Latin-American Studies

The individuality of men and women in the constant struggle of war and revolutionaries in many countries has always caused an upheaval. This was the case in the 60s and 70s just as it is the case in modern world. However, it is expected that times hace changed and the effect cannot be expected to be the same as it was in the 60s. As expected, women have faced a greater challenge as compared to their male counterparts. In modern day, women have a more equal place in society than they did in the 60s and 70s. This, of course, played a major role in the impact that revolutinary identity had on gender relations. There have been many feminist and essential approaches to female political identity in the face of revolution and war. This paper will discuss the effects of the identity of those who partake in revolutionary activities.

Revolutionary Identity
Revolution, in simple terms, is a turn around since it is adopted from the Latin equivalent revolution, which means the same. In definition, revolution is an essential transformation in authority or organizational constitution that takes place in a somewhat short span of time. Revolutions have been categorized into three categories by many scholars. The first generation of scholars looked at revolution in terms of social psychology as well as how revolution affected the society. The second generation focused on creating theories to explain the causes of revolution, when they would arise, and how they affected social behavior. The third category of scholars looked at the struggle of power between competing entities as the main causes of revolutions, especially, when these entities could not agree on a given political system

Revolutions, throughout history, have occurred in different ways in terms of methodology (like boycotts, guerrilla warfares, coup de tats revolts, rebellion forces, non violent resistance, civil wars, and revolutionary terror), ideologies(on slavery, equality, freedom), and time spans. The causes of these revolutions have always been attributed to corruption in organizations, famine and natural disasters, dictatorship and monarchy kind of rule, economic depression, communism and capitalism, feudalism and tyranny. 

These revolutions have brought about change in the economical status of countries, different cultural aspects, and structures of socio-political organizations. The most common typologies of revolutions are socio-economic revolutions like industrial revolution and political revolutions. These are an effort to transform the political institutions and the justifications for political authority in society, accompanied by formal or informal mass mobilization and non-institutionalized actions that undermine authorities (Goldstone, 2001) Revolutionary identity on the other hand is the shaping of the lives of individuals due to the conditions encompassing revolutions. Many countries like Mexico, Cuba and America among other have undergone various revolutions, which were characterized by different movements, to be where they are today. It was a major phase of a nations identity.

Impact of Revolutionary identity on gender values
Land ownership before any kind of revolution, white men were the ones who owned large chucks of land. Women were treated as minorities and majorly worked in the lands or as housewives or slaves. Then the revolts started in most nations. These revolts resulted in many men losing their lands to others, and saw the changes of policy in land ownership. Most lack men were allowed to own land and women too, fought for their rights to be considered equal to men. This allowed women to be allowed to own property like the rest of the populations. A case in point was the agrarian revolution in Mexico under Porfiriato, where many peasants lost their lands and later a law passed which saw all people have a share of land.

Expropriation of land one of the major felt impacts of the revolutions in most nations, especially the Latin American nations was that peasants who owned land were stripped off of their lands. This was especially so during the agrarian revolution. During this time, the government would seize any land and private property and make it their own.

Women participation in the revolts in Mexico, during the revolutions, their roles were valued as they are the ones that nursed the injured soldiers they became the mothers, teachers and wives at the same time. They formed ideologies to have revolutions that preached hope, freedom and equality for all.
Voting rights before the revolution, only wealthy white men were allowed to cast their votes. White men with no property, lack men and women had no voting rights. Gradually, when the revolution began taking pace, and people were asking for equality, these laws were changed in many nations. In the 70s, black men and women were allowed to vote.

Slave trade in the 1800s and early 19th century, slave trade was rampart especially in the northern countries like America, Mexico and Brazil. Rich men owned slaves who worked in their vast lands and who were treated like animals. Most of these slaves were black men, and women who were tasked with house chores. In the 1960s most countries banned slavery and slave trade because of the war and the revolutions that asked for equality. This was done by the slaves themselves who went to the streets to protest against the vast humiliation and treatment they were receiving from their masters, and demanding for equality.

Women soldiers women generally, before the revolutions, were considered housewives or slaves who would do house chores. They were never allowed to voice their concerns or make suggestions to anything. With the up rise of the revolution, women began to raise their voices and demanded to be heard. They began joining various revolution groups and travelling with them in every function. In Mexico, for example, a group of women called the female fighters and the Soldaderas would join revolutions and help them in whatever chores they needed help. They however were not allowed to carry arms, or use them for that matter.

Equality amongst men and women life before the revolution was such that men and women had clear-cut roles. Women were strictly housewives as men did menial works and were the providers. After the revolution, women began revolting and fighting for freedom and equality. According to Mona, women should not talk about help men should do half the work, and women should not ask but tell them to do it. Women advocated for freedom and equality in their households, the government, work places etc. this saw the government appointing women in chief positions and men starting to recognize that women are not only housewives.

Birth of feminism in the 1960s, women started becoming activists and started fighting for civil rights, both as leaders and as mentors. They started to question the gender roles thus helped restructure organizations and institutions around the world. During the 1960s and 1970s there was a sharp division among the womens movements while some advocated for the equal rights between men and women and the similarities between the two genders, others focused on the differences between the two genders and advocated for radical change with regards to these differences. They did this in an effort to show just how different men were treated from their female counterparts, who, according to these women activists, were not seen as human beings. The women started advocating for the expansion of democracy by insisting that equality had to include the realities of its women citizens, and catapulted womens issues onto a global stage. (Frederick)

Indigenous and national movements the revolution saw the uprising of many indigenous and national movements especially in Latin America. In Brazil and Colombia for example, many movements are still existent. These have been the forefront in demanding new political representation, and equal distribution of national resources. Due to these revolutions, Presidents Kirchner of Argentina and Lula of Brazil have taken important steps toward the construction of a regional market and they are no longer amenable to IMF recipes. (Hylton, 2008). In some countries, these movements have formed the government (like the Integrated Revolutionary Organizations (IRO) of Cuba) while in others, these movements (the corrupt ones) have lost the advantage in politics

Justice for most Latin American nations, the 1960s and 1970s was the beginning of the end of most revolutions around the world. In Cuba for example, this marked the end of their revolution and most rebels were captured and brought to trial for the many misgivings such as murder, rape and human rights abuses they had committed.

Formation of government Most revolutions were formed due to tyrannical rules, dictatorship and monarchy kind of rules in many states. In Latin America, Dictatorship and tyranny were the main reasons for revolutions. After the revolution, new governments were formed that would see the elimination of illiteracy and implementation of land reforms. In Cuba for example, after the collapse of Che Guevaras revolution, Fidel Castro took office, implemented an atheistic state, and implemented land reforms that saw the subdivision of larger holdings into cooperatives to help raise the living standards of the Cuban people. With the end of revolutions, most nations were reborn into new nations. This meant that there were new set of rules to be governed and new initiatives that would provide protection of the country and its people and look after its peoples welfare, with a new leader to ensure that these things are implemented and followed. This served as a very vital step in ensuring that both men and women were treated equally and that neither gender was victimized or seen as a lower gender.

Religion revolutions had a major impact on religion in most countries. In Mexico for example, the church was a source of hope for most people after the revolution and Mexico as a nation became rooted in Roman Catholicism as their religious status. In others like Cuba, Catholicism and religion was repelled. All properties in the ownership of the church were seized and the bishops expelled from the nation, and the nation was declared as an atheist state.

Youth movements revolutions had major impacts on the youths, and especially those in the universities. The change of revolutions with time saw the change of students attitudes and positions. Due to this, university officials often forces revolutionary ideas and change of curriculum upon their students. This gave rise to youth groups. These youth groups used artistic work like music, poetry and artwork (like graffiti) to speak out and air their own views on the revolutions. This made the government suppress this kind of outcry and suppress freedom on the universities, which then made the students form revolutions against the government. An example is the National University of Mexico.

Economic improvement the revolution saw many nations suffering economically especially the peasants whose lands were being expropriated. The end of the revolution saw economic boosts since the economy was rebooted by the laws put in place by nations (in Cuba, the land reforms helped the peasants), most third world countries had access to funds from IMF to strengthen their economies and many nations engaged in regional and international trade.

Social Aspect the revolution had a major impact on the social aspect of most countries. It ensured the creation of alliances and treaties between nations. In Mexico for example, America had to come in and intervene hence therefore forcing the two countries to become allies. Most countries with revolutionary fronts often have intervention from other countries that enable close ties to exist between these nations.  

Overall, the revolution just had a limited achievement of status for most people, and especially women. Although, most of the inequalities in terms of gender values and roles were done away with, they did not completely remove the status quo of the individual. Women today are still regarded as a minority and they have designated roles that they cannot handle that belong to men. Women, on the other hand, were unable to fight for the poor women to gain more economic justices and were unable to change most institutions thinking on the gender roles and to convince the society that the upbringing of a child is the role of the whole family as a whole regardless of the gender.  This has had an effect on both men and women as they are being brought up.

However, as times keep changing, women have upgraded their place in society and they are now being seen as people who can make a difference in the society in the same capacity in men. It has also been seen that there are various roles that are specifically left for women and men are not expected to undertake them. This is also being seen to change because the roles of both men and women are slowly becoming one and the lines that separate are gradually becoming thinner.