Revolutionary Women of Texas and Mexico: Portraits of Soldaderas, Saints, and Subversives

by Kathy Sosa (Editor), Ellen Riojas Clark (Editor), Jennifer Speed (Editor), Dolores Huerta (Foreword by), Norma E. Cantú (Afterword)

Overview

Much ink has been spilled over the men of the Mexican Revolution, but far less has been written about its women. Kathy Sosa, Ellen Riojas Clark, and Jennifer Speed set out to right this wrong in Revolutionary Women of Texas and Mexico, which celebrates the women of early Texas and Mexico who refused to walk a traditional path. The anthology embraces an expansive definition of the word revolutionary by looking at female role models and subversives from the last century and who stood up for their visions and ideals and continue to stand for them today. Eighteen portraits provide readers with a glimpse into each figure's life and place in history. At the heart of the portraits are the women of the Mexican Revolution (1910–1920)⁠—like the soldaderas who shadowed the Mexican armies, tasked with caring for and treating the wounded troops. Filling in the gaps are iconic godmothers⁠ like the Virgin of Guadalupe and La Malinche, whose stories are seamlessly woven into the collective history of Texas and Mexico. Portraits of artists Frida Kahlo and Nahui Olin and activists Emma Tenayuca and Genoveva Morales take readers from postrevolutionary Mexico into the present. Each portrait includes a biography, an original pen-and-ink illustration, and a historical or literary piece by a contemporary writer who was inspired by their subject’s legacy. Sandra Cisneros, Laura Esquivel, Elena Poniatowska, Carmen Tafolla, and others bring their experience to bear in their pieces, and Jennifer Speed’s introduction contextualizes each woman in her cultural-historical moment. A foreword by civil rights activist Dolores Huerta and an afterword by scholar Norma Elia Cantú bookend this powerful celebration of women who revolutionized their worlds.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781595349255
Publisher:	Trinity University Press
Publication date:	12/01/2020
Pages:	352
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 7.90(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Kathy Sosa is an artist and educator. She received national recognition for her traveling exhibition Huipiles: A Celebration, which debuted at the Mexican Cultural Institute in Washington, D.C., as part of the Smithsonian Latino Center. Her work has been featured on CNN and in other media nationally. She is the coproducer of the documentary series Children of the Revolución: How the Mexican Revolution Changed America’s Destiny, which chronicles the history of the Texas-Mexico borderlands. She is the author of Mestizaje: The Feminist Art of Kathy Sosa and the coeditor and illustrator of Revolutionary Women of Texas and Mexico​: Portraits of Soldaderas, Saints, and Subversives​. She lives in San Antonio, Texas, and Querétaro, Mexico.

Ellen Riojas Clark is professor emerita at the University of Texas at San Antonio. Her research examines ethnic and cultural identity and cultural studies topics. She received three National Endowment for the Humanities grants and was cultural director for Maya and Miguel, a PBS program. She is executive producer for the Latino Artist Speaks: Exploring Who I Am series, and her many publications include Multi- cultural Literature for Latino Children: Their Words, Their Worlds; Don Moisés Espino del Castillo y sus Calaveras; and a forthcoming book, Pan Dulce: A Compendium of Mexican Pastries.

Jennifer Speed is a research development strategist in the office of the Dean for Research at Princeton University. She was formerly research professor of religious studies at the University of Dayton, where she specialized in Spanish historical writing and narratives, biography, theology, and law. She has taught Western, world, medieval, and Latin American history for more than twenty years. She served as historian for the award-winning PBS documentary Children of the Revolución and is a co-project director of a major NEH-funded, multiyear project on the African American poet Paul Laurence Dunbar.

Dolores Huerta is a renowned civil rights activist and American labor leader who has worked tirelessly for women’s and worker’s rights. She cofounded the National Farmworkers Association, now known as United Farm Workers, with Cesar E. Chavez, and in 2002 she founded the Dolores Huerta Foundation, which creates leadership opportunities for community organizing, civic engagement, and policy advocacy. She has been honored with the Presidential Eleanor Roosevelt Award for Human Rights, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and the Radcliffe Medal. She lives in Bakersfield, California.

Norma Elia Cantú is the Norine R. and T. Frank Murchison Professor of the Humanities at Trinity Universityand a professor emeritus at the University of Texas at San Antonio. She edits the Rio Grande/Rio Bravo Culture and Traditions book series at Texas A&M UniversityPress, and her articles on border literature, teaching English, quinceañera celebrations, and the matachines dance tradition have earned her an international reputation as a scholar and folklorist. Her award-winning book Canícula: Snapshots of a Girlhood en la Frontera chronicles her childhood experiences on the border. She lives in San Antonio.

Lionel Sosa is an independent marketing consultant and a nationally known portrait artist. He has served on the teams of eight national presidential campaigns, on the Texas A&M UniversitySystem Board of Regents, and on the boards of Sesame Workshop, PBS, and the Briscoe Western Art Museum, and other organizations. He is the author or coauthor of five books, including El Vaquero Real: The Original American Cowboy. Sosa and his wife, Kathy Sosa, recently produced the documentary Children of the Revolución: How the Mexican Revolution Changed America’s Destiny, a twenty-part series chronicling the history of the Texas/Mexico borderland.

Table of Contents

Foreword. Reflections on Revolutionary Women Dolores Huerta xi

Preface Kathy Sosa xv

Introduction. Setting the Scene of Revolutionary Women in Texas and Mexico Jennifer Speed 1

1 Women Revolutionaries During the Era of the Mexican Revolution of 1910

Juana Belén Gutiérrez de Mendoza Cristina Devereaux Ramírez 17

Las Soldaderas Elena Poniatowska 31

Two Women, One Story Lionel Sosa 45

Adina De Zavala, Rena Maverick Green, and Emily Edwards Lewis F. Fisher 53

María Concepción Acevedo de la Llata Jennifer Speed 65

2 Las Antepasadas: Women Revolutionaries Prior to 1910

La Malinche Laura Esquivel 79

Virgin of Guadalupe Virgilio P. Elizondo 97

Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz Alicia Gaspar De Alba 105

Jane McManus Storm Cazneau Linda Hudson 119

Teresa Urrea Sandra Cisneros 135

Nahui Olin Teresa Van Hoy 145

Alice Dickerson Montemayor Cynthia Orozco 159

3 The Legacy: Women Revolutionaries of the Postrevolutionary Era

Frida Kahlo Amalia Mesa-Bains 173

Emma Tenayuca Carmen Tafolla 187

Chavela Vargas Sandra Cisneros 193

Gloria Anzaldúa Ellen Riojas Clark 199

Genoveva Morales Elaine Ayala 209

Zapatistas Hilary Klein 221

Epilogue Norma Elia Cantú 235

Notes 239

Acknowledgments and Credits 264

Contributor Notes 266

Editorial Reviews

"History buffs, look no further! This beautiful volume begins to fill in gaps in collective Texas and Mexico history with eighteen portraits of revolutionary women. Some were soldiers, others were artists, all were badass." — Ms. Magazine

"Offers a feminist take on our state’s history. " — Texas Monthly

"Reclaims names that should be known for history." — San Antonio Express-News

"A revelatory journey about female power in Texas and Mexico." — Southwestern Historical Quarterly

"These women were revolutionaries who changed San Antonio and beyond." — Texas Public Radio

"A multi-genre approach." — San Antonio Report"Military history is often told from a male perspective. But a new book about the Mexican Revolution aims to change that.... Learning and sharing this history is important because, after all, it’s Texas’ history, too." — Texas Standard

"It's a rare and vibrant genre puzzle that mixes non-fiction with personal stories and illustrations to draw the portraits of women who were relevant before, during and after the Revolution." — AL DÍA

"The collection is built around the oft-overlooked women heroes of the Mexican Revolution but also celebrates the Virgen de Guadalupe, nun and writer Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, labor leader Emma Tenayuca, iconic painter Frida Kahlo and 14 others through the eyes of authors including Sandra Cisneros, Carmen Tafolla, Elaine Ayala, Laura Esquivel and Amalia Mesa-Bains." — San Antonio Current

"Celebrates women who refused to walk a traditional path." — Houston Public Radio

From the Publisher