Zapatista Women
And the mobilization of women’s
guerrilla forces in Latin America
during the 20th century
Twentieth Century Latin America
The Guerrilla Hero
Over the course of the century, new
revolutionary movements emerged every
few years across the region promoting
goals of overturning dictatorships,
confronting economic inequalities, and
creating what Cuban revolutionary Che
Guevara called the “new man.”
But in fact, many of those new men were not men.
Che Guevara discusses the role of women within the Cuban
revolutionary forces:
“Naturally the combatant women are a minority.
When the internal front is being consolidated and
it is desirable to remove as many combatants as
possible who do not posses indispensable physical
characteristics, the women can be assigned a
considerable number of specific occupations…in
this stage a woman can perform her habitual tasks
of peacetime; it is very pleasing to a soldier
subjected to the extremely hard conditions of this
life to be able to look forward to a seasoned meal
which tastes like something…The woman as a cook
can greatly improve the diet and, furthermore, it is
easier to keep her in her domestic tasks; one of the
problems in guerrilla bands is that all works of a
civilian character are scorned by those who
perform them; they are constantly trying to get out
of these tasks in order to enter into forces that are
actively in combat.”
Uprisings during the Cold War Era:
The Nicaraguan revolution in 1979
and the rebellion in El Salvador in
1980
• Structural Changes caused by globalization led to land concentration
and an increasing insecurity of the rural poor
•Ideological changes caused by the rise of Liberation Theology
•Organizational changes in Guerilla methods
The Mobilization of Women:
The reasons women join revolutionary movements are similar to men:
• End dictatorship
• End exploitation of the poor
and indigenous
• To create more just countries
for their children
However, it is important to understand the circumstances in Latin
America’s women’s lives during the last part of the 20th century
because those changes in circumstances made it possible for an
increasing number of women to join guerilla organizations and
other revolutionary groups.
NICARAGUA
The first dual-gendered guerilla
movement in Latin America
The FSLN overthrew Somoza
dictatorship in July 1979
The Somoza Dynasty
The dictatorship can be seen as a logical outcome,
intended or not, of the U.S. Marines’ threat decade-long
occupation of Nicaragua in the beginning of the 20th
century
•Anastasio Somoza Garcia – officer in the Marine-created National
Guard and intellectual author of the assisination of Augusto Sandino
•Sandino was the leader of a band of nationalist guerrillas who sought
to end U.S. occupancy – he was ambushed and killed while leaving
peace talks
•Somoza seized power – four decades long of family dictatorship
around violent and exclusionary policies
The Sandinistas –
oppositional movement of anti-imperialist and
nationalist sentiments; a cross-class and dual
gendered coalition
Structural Changes:
The effect of the globalization
•Male migration and abandonment of families –
agro exports more economically important, pushed
people off land so men had to search for work elsewhere;
men more likely to find work in agriculture than women
•Increased single-female-headed households –
temporary migration became permanent migration,
women left economically vulnerable
•Female migration that broke traditional ties and
made organization possible – significant portion of
migration to cities were women; led to the urbanization
of Nicaragua; women joined workforce which opened up
the possibility of mobilization of women through their
involvement in the communities
Ideological Changes
The rise in Liberation Theology – the growth of
religious and secular self-help groups
•Vatican II Council 1962-1965: significant rethinking of Church’s role in
the world to confront and influence the social problems by involving
themselves in helping the suffering communities
•The Latin America Bishops’ Conference at Medellin, Columbia 1968:
many believe this is when the church changed sides; members of clergy
worked and lived in communities of the poor – significantly deepened
their commitment to change and sometimes led to political action
Organizational Changes
•Change in Guerrilla methods from the foco strategy to mass
mobilization - the Sandinistas were the first Latin American
organization to drop the small group orientation; not a non-sexist
movement but rather a movement that necessitated more numbers of
people
•Sandinistas also changed from military to political-military strategyinnovated many different social organizations
•Student groups were recruiting ground of FSLN for guerrilla
movement – single most important type of revolutionary organization
Political Factors
State response to those self-help groups was often repression –
repression pushed many women into more radical activities in
self-defense
The military dictators systematically tortured men but in addition
to torturing women they raped them, too- often in front of their
children and husbands
El Salvador
The FMLN declares war against the military rule in 1980, just one year
after the Nicaraguan revolution.
In Comparison to Nicaraguan
revolution: why did the
movement in El Salvador fail?
•Similarities: dictatorship, rural crisis, responses because of the
Liberation Theology, and U.S. role in policies
•Differences: El Salvador had an impersonal dictatorship unlike the
Somoza family dynasty; U.S. involvement in first half of century in
Nicaragua but was involved in El Salvador after President Kennedy’s
Alliance for Progress in 1960; throughout the years of fighting the center
of the FMLN broke into many different and divided groups; there were
far greater risks of women in El Salvador to join guerrilla forces
The Rebellion in Chiapas,
Mexico: A New Kind of
Movement?
Zapatistas arrive in Mexico
City
Many observers see the current EZLN
movement and recent uprising in the southern
state of Chiapas, Mexico, as the standard
bearer for social movements all over the world.
It is a war against:
•the globalization of the market
•against the destruction of nature and the confiscation of resources
•against the growing misdistribution of wealth
•and the consequent decline in standards of living for all but the rich
The Zapatistas
It is a movement that relies heavily on the symbols of the past – calling
themselves Zapatistas in honor of Emiliano Zapata who led the
southern insurrection 90 years ago during the Mexican Revolution.
For Zapata and his
followers it was an
aggressive attempt to
return the rights of
land and liberty to
the indigenous
population
According to the popular tale, on certain days the proud silhouette of Emiliano
Zapata can be clearly discerned on the hilltops, and at times he can be seen galloping
just above the crest of the sugar cane fields. As long as the struggle for land
continues, Zapata will remain alive.
Subcomandante Marcos
The rebellion has been led by
Marcos who has been in the
public eye as the voice for the
indigenous people against the
oppressive Mexican
government and military as
well as the whole new world
order
The Mobilization of women to
the EZLN: Structural Changes
The effects of Globalization: large landowners had guardias blancas, a private
police force that periodically threatened and killed Indians they considered to be
trouble makers; in 1970’s many challenged power of landowners, state
government violently stepped in; solution to rural crisis was to migrate to the
jungle
•“Colonization of the Jungle” – linguistic isolation broken out of necessity,
inclusive mix of different cultures made into one indigenous cultural identity
•New Jobs for men in trucking, petroleum, and tourism industries – made women
more dependent because of the new importance of money rather than of
subsistence; however, since the men were gone for long periods of time women
had to take on new responsibilities, skills, and training = gave women confidence
Liberation Theology
Political Factors
Fonte:
http://gladstone.uore
gon.edu/~cgering/Z
apatista%20Women.
ppt