Diaz broke out, Mexican women especially from the lower classes came out in thousands to assist the fighting troops in several of the Revolutionary armies. During the Mexican Revolution, large numbers of women served on the battlefield in various roles  and became part of the various armies that took part in the fighting becoming a common feature in both federal and revolutionary armies. The term soldadera was used to describe these women (Coerver, Pasztor  Buffington 472).

    Soldaderas were also referred to as camp followers, Adelitas or coronelas and became part of Mexicos history until the modernization of the Mexican military after the end of the revolution when most of them were sent away while a few became part of the quartermaster corps. Other names used to describe the soldaderas included pleasure girls (auianime), valiant women (mociuaque-tzque), women warriors, juanas, capitanas, cockroaches (cucarachas), old ladies (Viejas) and cookies (galletas). The Mexican Revolution which broke out in 1910 brought overwhelming changes to the lives of thousands of Mexican women. Women played a very critical role in this Revolution and their roles depended on the necessities of the moment. Devastating battles or even incidences of rape forced some of the women to leave their homes and they attached themselves to various men serving in the armies who they volunteered to feed, nurse and provide with other essential services them in return for their security (Ruiz  Korrol 465, 690). In such way, the soldaderas became a fundamental part of the revolutionary armies and were essential to their survival. Although not all men accepted their presence and leaders such as Francisco Pocho Villa and others resented their presence arguing that they slowed down the movements of the troops, soldaderas continued being part of the revolutionary armies throughout 1913 and 1914. These women were so engrossed in the course of the Revolution that even after Villa ordered them to leave they would return as soon as he got out sight and continue with their services. Out of over 4,000 Mexican federal troops who crossed into Texas in 1914, 1,256 were soldaderas and of the 3,557 men in this army, some turned out to be women soldiers disguised in mens clothing (Ruiz  Korrol 465-466).

    Mexican women became soldaderas either by joining their husbands and other male relatives or through force whereby they would be kidnapped and ordered into offering various services to the soldiers. Although some of the women followed their men out of love, most of them became soldaderas because they did not have an alternative. Some soldaderas could be as young as 12 years of age and many of them were abducted by the soldiers and forced to follow them. Women whose husbands had defected to the enemy camp, as well as single girls became victims to this forceful recruitment. Whole villages were destroyed in the war and some families lost all their men. Those women left behind had no choice but join the army as camp followers in order to escape starvation as well as secure their safety. Rapes had also become very rampant and many women opted to become camp followers as a way of escape from the shame of their communities. In the course of the Revolution, camp followers and soldiers developed such intimate bonds that the soldaderas could even release fire to avenge or protect their male partners. Although most of these women were free to leave as they wished, majority chose to stay on even after their partners had been killed in the Revolution. However, these unattached soldaderas lived in pathetic conditions because they did not receive the regular allowance given to their companions. Yet, they chose to linger on as they lacked a better alternative and also as they waited for the right men to show face (Toman 262).

    At the beginning of the Mexican Revolution, soldaderas became the epitome of domestic tasks on the battlefront. Yet, in the course of the war, their roles spread out to include other duties in the battlefields and as the Revolution progressed, weapons soon found their way into these womens hands. The soldaderas not only served as cooks, nurses and sexual companions but also as soldiers, spies and smugglers. Various duties included corn grinding, procuring and cooking food, nursing wounded soldiers, washing clothes, burying those who died in course of the struggle and even smuggling military supplies and weapons into the camp (Coerver, Pasztor  Bullington 472). To the Mexican military officials, the soldaderas were according to Ruiz and Korrol, a necessary evil because at the time, the Mexican armies did not provide stores on the military camps that would provide food to the soldiers (690). Soldaderas became food foragers and through provision of this type of service, they helped to control the number of soldiers who deserted the camps in search of provisions. Cooking for the soldiers was a duty that these women conducted very faithfully and when the soldiers sat down to eat these brave women took up arms and stood in their defense. Such actions led to death of very many of the women when the enemy camp attacked. The soldiers positively embraced the services of the soldaderas and in 1912 for example, the Mexican army even threatened to wage a mutiny when orders arrived that soldaderas had been banned from accompanying them. This order was called off and the soldaderas continued with their noble mission among the soldiers (Ruiz  Korrol 690).

     Women acted as spies, smuggled arms and ammunition, ferried messages and also served in combat. They would hide arms and ammunition in their long skirts and bay carriages and smuggle them across the Mexicali-Calexico boarder. The presence of so many women in the Mexican army camps created a tradition among the soldaderas to move towards various battlefields and engage in battle on impulse. Through such action, these women became part-time soldiers as they changed from being mere camp followers or caregivers into warriors. During the intense revolutionary years 1912-1915, the women contributed as much as 5 of rifle fire although the figures varied between different armies and different regions. As the Revolution progressed, some of these women became engaged in the actual fighting and through this way a few of them rose to leadership positions by successfully concealing their identities and passing out as men. Some of these women who disguised themselves rose to the ranks of officers in various Revolutionary armies and some even attained the rank of colonel. Through such leadership positions, a few of the soldaderas gained considerable fame. One such famous soldadera was Margarita Neri, a Mayan Indian from Quintana Roo who rose to the rank of army officer and became a commander of Indian troops fighting in Southern Mexico (Coerver, Pasztor  Bullington 472).  Some of the women played the role of combats by ferrying ammunition for the soldiers so that these men did not carry so much weight on the battlefield. They were used to reload rifles during combat and also scurried for rifles and cartridges from those soldiers who succumbed to the enemy fire. By 1915, Mexico was so drained of resources that soldaderas were used to search the battlefields for any empty cartridge shells that could be found. Mexico could hardly afford to buy cartridges from abroad and recycling of empty shells became a cheap alternative (Toman 262).

    In Mexican society, women did not enjoy recognition as full citizens and for many of them, serving as soldaderas created a life-changing experience. Each soldadera was attached to one soldier and in the process of providing sexual pleasure to the soldiers some soldaderas became pregnant and bore children the soldiers. These women often gave birth on the roads, as they marched behind the soldiers, some in the camps and others on the battlefields. Due to the lack of proper medical attention, most of these childbearing soldaderas died before they could attain the age of forty (Coerver, Pasztor  Bullington 472). Yet, as the soldiers received allowances for their upkeep, the soldaderas did not receive any money and had to ration their partners allowances in such way that they and their children would also get food provisions. These poor and ignorant women bore on their shoulders the tough burden of financing the war a burden which the revolutionaries had shifted on them (Toman 262).

    Despite the tremendous contributions and sacrifices that soldaderas made towards sustaining various armies, not all revolutionary leaders embraced them and a few of these leaders wished to eliminate them in order to pave way for a more modern army. Towards the end of the Mexican Revolution, the new Mexican leaders were able to achieve this goal and established a professional Mexican army that excluded the soldaderas. However, this official predisposition to ignore the contributions that these women made towards the Revolution did not wipe their history and the legacy that they had created lived on in Mexican art, folk songs or corridos, literature and even the film industry. One of the most famous folk song born out of the Mexican Revolution was Adelita which gained so much fame that the camp followers were thereafter referred to as Adelitas. Mexican painters also created images of soldaderas in their illustrations which depicted Mexicos history as well as its Revolution. Most of these painters celebrated the soldaderas for their beauty, loyalty and unusual submissiveness to men. Soldaderas were also incorporated into the writings of various novelists. Through art, folklore and literature, these women had created a legacy through which the history of the Mexican Revolution would be handed down to several generations. The soldaderas became part of Mexicos cultural history and the female image of the camp follower became symbolic of Mexicans immigrating to the U.S during the Revolution and after. This image of the camp follower found its way into the American film industry and was a major theme in such films as Viva Zapata (1952) and the Alamo (1960). During the Chicano movement later in the 1960s and 1970s, the Mexican soldadera was portrayed as an active soldier and became a popular figure in helping to recruit women and engage them in active struggle for the equal rights of Mexican Americans.  (Coerver, Pasztor  Bullington 472-473).

    In the course of the Mexican Revolution, large numbers of soldaderas served on the battlefield in various roles such as procurement and cooking of food, loading and firing of arms, prostitution and fighting among others. Some of these women simply followed the men who were close to them into war many following their husbands, fathers and brothers and some even following their lovers. However, a limited number of these women became trained female colonels and captains who eventually led the female and male armies into war (Linhard 4). Soldaderas followed their men like slaves, carrying huge baskets full of utensils and cooking pots on their shoulders. Others even carried small babies strapped to their backs. They displayed a kind of selflessness, infinite tenderness and fearless stamina in serving their men many of whom died in the war and left them at the mercy of the armies. These women defied the heat of the marches to perform acts of mercy of the highest magnitude. To the thirsty soldiers, a drop of water from these women was like manna dropped from heaven. Soldaderas provided the soldiers with the sexual and emotional support that was so necessary away from home and which kept them soldiering on in the battle fields. No doubt all these were special needs that would have led many of the soldiers to desert the battlefield and go back home but the soldaderas were always with them and encouraged them to go on with this noble course. On the battlefield, some of the women killed and others died while serving a political course that many deemed worthwhile. In whatever capacity that these women served in the Revolution, they played a very vital role and one is left to wonder how the armies would initially have made it without their services. To the soldiers, the soldaderas were not only angels who lighted their spirits but also became the soul of the Mexican Revolution through their undivided dedication to suffering. Soldaderas will always go down in the history of the Mexican Revolution for the articulate manner in which they combined their traditional roles as domestic servants, sexual companions, mothers, tribal leaders, war goddesses and warriors within the context of military life (Coerver, Pasztor  Buffington 202, 472-473 Ruiz  Korrol 465-466, 690).