The Underdogs : Gender Roles During The Mexican Revolution

What is more important, years worth of tradition involving the oppression of women, or breaking that chain to live up to your dreams even if it means risking certain relationships with your family? In Mexican culture, is commonly known that from the moment you are born, family values and beliefs are applied and different things will be expected of you depending on your gender. For all in the culture, is mandatory you speak your native language, which is Spanish, and it is to be spoken always at home. Women are expected to stay at home and clean, care for the children, and take care of their husbands. Men work and take care of the finances of the household. The little girls are expected to clean once they reach an age where they can walk

Based on Cisneros’ works of literature, gender roles in a Hispanic culture revolves around patriarchal rule. The repercussions of a patriarchal rule includes the limitations of female liberation and development. Cleofilas’ abusive situation exemplifies the limitations of her independence and development as she can not make her own decisions and has to solely depend on her husband. This situation is illustrated when Cleofilas explains that the towns are “built so that you have to depend on husbands... You can drive only if you’re rich enough to own and drive an own car. There is no place to go” (Cisneros 628). Cleofilas reveals that men are the dominant gender and have more authority, and that women are compelled to depend on them in her society. It is an exceptionally rare case that a woman can afford her own car, for the men usually control the finances in a household. Additionally, Cleofilas has nowhere to seek refuge from her husband. Although she yearns to return to her father’s home, she decides not to due to the social standards imposed on her. In her society, the act of returning home after marriage is socially unacceptable. She understands that her family will be viewed in a negative light if she were to return home, as seen when Cleofilas refers to her town as a “town of gossips” (627). Similar to other men in the society, Juan Pedro’s authority is shown through his abuse. Cleofilas recalls, “He slapped her once, and then again, and again; until the lip split and bled an orchid of blood” (626).

     The author of Mexican Lives, Judith Adler Hellman, grapples with the United States’ economic relationship with their neighbors to the south, Mexico. It also considers, through many interviews, the affairs of one nation. It is a work held to high esteem by many critics, who view this work as an essential part in truly understanding and capturing Mexico’s history. In Mexican Lives, Hellman presents us with a cast from all walks of life. This enables a reader to get more than one perspective, which tends to be bias. It also gives a more inclusive view of the nation of Mexico as a whole. Dealing with rebel activity, free trade, assassinations and their transition into the modern age, it justly

The Underdogs by Mariano Azuela is arguably the most important novel of the Mexican Revolution because of how it profoundly captures the atmosphere and intricacies of the occasion. Although the immediate subject of the novel is Demetrio Macias - a peasant supporter of the Mexican Revolution -, one of its extensive themes is the ambivalence surrounding the revolution in reality as seen from a broader perspective. Although often poetically revered as a ‘beautiful’ revolution, scenes throughout the novel paint the lack of overall benevolence even among the protagonist revolutionaries during the tumultuous days of the revolution. This paper will analyze certain brash characteristics of the venerated revolution as represented by Azuela’s

Mariano Azuela's novel, The Underdogs, is a male-dominated novel. The story of the exploits and wartime adventures of a rebel band during the Mexican Revolution is primarily driven by men; the majority of the characters are men who are separated from their families and lives and who are fighting for a cause in which they strongly believe (at least at the beginning of the novel). Despite the masculine story, however, there are two highly developed and significant female characters in The Underdogs. These women, Camila and War Paint, are a representation of two of the roles women played during the Mexican Revolution. While the portraits Azuela paints of these women and their role in society and revolution are

The story illustrates the overlapping influences of women’s status and roles in Mexican culture, and the social institutions of family, religion, economics, education, and politics. In addition, issues of physical and mental/emotional health, social deviance and crime, and social and personal identity are

Alfonsa had strong convictions toward women being suppressed as she was growing up in a time before and after the Mexican revolutionary war. Her father sending her to Europe had made its contributions to her "revolutionary spirit." Women at that time lived their lives in the constant shadows of men. The women were consumed by family life, marriage, the Catholic church, and lived silently behind their dominant male counterparts. There were many inequalities women and other ethnic, economic, political, or religious minorities suffered under the regime of Porferio Diaz. Mexican women at that time knew they were essential in a number of ways and rose up becoming strong advocates for causes they believed in (Jandura 1). Alfonsa's character speaks of "Dictator Diaz" in a conversation with the main character by the name of John Grady (McCarthy 236).

The Magic Lantern, published in 1886 and written by José Tomás de Cuéllar, (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000) is a novella about nineteenth century Mexico. The author wrote this novel to express his thoughts and ideas regarding the manner in which men and women interacted with each other during this time. Cuéllar believed that the Mexican culture set impossible standards, and he conveys this ideology within the short story, Having a Ball. He concluded that men should seek women with more substance, rather than just relying on their looks to achieve status. The novella describes Cuéllar’s views on the French customs in Mexico City during the 1900’s.

Women in Mexico endure unbelievable hardships all due to their gender. Mexican women are faced with inescapable gender roles that cast females into cruel and subservient positions. Women are treated as second tier to their male counterparts and are commonly treated as subhuman. While men are capable of doing as they want, when and where they please; women have strict duties that must be followed to keep her husband and sons happy. “The macho male is not expected to become involved in child rearing, considered to be a woman’s task” (Deyoung, 1994). Unfortunately, it is all to common that when a women speaks out of term or upsets her husband, cruel and violent outburst occur. This abuse is widely accepted in Mexico, and little is done to prevent domestic violence. Women in Mexico live every day under house arrest, exist in fear of their male superiors. Fortunately in 1970 women began to fight back, and the Mexican feminist movement began. However, unlick the United States female revolution this feminist movement was quite and slow. Nonetheless the percentages of women in the work for began to rise dramatically and domestic abuse took a small step back. The women of Mexico today are still relentlessly fighting for equality. The gender roles cast upon women, men and the abuse women endure due to these gender roles cast upon them are all instrumental steps in the advancement of women’s rights in Mexico.

“I want to die as a slave of principles, not to men.” It is my favorite quote from my role model General Emiliano Zapata which he was during the Mexican Revolution. This is also what I consider my foundation of my beliefs and were my ground stands in any political view. We have several problems that if we don’t work together it will hinder our free society. First, I will interpret how as individualism and collectivisms can help solve some of the problems we encounter today like rising of unemployment, poverty and political issues to include our rights to use 1st Amendment. Secondly, obtaining balance between not being self-centered and having common purpose in life, to private pursuits market mentality will change views in the big spectrum to the better.

In Mexico, as the revolution was intensifying, many people, especially men refused to fight against the government or get involved in the war. Thus, resulting in many fleeing to the United States, fearing conscription (Innis-Jimenez, 2013, 23-24). However, many people did not have this opportunity to flee Mexico. According to my mother, she stated that her grandmother’s brothers in Michoacán fought involuntarily in the Mexican revolution. She states, “During that time, you had to choose a side, you either fought with the government or fought with the peasants. So my grandmother’s uncles chose to fight against the corrupt government (M. Barocio, personal communication, April 21, 2017). Various civilians could not just leave Mexico easily and

Women in mexican society are looked to as caregivers, weavers, and seamstresses. This is the way in many different cities around the world to which I have traveled. Those who dare to change the normal view of women during this radical time are either shut down or looked to as heroes and role models to other women who will never be given the opportunity to change their role in everyday life Mexico. Many females will be kept hidden from the public eye and forced to live like nuns until marriage. They are given a dowry, 1 in exchange for marriage. The same can be said about a cow being sold by their owner. Once married or “bought out”, just like animals, women are expected to produce offspring to help with chores and other responsibilities

The Spanish Civil war was a complex and tumultuous whirlwind of combating ideologies through the resulting emphasis on gender differences and maternalism, it played the catalyst in the bolstering prevalence of gender discourse. Although unlike traditional feminist movements, the women of the Spanish Civil War, specifically the Milicianas and Mujeres Libres were primarily in search of a voice in ongoing social revolution and less concerned with the acquisition of political equality. By taking into account the history of the social conditioning of Spanish women, I hope to analyze the changes in the sex-gender system, wrought on by revolution and war by furthering examining

Many women were imprisoned for having participated in the Republican militias. However, their presence not only as rebels but mainly as women put greater weight on them as they were not only presenting defiance through battle but also through rebelling against the traditional roles imposed on Spanish Women at the time. Under the Franco regime Spanish Women had to follow specific and strict rules of how to be a woman, from how to be a wife and a mother having only the right to devote themselves to their husbands and families and that alone. In order to enforce these strict guidelines, the regime sanctioned the ‘Sección Femenina’ to lead it (Davidson, 2011). The ‘Sección Femenina’ (Davidson, 2011, pp.

In the memoir Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi and the novel Revolutionizing Motherhood: The Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo written by Guzman Bouvard, the repressive revolutions played a pivotal role in the lives of women. Through the Iranian Revolution, restrictions in the public and private sphere were evident by imposing censorship constrains. The Argentinian revolution, on the other hand, allowed limited civil rights by actions of the military junta. Despite these conditions, women managed to find empowerment through forming groups and rebelling against government in both the public and private sector.