Transborder Discourse: The Articulation of Gender in the Borderlands in the Early Twentieth Century

Frontiers

Volumn 24, Issue 2-3, 2003, Pages

  Lomas, Clara ^a  

^a Department of Psychology   (United States)

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[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 1442357492     PISSN: 01609009     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Conference Paper

References (46)

1. Juan Gómez-Quiñones, Sembradores Ricardo Flores Magón y el Partido Liberal Mexicano: A Eulogy and Critique (Los Angeles: University of California, Chicano Studies Center Publications, 1973).
2. Luther E. Ellsworth, "Informe al Secretario de Estado, Fechado el 12 de Octubre de 1910 en Ciudad Porfirio Díaz, México," in Documents on the Mexican Revolution, ed. Gene Z. Hanrahan (North Carolina: Documentary Publications, 1910).
3. María de los Angeles Mendieta Alatorre, La Mujer en la Revolución Mexicana (Mexico City, México: Biblioteca del Instituto Nacional de Estudios Históricos de la Revolución Mexicana, 1961), 32.
4. Tita Valencia, "Ricardo Flores Magón y el Periodismo Subversivo Mexicano en EUA," The Americas Review 17:3/4 (1989): 169-78.
5. José Valadez, "Más de Cuatrocientos Periódicos en Español se han Editado en Estados Unidos," La Prensa, February 13, 1938, 1-8; and Richard Griswold del Castillo, "The Mexican Revolution and the Spanish-Language Press in the Borderlands," Journalism History 4:2 (1977): 42-47.
6. José Valadez, "Más de Cuatrocientos Periódicos en Español se han Editado en Estados Unidos," La Prensa, February 13, 1938, 1-8; and Richard Griswold del Castillo, "The Mexican Revolution and the Spanish-Language Press in the Borderlands," Journalism History 4:2 (1977): 42-47.
7. Gómez-Quiñones writes, "Mobilization of the PLM groups not only antedated legal difficuties but continued despite them throughout 1907 and into the summer of 1908. [. . .] A manifesto published in 1907, by Praxedis Guerrero, alerted the Chicano communities to the continuing militancy of PLM. Aproximately forty to sixty-four groups were involved. Thirty groups were equipped with arms. The date set for this rebellion was June 25, 1908. On June 19 and on June 25, arrests took place as Casas Grandes, Chihuahua, and at El Paso, Tejas" (Sembradores Ricardos Flores Magón y el Partido Liberal Mexicano, 35).
8. Gómez-Quiñones, Sembradores Ricardo Flores Magón y el Partido Liberal Mexicano, 52-56.
9. I located one issue of El Obrero at the Secretaría de Relaciones Exteriores in Mexico City.
10. All translations are mine. We remember with true enthusiasm the scene that took place in Puebla at Cerdán's [sic] house, where the inhabitants retaliated with bullets against the police, those subservient men who work in favor of despotism in order to make a living. We rejoice that Mexico still has heroines that stand up to challenge the mercenary tyrants. A woman, lacking the strength of a man, yet with a heroic virile soul, killed Police Chief Miguel Cabrera, a degenerate man who committed crimes to obey a despotic government. (Teresa Villarreal, "El Partido Anti-reeleccionista," El Obrero, December 15, 1910, 1)
11. You, indifferent depraved men, supporters of the dictatorship's attacks, and you Mexican women, daughters of Mexico, that beautiful native country that has given birth to brave heroes and irreproachable heroines, follow the example of that woman who has died as the brave die: challenging the tyrants. Let us unite our strengths. (Villarreal, "El Partido Anti-reeleccionista," 1)
12. Historically, the presence of Carmen Serdán in public life lasts scarcely four hours. Perhaps it was she who killed Cabrera while he was going to attack Aquiles - the first versions of the incident stated that it had been a woman - because he was left-handed and could not handle weapons very well. She, on the other hand, could have had the sharp aim of those who shoot for the first time. . . . However, very little can be said about those hours. There was a mystery that the Serdán family faithfully kept with the traditional loyalty given to family secrets. (Mendieta Alatorre, Carmen Serdán [Mexico: Editorial Bohemia Poblana, 1971], 199)
13. Alatorre, Carmen Serdán, 199.
14. We must aspire for the economic improvement of the masses. We want Mexico to stand out as an educated people among the nations of the civilized world. This must be the goal to encourage all of us in the fight against the present dictatorship. We struggle on behalf of civilization and the moral and material progress of the Mexican proletariat." (Villarreal, "El Partido Anti-reeleccionista," 4)
15. I have retrieved five issues of La Voz de la Mujer from the Silvestre Terrazas Collection at the Bancroft Library and the International Institute of Social History in Amsterdam (IISH), dated July 28, 1907, August 11, 1907, September 6, 1907, and October 27, 1907. I am grateful to Rafael Chabrán for alerting me to the IISH's holdings of La Voz de la Mujer and of Pluma Roja.
16. La Voz de la Mujer appeared in the arena of liberal journalism defending principles of freedom. It contributes to our brothers' ideals in defending oppressed people. Its work is honest and so we speak clearly. We are not servile, and so we reprimand the perverse. We do not fear wakening their anger, and so we denounce their corruption. ("Unifiquémonos: Trabajemos en Favor de la Junta de San Louis, Mo" La Voz de la Mujer, October 27, 1907, n.p.)
17. Anna Macías, Against All Odds: The Feminist Movement in Mexico to 1940 (Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1982), 26.
18. Alatorre, La Mujer en la Revolución Mexicana, 33.
19. Anonymous, "Apocalipcis [sic] de la Tiranía," La Voz de la Mujer, July 28, 1907, 3.
20. Anonymous, "Apocalipcis [sic] de la Tiranía," La Voz de la Mujer, July 28, 1907, 3.
21. As a solution/answer to their demands, they are torn from their homes as they are violently taken to the barracks, a tormenting place for those souls without rights and those who persistantly claim for their dignity, especially when a female member of their REBEL group is the victim of some nasty tyrant. ("Conviene Prevenirse: Iniciativa," La Voz de la Mujer, July 28, 1907, 4)
22. Today we face a new dilemma: to take what we need: freedom! This we can only achieve through rebellion. We must rebel! We would rather die before allowing our children to become slaves. We, mothers, wives, sisters and daughters must confont this dilemma. ("Conviene Prevenirse," 4)
23. The same old chorus is nauseating. Daily we see in an unnamed newspaper that calls itself honest, independent, and educational, a defamatory load of attacks against the opposition press to the Mexican government. These attacks have never been justified. Although it uses offensive language against its adversaries, it never justifies itself. Its eloquent rhetoric serves more to hypnotize its readers through sublime worldly concepts than to express truth. ("La prensa honrada? Redactado por Pseudo-independientes," La Voz de la Mujer, October 27, 1907, 3)
24. I am grateful to Victor Nelson-Cisneros for sharing the Lopez and Cortéz text, which led to this correspondence.
25. Surely, an accusation such as the one you predict can be made since I appear as the secretary of La Voz de la Mujer. I have been forced to do so because our friend Don Lauro [Aguirre] fears that the public may think he is the one who writes the weekly and this made him quite uneasy. Moreover, the ladies that appear as the writers are only big-hearted in working for the cause. They cannot express anything because they are incapable of writing. In this case, I only take their names as a driving force for the cause. I hope that men will feel ashamed when they see women's names in the newspaper and realize the women are taking on jobs men should be holding. I repeat, what is published in La Voz is not written by women, yet their devotion expresses more than what goes down on print. (López and Cortés, El Partido Liberal Mexican 1906-1908 [Mexico City: Ediciones Antorcha, 1986], 194-95).
26. Emma Pérez, "'A la Mujer': A Critique of the Partido Liberal Mexicano's Gender Ideology," in Between Borders: Essays on Mexicana/ Chicana History, ed. Adelaida R. Del Castillo (Encino, Calif.: Floricanto, 1990), 459-82.
27. At the International Institute of Social History in Amsterdam I was able to locate five numbers of Pluma Roja, November 5, 1913, December 14, 1913, February 1, 1914, June 15, 1915, and June 27, 1915.
28. John Hart, Anarchism and the Mexican Working Class, 1860-1931 (Austin: University of Texas, 1987), 113.
29. Pluma Roja, February 1, 1914, 1.
30. Pluma Roja, June 27, 1915, 1.
31. Gómez-Quiñones, Sembradores Ricardos Flores Magón y el Partido Liberal Mexicano, 27.
32. Macías, Against All Odds, 49.
33. According to Jovita Idar's niece, Jovita Idar de López, in a June 22, 1995, interview, these extant issues barely survived being destroyed. Idar de López comments on the incidents that determined the fate of the Idar papers: In the 1940s, my aunt Jovita [Idar] had the foresight to send the few issues of La Crónica she had in her possession to the University of Texas Library, where they are now housed at the Barker History Library at the University of Texas in Austin. Tragically, there were three fires that destroyed the vast majority of the Idar papers, periodical collections, and documents. In 1956, nine years after the death of Eduardo (Jovita's younger brother), the servant's quarters at his house burned down, destroying his entire collection. Due to his political involvement, many thought the fire had been arson. Jovita's older brother Clemente's house burned down in 1964, also after his death. In 1958, after the death of Jovita's husband, Bartolo Juárez, his second wife burned the contents of an old trunk, which contained Jovita's papers.
34. José Limón, "El Primer Congreso Mexicanista (The First Mexican Congress): Precursor to Contemporary Chicanismo," Aztlan 5:1/2: 86-106.
35. Mexican children in Texas need an education. Neither our government, nor the U.S. government, can do anything for our children. Therefore, we have no other option but to do it on our own, so we are not discriminated and mistreated by the foreigners around us. (A. V. Negra, "Par la Raza: La Niñez Mexicana en Texas," La Crónica, August 10, 1911, 1)
36. The national language should be kept, for it is the characteristic seal of the races and peoples. Nations vanish and castes disappear when we forget the national language; We are not against teaching English to our Mexican-Texan children, on the contrary, we say let us not forget to teach them Spanish. Just as arithmetic and grammar are useful to them, so is English for those who live among native speakers of English. ("Par la Raza: La Conservación del Nacionalismo," La Crónica, August 17, 1911, 1)
37. La Crónica, October 19, 1911, 1.
38. [This] group of ladies who constitute this society is one of great significance and much importance. Many orphans will have bread and many women, who while isolated and scattered were only part of the weaker sex, together will be strong and respected. (La Crónica, October 19, 1911, 1)
39. This association actively works for the general well-being of its members. It establishes study sessions to acquire culture and develops pure talent without evil ambitions. It dedicates itself to do noble and generous deeds without special financial interests because all of its members belong to the respectable working class. (La Crónica, December 7, 1911, 1)
40. Working women recognize their rights, proudly raise their chins, and face the struggle. The times of humiliation have passed, women are no longer slaves sold for a few coins. They are no longer men's servants but their equals, their partners. . . . Much has been said and written against the feminist movement, yet despite the opposition, in California, women can vote in juries and hold public offices. Those disappointed and superficial souls are very wrong. Those critics of women who put social conventions aside to dedicate themselves to work for something worthwhile or beneficial do not deserve a good deed. (Astrea, "Debemos trabajar," La Crónica, December 7, 1911, 1)
41. After I spent several years attempting to locate the autobiographical manuscript of La Rebelde, the Villegas de Magnón family made available to me the two versions. The English version, The Rebel, was published by Arte Público Press in 1994 as part of the Recovering the U.S. Hispanic Literary Heritage Project. The Spanish version, La Rebelde, is forthcoming as a copublication by Arte Público Press and the Instituto National de Estudios Históricos de la Revolución Mexicana (INAH) in Mexico City. The following quote in the original English is from The Rebel, and the following quotes in the original Spanish are from the manuscript of La Rebelde.
42. Villegas de Magnón, La Rebelde, 34.
43. It is not until the 1990s, with the celebration of the eightieth anniversary of the initiation of the Constitutionalist struggle, that the Instituto National de Estudios Históricos de la Revolución Mexicana made available valuable historical studies, such as Mujeres y Revolución, 1900-1917 by Ana Lau and Carmen Ramos, which reveal the versatility of women's roles in the Mexican Revolution.
44. Philippe Lejeune, "Autobiography in the Third Person," New Literary History 9:1(1977): 32.
45. When the great orators remember the deeds and feats of the heroes, has there been someone who has remembered to even mention the collaboration of the Cruz Blanca? Those unselfish women never saw the generals' wives in the hospitals. Where are [those selfless women]? They are abroad awaiting the bugle call to at least receive a word of acknowledgement. This is precisely why I am writing this, to glorify those patriotic and selfless nurses. . . . All of them had already proven their loyalty and efficiency. La Rebelde had no doubt that in their hearts there would ever be treason. Every one of them therefore [had become] a proven and approved entity. (Villegas de Magnón, La Rebelde)
46. "History has assumed responsibility for documenting the facts, but it has forgotten the important role played by the communities of Laredo, Texas, and Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, and other border cities that united themselves in a fraternal agreement" (Villegas de Magnón, La Rebelde).