Battleground Women: Soldaderas and Female Soldiers in the Mexican Revolution

Author(s): Andrés Reséndez Fuentes

Source: The Americas , Apr., 1995, Vol. 51, No. 4 (Apr., 1995), pp. 525-553
Published by: Cambridge University Press

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The Americas
51:4 April 1995, 525-553
Copyright by the Academy of American
Franciscan History

BATTLEGROUND WOMEN: SOLDADERAS

AND FEMALE SOLDIERS IN THE

MEXICAN REVOLUTION'

Revolution and women did not mix well, at least in the eyes of most
leaders of the insurrection that swept Mexico in 1910-17. Moreover,
common wisdom suggested that armies were no place for the "gen-
tler sex" and hence the two kinds of women that did accompany men to the
battleground-female soldiers and soldaderas-were generally regarded as
marginal to the fighting and extraordinary, or strange, in character.2

Female soldiers received much notice in the press and arts during the
revolution and in its aftermath. They were portrayed as fearless women
dressed in men's garb flaunting cartridge belts across the chest and a Mauser
rifle on one shoulder. But they were invariably shown in the guise of
curiosities, aberrations brought about by the revolution. Soldaderas received
their share of attention too. They were depicted as loyal, self-sacrificing
companions to the soldiers or, in less sympathetic renderings, as enslaved
camp followers: "the loyalty of the soldier's wife is more akin to that of a
dog to its master than to that of an intelligent woman to her mate."3 But
even laudatory journalistic accounts, corridos, and novels did not concede

1 This essay was written for the seminar on Revolutionary Armies of Mexico held at the University
of Chicago in the fall and winter quarters of 1992-93. I want to thank all the members of the seminar.
I am especially indebted to professor Friedrich Katz and to Christopher Boyer and Matthew B. Karush.
Katherine Bliss, Peter Guardino, Mary Kay Vaughan, and Jaana Remes made valuable comments. I am
also grateful to the editorial board of The Americas and the two anonymous readers for their suggestions.
2 I use the terms soldadera and camp follower synonymously. Although some authors object to this
usage on the grounds that it conveys negative overtones, the term is nevertheless apt to describe the
unofficial status accorded to these women. Soldadera will not be italicized hereafter. By female soldier
I mean a woman who volunteered as a soldier and who was officially recognized as such. She often
commanded her own unit.

3 Fritz Arno Von de Ellen, "Mexican Camp-Followers," Harper's Weekly 58:19 (May 2, 1914), 19.

525

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526 BATTLEGROUND WOMEN

soldaderas a prominent role in the revolution

success of the military campaigns.

More recently, historians have begun to reas

of women in the military.4 Here I continue th
first, that a clear distinction should be made
fighters. Attempting to emphasize their ver
tended to lump all women of the battlefield
multaneously as loyal camp followers and fie
this aggregation makes it exceedingly difficu
about why these women decided to join the r
contribution in the battlefield. I thus reexamine women's motivations and
roles in light of this distinction.

Second, I try to put the experiences of soldaderas and female soldiers in

context. Given the highly personal and fragmentary nature of the sources,
studies of the battleground women have focused on individual exploits but
have tended to disregard the larger context. In contrast, this paper is as much
about the armies of the revolution as it is about the women participants. I
examine the multifarious arrangements between the two genders in the
different military factions and show how these arrangements changed in the
course of the struggle. I first look at the involvement of women in the early
Maderista and Orozquista bands and draw contrasts with the way women
participated in the Federal army, in the large armies of the North (Villistas
and Carrancistas), and in the regionally-based Zapatistas. No army of the

4 Most notably, Elizabeth Salas, Soldaderas in the Mexican Military: Myth and History (Austin:
University of Texas Press, 1990). Salas gathered a wealth of otherwise dispersed information. She builds
upon the work of Angeles Mendieta Alatorre, La mujer en la revoluci6n mexicana (Mexico City: Talleres
Grificos de la Naci6n, 1961). Other studies also deal with the battleground women: Anna Macias,
Against All Odds: The Feminist Movement in Mexico to 1940 (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press,
1982); Shirlene Ann Soto, Emergence of the Modern Mexican Woman: Her Participation in Revolution
and Struggle for Equality, 1910-1940 (Denver: Arden Press, 1990); Sandra McGee Deutsch, "Gender
and Sociopolitical Change in Twentieth-Century Latin America," Hispanic American Historical Review
71:2 (1991), 259-306; Julia Tufi6n Pablos, Mujeres en Mexico: una historia olvidada (Mexico City:
Editorial Planeta, 1987); Frederick C. Turner, The Dynamic of Mexican Nationalism (Chapel Hill:
University of North Carolina Press, 1968); and "Los efectos de la participaci6n femenina en la revolu-
ci6n de 1910," Historia Mexicana 44:4 (1967), 603-20. See also Lillian Estelle Fisher, "The Influence
of the Present Mexican Revolution Upon the Status of Mexican Women, " Hispanic American Historical
Review 22:1 (1942), 221-28. For recent historiographical reviews of this subject see Asunci6n Lavrin,
"La mujer en M6xico: veinte afios de estudio, 1968-1988," and Carmen Ramos Escand6n, "(Qu6 veinte
afios no es nada? La mujer en M6xico segin la historiograffa reciente," in Memorias del simposio de
historiograffa mexicanista (Mexico City: Instituto de Investigaciones, Universidad Nacional Aut6noma
de M6xico, 1990), pp. 545-79 and 580-93, respectively.
5 See Salas, Soldaderas, pp. 73,77.

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 ANDRtS REStNDEZ FUENTES 527

revolution fought without women but each organi

a distinct manner.

Maderistas, Orozquistas, and the Rise of the Female Soldier

If you love me as I love you,
let us both go to fight for Madero6

The Mexico City newspaper El Imparcial vividly described the trium-

phant entrance of Francisco I. Madero and his troops to the capital on June
7, 1911. Revolutionary leaders such as Robles Dominguez, Astinsolo, Her-
niindez, Zapata, Estudillo, Corona, and many others sent troops to celebrate
the downfall of the dictator in a grand parade. The cheerful crowd in Mexico
City was impressed by the fine horses and attractive garments of the revo-
lutionaries, especially the northern fighters. The throngs of sightseers were
also taken aback by the bizarre spectacle of a horsewoman in male's clothes
brandishing her sabre while directing her escort. Esperanza Echeverria of
Yautepec, Morelos caused such a stir that she rode through the parade
constantly surrounded by a cloud of reporters and photographers.7

The cast of participants in this celebration is a sample of the Maderista

revolution. It shows the various armies and bands that coalesced around
local chieftains in Mexico's far North and in the state of Morelos. The
Zapatistas were organized in an unusual fashion, and the Zapatista women,
as we shall see, participated in an equally idiosyncratic manner. The north-
ern bands on the other hand, while not identical to one another, had a lot
more in common with each other than with either the Zapatistas or the
Federal army. In the first place these northern bands-i.e., the Maderista
troops of 1910-11 and the Orozquista rebels of 1912-had a similar compo-
sition: they were motley groups of members of the middle-class, unem-
ployed or migrant workers, peasants, and hacienda peons.8 These armies
also resembled one another in that soldiers did not bring women to the
battlefield although the band leaders sometimes did.9 Maderistas and

6 Corrido "La chinita maderista," translated by Frederick C. Turner, The Dynamic of Mexican
Nationalism, pp. 284-85.
7 El Imparcial, June 8, 1911.
8 Friedrich Katz, The Secret War in Mexico: Europe, the United States, and the Mexican Revolution
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1981), pp. 36-37. The exact composition of these bands is not
well known. See Matthew B. Karush, "Assessing a Revolutionary Contribution: The PLM in Chihua-
hua, 1906-1912," unpublished paper, University of Chicago, 1993, passim.
9 The most famous women of the Maderista revolution were wives and relatives of the leaders: Sara
P6rez de Madero, Francisco's wife; Maria Ochoa de Robles Domifnguez, wife of Alfredo; Carmen
Serdain, sister of Aquiles, and others. See Mendieta Alatorre, La mujer en la revoluci6n mexicana,
66-77.

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 528 BATTLEGROUND WOMEN

Orozquistas lacked camp followers first becaus

were local and regional in scope. Troops rem
need to bring women if soldiers could go back t
ease. But a far more significant obstacle to th
was that Maderista and Orozquista bands, unlik
on cavalry and less on trains for transportation
soldaderas simply deprived cavalry units of the
ness.

The absence of soldaderas, however, posed daunting problem

nization to the northern revolutionaries. Lacking a commissa
medical attention, the rebels had to set up provisional suppo
composed of the few women available as well as some figh
example, in Tamaulipas a band of rebels rose under the comm
Carrera Torres and took the town of Tula and held it for
Immediately dofia Juanita, the mother of the revolutionary
charge of the logistics of the operation. She organized a
purpose of obtaining food and ammunition and "exercised au
administrative affairs."' This kind of organization heralde
sional service unit but it had two serious drawbacks: it could
small bands, and it diverted soldiers from the fight. Later a
revolution very seldom resorted to this system.

Maderistas and Orozquistas may have lacked soldaderas

count on female soldiers. Indeed for the first two years of the
image of the female soldier captured the public's imagination
Mexican and American newspapers followed the adventures o
Rosa Bobadilla who together with her son commanded a c
Morelos; Clara de la Rodia who stormed the minting house of
perhaps the most famous of them all "La Coronela" Carmen
Alaniz who started out with Madero at Casas Grandes and part
first battle of Ciudad Juairez."

Female soldiers, like male soldiers, decided to risk their lives in a rebel-
lion only after a complicated calculation that involved pragmatism as well as

10 Mendieta Alatorre, La mujer en la revolucidn mexicana, pp. 94-95. For a more general description
of this insurrectionary movement see Beatriz Rojas, La Pequefia Guerra: Los Carrera Torres y los
Cedillo (Zamora: El Colegio de MichoacAn, 1983), chapter 2.
" El dlbum de la mujer: antologia ilustrada de las mexicanas, 4 vols. (Mexico City, Instituto
Nacional de Antropologia e Historia, 1991), 4, pp.83-85, 236 includes a letter from a female soldier to
Madero offering her services. See also Gustavo Casasola, Historia grifica de la revoluci6n mexicana, 5
vols. (Mexico City: Editorial Trillas, 1967), 1, p. 241; Mendieta Alatorre, La mujer en la revolucidn
mexicana, pp. 77-78, 86, 89. For female soldiers with Orozco see The Sun (New York), September 21,
1913, William Buckley Collection of Papers (hereafter BP).

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 ANDRtS REStNDEZ FUENTES 529

conviction. Political awareness played its part. F

erals Ram6n Iturbe, Juan Carrasco, and Juan Ba
large contingents of women warriors which was,
the contested gubernatorial elections of 1909.12
role in that fierce electoral battle between Dieg
didate, and Jos6 Ferrel, the independent opponen
candidate prevailed, his "triumph" left scars tha
the rebellion that broke out the following year.1

But ideals alone did not bring women to the fr

key ingredient. The life of female soldier Ange
trates this point. Her father had been a promin
Porfirio Diaz in Oaxaca. After the outbreak of
Federal soldiers showed up at the family house
searching the house an officer tried to rape Ange
a scuffle that left both the sister and the offen
father then fled to the mountains and joined the
Angela fearing further retaliations decided to
follow her father to the sierra.'5 Something sim
In 1911 she was in Torre6n while her father and
Pascual Orozco. One day Federal troops came
"Chico's" mother and sisters. As the sole female survivor, "Chico" had
few other options but to enlist with the Orozquistas to rejoin what was left
of her family.16

Female fighters contributed with their military prowess to the revolution,

but did not help to ease the problem of providing logistical support to the
armies. In the northern bands of 1910-12 there was little or no division of
labor, both men and women fought and both provisioned the troops. Had the
Maderista and Orozquista revolts lasted more than a few months, the armies
would have required more permanent arrangements. One alternative was to
use fully professionalized support units as in modern armies. But this feat
was never accomplished during the revolution. The other possible arrange-

12 La Opini6n (Los Angeles), October 19, 1930; Excelsior (Mexico City), November 23, 1930;
Antonio Uroz, Hombres y mujeres de Mexico (Mexico City: Editorial Lic. Antonio Uroz, 1974), p. 261;
Mendieta Alatorre, La mujer en la revoluci6n mexicana, p. 89.
13 Excelsior, November 23, 1930.
14 La Opini6n, October 19, 1930; Excdlsior, November 23, 1930. Photographic evidence can be
found in Casasola, Historia graifica de la revoluci6n mexicana, 1. p. 241.
15 Angela Jim6nez, in James Kallas, Nina Kallas, and Esther P6rez eds., Those Years of the Revo-
lution, 1910-1920: Authentic Bilingual Life Experiences as Told by Veterans of the War, (San Jos6, CA:
Aztlan Today, 1974), pp. 35-64.
16 The Sun (New York), September 21, 1913, BP.

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 530 BATTLEGROUND WOMEN

ment was one in which men and women would

the men fighting and the women looking afte
was an example of this latter system taken to

Women in the Federal Army

De edad de quince afios
me cogen de leva,
y me hacen soldado
del quince de Puebla'7

Federales had large contingents of women

followers. Porfirio Diaz inherited this antiqua
it. Wary of the army, Diaz perpetuated it
modernizing ideology of his regime.is While
the world had abandoned the tradition of taki
army wives from the ranks in 1840, Brita
women and children accompanied the Federal
century.'9

Soldaderas flocked to the army above all because there was a need for
them. The Federal army had no formal commissariat for the bulk of the
troops, therefore camp followers became the suppliers of food and other
services to the lower ranks composed of Indians, vagrants, prisoners, and
poor men.20 The American vice consul in Saltillo referred to soldaderas as
"that important division of the Mexican army ... they are really the com-
missariat. "21 In the late Porfirian era supplying the troops was a thriving
business. Soldaderas competed with each other providing food services: a
typical soldadera "carried a food basket complete with tablecloth, decora-
tive plates, and, for an added touch, a vase to fill with flowers. "22

17 "Corrido del Desertor," in Jestis Romero Flores ed., Corridos de la revoluci6n mexicana (Mexico
City: Costa-Amic, 1979), 30.
18 Katz, The Secret War in Mexico, pp. 27-29.
19 For women in European armies see Barton C. Hacker, "Women and Military Institutions in Early
Modem Europe: A Reconnaissance," Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 6:4 (1981),
643-71. For women in the U.S. Federal army see Edward M. Coffman, The Old Army: A Portrait of the
American Army in Peacetime, 1784-1898 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1986), pp. 25-26,
104-36, 287-327.
20 Salas, Soldaderas, p. 36.
21 American vice consul John R. Silliman to State Department, Saltillo, May 17, 1913, National
Archives, Washington D.C., Records of the Department of State Relating to the Internal Affairs of
Mexico, 1910-1929 (hereafter cited as SD), 812.00/7726, 422.
22 Salas, Soldaderas, p. 36.

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 ANDRfS RESfNDEZ FUENTES 531

Conscription practices further encouraged the p

ers. In the Federal army the rank-and-file were he
years. Men were reduced to virtual slavery for the du
in what was euphemistically called the "volunt
women decided to accompany their hapless husban
these women often chose to share the hardships an
rather than be left alone for prolonged periods of

Anthropologist Jane Holden Kelley conducted ex

Chepa Moreno and Dominga Ramirez, two Yaq
soldaderas in the Federal army and later in revolut
stories are immensely illuminating of the econom
personal situation of camp followers. Both wo
La Colorada mine, Sonora and were deported t
Already a middle-aged woman, Chepa Moreno a
to the hacienda Nokak. While he worked as an
henequen fields, she cooked for the male workers
of the hacienda. Without knowing it, Chepa M
her future army life in that kitchen. Dominga
during her years in Yucatain living with her moth
hacienda.26

Ironically when the libertad (the revolution) finally came, the lives of
countless Yaquis, including Chepa Moreno and Dominga Ramirez, veered
toward the Federal army. In 1911 slave labor was abolished in Yucatain.
Most Yaqui workers of Tanihl, Nokak, and other haciendas walked exult-
antly to M6rida trying to find their way back to Sonora. But the emancipa-
tion decree created overnight a large pool of unemployed Yaqui Indians who
were stranded thousands of miles away from home. Many of the men had to
resort to army jobs to support themselves or were forcibly recruited by press
gangs.27 A correspondent of The London Times in M6rida, Henry Baerlein,
narrates that in the late years of the Porfiriato army press gangs targeted
escapees from nearby haciendas. These press gangs became very active

23 John Rutherford, Mexican Society During the Revolution: A Literary Approach (Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 1971), p. 296. See also Edwin Lieuwen, Mexican Militarism: The Rise and Fall of the
Revolutionary Army, 1910-1940 (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1968), pp. 4-5, 11.
24 Jane Holden Kelley, Yaqui Women: Contemporary Life Stories (Lincoln: University of Nebraska
Press, 1978), pp. 127-98.
25 The enganche was an advancement given to a laborer who then had to work off the debt thus
acquired. In YucatAn this system was so corrupted that it resembled bondage.
26 Ibid., pp. 130-38, 157-63.
27 Ibid., pp. 138-39, 163.

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 532 BATTLEGROUND WOMEN

during the Maderista revolution and came

Orozquista rebellion broke out.28

Conscripted men were kept in two large cuar

and El Castillo. These two concentrations of s
jobless women. Abandoned by her husband, C
a living at La Mejorada. But given the bad eco
in Yucatain, she decided to seek a new start i
begged in the streets and washed dishes for
realized that, as in M6rida, there were better
army. Chepa Moreno's room was close to a cu
to soldiers who had no women to cook for them. She fed Federal soldiers in
her house and peddled tortillas at the neighboring cuartel for two years.29

Back in M6rida the life of Dominga Ramirez had followed a similar path.
Together with her mother and sister, Dominga started a food business
around El Castillo. They moved to an adjacent small house and set them-
selves to grind corn and sell tortillas to the troops. When a few months later
the Yaqui battalion was dispatched to Valladolid, the three women followed
their clients. Their livelihood now depended on selling food to the troops.30
The experiences of Chepa Moreno and Dominga Ramirez underscore the
social and economic forces that made women gravitate toward the Federal
army during the Porfiriato and early phase of the revolution. Most camp
followers were quite simply the wives of bonded soldiers or entrepreneurial
women who were ready to exploit what amounted, literally, to a captive
market.

This system changed during the second revolutionary wave that started in
1913. Self-appointed president Victoriano Huerta, facing a double revolt
from the North and South, resorted to aggressive conscription practices in
which not even women were spared.31 In October Huerta signed a decree
increasing the standing army to 150,000 men. In the following weeks press
gangs throughout the country worked tirelessly to fill the enlarged quota.32
In Mexico City the wife of the American charge d'affaires, Edith O'Shaugh-
nessy, described how press gangs took any likely-looking person: fathers of

28 Henry Baerlein, Mexico: The Land of Unrest (Philadelphia: Herbert and Daniel, 1913), pp. 30-31.
29 Kelley, Yaqui Women, pp. 139-40.
30 Ibid., pp. 165-66.
31 Alan Knight, The Mexican Revolution, 2 vols. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986), 2:
78-79.

32 John Womack, "The Mexican Revolution, 1910-1920," in Cambridge History of Latin America,
ed. Leslie Bethell, 7 vols. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986), 5, p. 98; Lieuwen, Mexican
Militarism, pp. 19-20.

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 ANDRIS RESINDEZ FUENTES 533

families, only sons of widows, unattached men. "After the bull-fight

Sunday, seven hundred unfortunates were seized, doubtless never t
their families again."33 O'Shaughnessy was particularly concerned that
only men but women were forced into the army. Women were drafte
work in the state-controlled powder mills or were sent to the front to
as cooks for the field troops.34 The inclusion of women in the dreaded
did not go unnoticed in the American press: "even the [Mexican] gover
ment has a hand in bringing women under the yoke of degradation .
content with the wholesale impressment among men to fill the deplet
ranks of the Federal columns, women by hundreds are seized by Huer
orders and forced to abandon their homes."35 The leva continued unabat
through early 1914 as Huerta expanded the army to 200,000 in Februa
and 250,000 in March.36 It is now impossible to determine how many
these women ended up in the battlefront but we know that many did.

Regardless of whether the women served the Federal army willingly

not, they were essential to its functioning. Apparently a helter-skelter
of criminals, vagabonds, beggars, Indians, and untidy women and childr
the Federal army operated nevertheless on the basis of a clear division
labor along gender lines; men and women had distinct and well-def
tasks. 37Soldaderas not only freed soldiers from occupations such as f
ing and cooking but they also carried out other assignments like spying
enemy and smuggling arms from the United States. Their potential bec
evident during the revolutionary wave that started in 1913; this round
fought entirely by armies that boasted large contingents of female ca
followers. The only exception to this were the troops commanded by Em
iano Zapata.

Women and Zapatistas

Las mujeres azoradas
se decian en baja voz:
alli vienen los surianos
4que haremos?, -vilgame Dios!38

33 Edith O'Shaughnessy, A Diplomat's Wife in Mexico (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1916), 58,
66-67.

34 Ibid., pp. 58, 67; Salas, Soldaderas, p.40.

35 The World (New York), December 1, 1913, BP.
36 Womack, "The Mexican Revolution," p. 101.
37 Some of the most scornful descriptions of the Federal army include: The Evening Sun (New York),
November 18, 1913, BP; and Report of the USS Minnesota Flagship to the Secretary of the Navy, June
26, 1913, SD 812.00/8017, 61.
38 Corrido "La entrada a M6xico de las fuerzas obregonistas," Romero Flores ed., Corridos de la
revoluci6n mexicana, p. 212.

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534 BATTLEGROUND WOMEN

"The Zapatistas were not an army, they were

Rosa King, an Englishwoman who lived throug
los.39 Nowhere is her insight more apparent th
Liberating Army of the South. Unlike Federale
the southern fighters always retained a symb
neighboring villages and towns.40 This associat
contributed to the rebellion of the South.

Army and village were tied together primarily through the food link.
Rebels set up their military camps in the mountains and sierras where they
could hide but remained close to a village in order to obtain food. A witness
relates how this was done: "la alimentaci6n en los campamentos se obtenia
en los pueblos, bajaba un grupo con un coronel con cuatro o cinco a comprar
mafz porque Zapata mandaba dinero. Compraban, no robaban, compraban
el maiz, subian seis, siete, ocho cargas de maiz que compraban ahf en
Ixtapan de la Sal, harina, frijol, arroz ... ."41 This exchange was no
common transaction. It often involved a commitment of the townspeople to
support the rebellion. A resident of Tepoztlin said that village officials,
ayudantes de demarcaci6n, made rounds to the town twice a day to collect
tortillas in large sacks and then carried them to the Zapatista soldiers. Ac-
cording to the observer most women gave the tortillas voluntarily.42 The
southern army thus flourished in symbiosis with the people of Morelos. It
was an army that relied, so to speak, on long distance commissariat and
cooking services. Women did not need to be in the military camps; for the
most part they remained in the towns and pueblos. From their homes Zap-
atista women were better prepared to supply the troops and had more access
to provisions.

The life of Esperanza Martinez sheds light on the connections between

rebels and villagers. In detailed interviews with anthropologist Oscar Lewis,
she recounted that during the first years of the revolution Zapatistas came

39 Rosa King, Tempest Over Mexico: A Personal Chronicle (Boston: Little, Brown, 1935), p. 94.
Quoted in Salas, Soldaderas, p. 39; and Macias, Against All Odds, p. 41.
40 Womack points out that far from an autonomous military corporation, the revolutionary army that
took shape in Morelos in 1913-14 was simply "an armed league of the state's municipalities." John
Womack, Zapata and the Mexican Revolution (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1968), p. 225. See also
Womack, "The Mexican Revolution," pp. 109-10.
41 Irene Copado Viuda de Reyes, Archivo de la Palabra, Instituto Nacional de Antropologfa e Historia,
Mexico City, Programa de Historia Oral (hereafter cited as PHO), Z/1/10. Quoted in El dlbum de la
mujer, 4, p.82-83.
42 Oscar Lewis, Life in a Mexican Village: Tepoztldn Restudied (Urbana: University of Illinois Press,
1963), p. 233.

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 ANDRtS REStNDEZ FUENTES 535

down regularly to Azteca, her home town, and sent s

house asking for tortillas.43 According to Esperanza
people liked the Zapatistas so they cooperated. But p
women were so crucial in maintaining the Zapatista
strategy to stamp out the rebels was often directed a
one occasion Carrancista troops were dispatched t
Zapatistas; as they occupied the town they gathered
plaza and forced them to make tortillas for them. The
killing two birds with one stone: obtaining food and
of the insurgents.44 On another occasion Carrancista
more drastic method removing the women of Azteca,
neighboring pueblos and marching them to the city
ertheless, as soon as the women were released and
villages they resumed their contribution to the rebe
opted for the "resettlement" strategy which consisted
the ground and forcing the residents to disperse into
once and for all, the supply points of the insurgents.

Food was not the only tie between Zapatistas an

women at the camps, Zapatistas went to great len
gratification. All troops that took part in the revolut
sionally but the Zapatistas were notorious; all kinds
and savagery haunted the southern rebels. The Mexica
in a small village within two kilometers of Jojutla t
lation consisting of more than forty women was
rebels.47 The anti-Zapatista press of Mexico City was
such diatribes. In her account Esperanza Martinez po
tas came every night into Azteca to take away so
terrible shrieks as they were carried away. At daybrea
back in their houses. Esperanza Martinez always refr
victims what had happened, "people would say: why
If you want to know, let them take you out tonight!"

43 Oscar Lewis, Pedro Martinez: A Mexican Peasant and His Family

1964), p. 93.
44 Lewis, Pedro Martinez, p. 93; Lewis, Life in a Mexican Village, p. 237.
45 Lewis, Pedro Marttnez, 85. The Carrancista anti-insurgency strategy was condemned in the Amer-
ican press. See The World, December 1, 1913, BP.
46 Lewis, Life in a Mexican Village, p. 237; Lewis, Pedro Martinez, 85-86; Womack, Zapata and the
Mexican Revolution, pp. 138-140, 158, 173-76. See also interview with Ignacia Pefia viuda de Fuentes,
Huitzilac, PHO/Z/1/18. Reproduced in El Album de la mujer, 4, pp. 81-82.
47 The Mexican Herald, April 13, 1913. Quoted in Salas, Soldaderas, p. 40.
48 Lewis, Pedro Martinez, p. 92.

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536 BATTLEGROUND WOMEN

Whereas Esperanza Martinez's life underscore

camp and village, the life of her husband, Pedr
crippling disadvantages of not having soldad
soldaderas in their military campaigns as it is d
of the Zapatista occupation of Mexico City in
tinez left Azteca without his wife as most other
of curious sightseers in Mexico City were "anx
revolutionaries about whom such hair raisin
during the last four years," but they only fou
clad in shirt and drawers, some barefooted, an
their interest in automobiles, streetcars, and
them.50

Pedro Martinez recalls the harshness of arm

After a grueling battle in the district of Milpa
for tortillas and coffee in neighboring houses.5
clear that the ineffectiveness of Zapatista f
largely from the lack of camp followers. The
symbiosis with neighboring towns and villages
autonomous army meant for long campaigns o

In spite of its all-male character the Liberati

cluded some famous female soldiers.52 1 menti
Yautepec who attracted so much attention at th
Madero's triumph. I also referred to Rosa Boba
she fought under general Francisco Pacheco. B
rank of colonel and was famous for the unyie
under her command.53 Margarita Neri was anot
South, but her fame derived from her cruelty
with their fighting abilities to the revolutiona
problem of lack of support services for the Za

49 Ibid., pp. 91, 101.

50 The Mexican Herald, November 26, 1914. See also Silliman
1914, SD 812.00/13957, 1275.
51 Lewis, Pedro Martinez, p. 100.
52 King, Tempest Over Mexico, p. 69. The Mexican Herald r
rebels, including about 20 women, were seen in Michoacin, T
53 See interview with doctor Juan Olivera, PHO/Z/1/11. Repro
83-85. There is also a photograph of Rosa Bobadilla with the m
54 General Rub6n Garcia provides the description in El Nacio
Reproduced in Mendieta Alatorre, La mujer en la revoluci6n m
the General's account, Margarita Neri was a cold-blooded fight
a man to death and cut a young woman's breasts off.

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 ANDRtS REStNDEZ FUENTES 537

Women and the Northern Revolutionaries

iQu6 dices, Chata, nos vamos?

Yo si me voy con usted,
pero me Ileva a caballo
porque no s6 andar a pie55

General Juan F. Azcarate wrote in his memoirs that the image of soldad-
eras accompanying revolutionary troops was a creation of the film industry.
According to the general only the Federal army was capable of indignities
such as bringing women to the fray. Villista Colonel Jose Felipe Hernandez
Ortiz partly disagreed and contended that, among the rebels, Villa's men did
not have soldaderas but Carrancistas did.56 The record shows that neither
Carrancistas nor Villistas were averse to soldaderas; quite the opposite, the
Division of the North led by Francisco "Pancho" Villa and the Divisions of
the Northeast and Northwest fighting under the leadership of Venustiano
Carranza all had sizable contingents of female camp followers.

Soldaderas wound up in these northern armies in two ways. The first was
through the natural expansion of the soldier base. During the first months of
1913 the northern rebels gathered in rather small bands not unlike those of
1910-12; but as the appeal of revolutionaries extended farther away many
men brought their spouses. When John Reed asked one soldadera in Villa's
camp how she had joined she said: "I remember well when Filadelfo called
to me one morning in the little morning before it was light-we lived in
Pachuca-and said: Come! we are going out to fight because the good Pancho
Madero has been murdered this day! ... Filadelfo saddled the burro, and
we rode out through the streets just as light was coming."' 57 Not all females
accompanying Villistas and Carrancistas were willing camp followers, some
had been abducted and forced into the rebels' armies.58

Soldaderas also found their way into the ranks of the insurgents as scores
of Federal soldiers and soldaderas defected. American journalist Herman
Whitaker described how three hundred soldaderas were left behind by the

55 Corrido "La toma de Torre6n," Romero Flores ed., Corridos de la revoluci6n mexicana, p. 82.
56 Juan F. Azcairate, Esencia de la revoluci6n mexicana (Mexico City: Costa-Amic, 1966), p. 80; Jose
Felipe Hernindez Ortiz, PHO/1/51, 14. Quoted in Salas, Soldaderas, p. 45.
57 John Reed, Insurgent Mexico (New York: International Publishers, 1969), pp. 188-89.
58 See the case of Maria Villasafia L6pez, in Those Years of the Revolution, 1910-1920, p. 208; Oscar
J. Martinez, Fragments of the Mexican Revolution: Personal Accounts From the Border (Albuquerque:
University of New Mexico Press, 1983), p. 232; William B. Davis, Experiences and Observations of an
American Consular Officer During the Mexican Revolution (Chula Vista, CA.: Wayside Press, 1920),
pp. 51, 171-72.

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538 BATTLEGROUND WOMEN

Federales after the disastrous battle of Pa

twenty-four hours they had all set up new h
lors."59 The Carrancista forces went even fur
diers and camp followers; they literally pi
Federal army as they passed through Mexico
Chepa Moreno and Dominga Ramirez changed
Moreno had been working for the Federal tro
for over two years, but as the carrancistas ent
she garnered a new crop of boarders.60 She th
Indian who served in a battalion of Mayos-th
him to Puebla, Pachuca, and various towns in
inga Ramirez and her family "joined" the C
troops in M6rida were "liberated" and transfo
Battalion of Yaqui Indians. The three women
olutionaries to Mexico City and spent some m
tel to another.62

Many observers agree that soldaderas wer

urban origin, but little is known about their
were mestizas but others belonged to various
often formed along ethnic lines such as th
second.6 I. Thord Gray, an American private
and then the Carrancistas, contends that the
revolutionary armies were peons and Indians o
to Thord Gray there were Apaches, Tarahum
with Villa; whereas the Carrancistas fought al
thousands of Yaquis and Mayos as well as P
huanes. The Yaquis and Mayos were formed in
not formed into regiments but "one did notic

59 Herman Whitaker, "Villa and his People," Sunset: The M

Quoted in Salas, Soldaderas, p. 40.
60 Kelley, Yaqui Women, p. 140. See also Lieuwen, Mexican
61 Kelley, Yaqui Women, p. 141.
62 Ibid., pp. 164-65.
63 Emilia Enriquez de Rivera, "Misi6n Sublime de la Muje
duced in El Album de la mujer mexicana, 4, p. 228; J. H. Ple
of the Soldaderas, Amazons of War and Revolution," Trav
Ellen, "Mexican Camp-Followers," p. 19.
6 Chepa Moreno said that most of the women accompanying t
from northern Mexico. Kelley, Yaqui Women, p. 143.
65 I. Thord Gray, Gringo Rebel (Coral Gables, Fla.: Univers
234.

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 ANDRtS REStNDEZ FUENTES 539

and even companies.'"66 It is likely that soldadera

and troop divisions.67

By the mid-to-late 1913 the Villistas and Carran

followers that they relied entirely on them for
camping services. In just a few months the north
transition from small bands of men to ambulator
women, and children. A New York Times corr
several occasions he had counted the passenger
trains and fully half were found to be women and
another journalist visiting the Carrancista forces
Piedras Negras reported that "so many soldiers a
paigns by their families that Carranza's headquart
gypsy camp or an immense picnic than a militar
Division of the North was not different; in early
that "Villa's army trains, moving across the dese
esque of sights in this queer Mexican world. Whi
munitions of war fill the inside, the seventeen tho
women, and about the same number of children, w
ride on top."70

Thus the Constitutionalist revolution was fought

with camp followers. This was largely due to
Unlike the regional Maderista and Orozquista insu
campaigns after 1913 raged throughout large port
the goal of the rebels was the unconditional surre
and the total destruction of the Federal army, w
throughout the North into the central region and
Armies had to be mobile and autonomous with
support; in short, they needed soldaderas. The rev
needed the armies. Federales, Carrancistas, and V
home during prolonged periods of time, and so w

66 Ibid., p. 234.
67 Villistas boasted Coras and Huicholes some of whom were wo
Joseph E. Grimes and Thomas B. Hinton, "The Huichol and th
American Indians, 12 vols. (Austin: University of Texas Press, 196
the Mexican Yaqui communities in 1932 found out that the ration
suggests the extent to which Yaqui Indians participated in the R
temporary Culture of the Cdhita Indians (Washington D.C.: Smithson
Ethnology, 1945), p. 1.
68 New York Times, November 9, 1913.
69 The Sun, November 16, 1913, BP.
70 Whitaker, "Villa and his People," 256.

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 540 BATTLEGROUND WOMEN

of either coming with the troops or remainin

the midst of a country in turmoil. Many wom
into the field.

Female soldiers were also protagonists in the

pointed out that through the Constitutionalist
of women who are fighting for motives of patri
of Victoriano Huerta.'"71 Similarly no less th
out with horses, rifles, and cartridge belts w
in Ciudad Juairez in December 1913. Accordin
the wives, daughters, and sweethearts of the
Villa's permission to accompany the troop tr
tles.72

Within a few months of the outbreak of the

1913 the major warring factions were recr
soldiers in order to sustain their military eff
ciency of these women was invaluable in the

Soldaderas and Female Soldiers in Ac

Si Adelita se fuera con otro
la seguiria por tierra y por mar
si por mar, en un buque de guerra
si por tierra, en un tren militar73

War with Villa is one long fiesta for both soldados and soldaderas, wrote
an American correspondent in 1914.74 He was referring to the casual, pic-
nic-like, and often disorganized military camps. Villistas were not alone in
this regard; all major fighting forces, except the Zapatistas, had adopted the
same army life-style. But beyond first impressions there was much more
than amusement to the way armies travelled, camped, fought, and solved the
daily problems of life on the trail.

Military trains were one of the most common sights during the Mexican
Revolution; passengers rode inside boxcars or, when horses or ammunition

71 The Sun, November 16, 1913, BP.

72 The New York Tribune, December 1, 1913, BP.
73 Corrido "La adelita," in Romero Flores ed., Corridos de la revolucidn mexicana, 94. This corrido
became a battle hymn of Villistas. Soldaderas were known as "adelitas" among Villa's troops while the
soldaderas of the Federal army were pejoratively called "guachas." See Kallas and Pdrez eds., Those
Years of the Revolution, 1910-1920, pp. 32-33; and Soto, Emergence of the Modern Mexican Woman,
p. 44.
74 Whitaker, "Villa and His People," p. 255.

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 ANDRtS REStNDEZ FUENTES 541

were transported, on top and even underneath on

Here the duties of the soldadera began. She came
ing equipment, cooking utensils, plants, and ani
complained that the Federal troops carried every
ens, dogs, pet crows, poll parrots and "took more
and dogs . . . than the guns and ammunition
stopped, whether for one minute or for hours, t
started cooking beans and tortillas.77 They got
personal cargo or from the commissary car-alm
them-or if the train stopped at a village they ra

When troops left the train and went into the field
along. They could be seen at the rear, singly or
bundles of clothes, food, and pots on their head
backs with rebozos. Several women carried children too.79 Baerlein de-
scribed how the Federal cavalry moved into other quarters: "first the sol
diers jog along, their somber uniforms all dusty, then a multitude of wome
some of them with children fastened to their backs, and all of them with pots
and pans. They try to keep up with the soldiers, but it is a weary business
At their heels and very wretched are a quantity of mongrels."s80

But the most valuable service provided by soldaderas was not cooking i
trains nor carrying the gear, it was foraging for the encamped troops. Sh
hesitated at nothing to put together a meal. Zapatista-sympathizer Esperan
Martinez became alarmed when she saw the determination of the women
brought by the Federal troops to Morelos. They were the ones who took
everything away, mules, chickens, and clothes.81 A Federal officer said that

75 Thord Gray, Gringo Rebel, p. 212; Salas, Soldaderas, p. 43. An entire army could be housed in
trains. Before entering Mexico City, Villista General Felipe Angeles stopped at the Hacienda de los
Morales. Many people went in automobiles, taxi-cabs, and coaches to greet the army. They found long
lines of boxcars strung out over the tracks on both sides of the hacienda station for a distance of several
miles. The Mexican Herald, December 3, 1914.
76 H. O. Harris, United States Senate Hearings, Subcommittee on Foreign Relations, 62nd Congress,
1913, 663. Casasola confirms the story: soldaderas had plants hanging from the boxcars, dogs with
military names such as Napole6n, El Sargento, and Trompeta. Boxcars were like moving homes.
Casasola, Historia grdfica de la revoluci6n mexicana, 2, p. 664.
77 Soldaderas riding on top could even cook while the train was in motion so that it seemed as if each
boxcar had a chimney. Casasola, Historia grdfica de la revoluci6n mexicana, 2, p. 664. See also
Whitaker, "Villa and his People," p. 362; The New York Times, November 9, 1913; Plenn, "Forgotten
Heroines of Mexico," p. 60.
78 H. O. Harris, United States Senate Hearings, pp. 663-64.
79 Casasola, Historia grdfica de la revoluci6n mexicana, 2, p. 664; Thord Gray, Gringo Rebel, p. 212;
Silliman to Department of State, May 17, 1913, SD 812.00/7726, 423.
80 Baerlein, Mexico, pp. 122-23.
81 Lewis, Pedro Martinez, p. 92.

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 542 BATTLEGROUND WOMEN

on one occasion some of their soldaderas inten

family in Morelos; since the owners were Zapat
the soldaderas forced their way in and took w

Soldaderas were impressive foragers after

Villista rebels under Tomais Urbina entered Du
their work of pillage and destruction. But as th
"the women vultures were particularly voracio
and clawing their way through the entrance of
issued a few minutes later literally bowed d
booty."'83 Soldaderas also plundered the dea
jects.84 The pressure to feed the troops was alw
to procure victuals were often extreme.

Nursing was another major occupation of cam

more important, except for Villa's hospital tr
rooms, drug stores, and sick wards, there wer
vices available to the combatant forces." After
daderas combed the ground looking for w
treated the injured on the spot, then transpor
nearest hospital-if there was one-or to the
recalled that her specialty was washing wounds
to tear pieces of her clothes in order to ma
Duncan, an American physician involved in set
at Presidio-just opposite Ojinaga-asserted tha
was "in luck if he had a woman along . . . she
ings, took care of him, procured his food and
and in fact did everything she could."'88

Soldaderas were also adept at smuggling arm

United States. They were more effective than

82 King, Tempest Over Mexico, pp. 177, 183.

83 American consul in Durango to the State Department, Du
8075, 328.
84 Plenn, "Forgotten Heroines," pp. 25-26. See account of V
PHO/1/108.

85 Louis C. Duncan, "The Wounded at Ojinaga," Military Surgeon 34 (May 1914), 412; Whitaker,
"Villa and his People," p. 363. There were middle-class women serving as nurses. See Macias, Against
All Odds, p. 39; and Mendieta Alatorre, La mujer en la revoluci6n mexicana, p. 83.
86 Duncan, "The Wounded at Ojinaga," pp. 412, 436; Salas, Soldaderas, p. 56; and Mendieta
Alatorre, La mujer en la revoluci6n mexicana, p. 82.
87 Marfa Villasafia L6pez, in Those Years of the Revolution, 1910-1920, p. 80.
88 Duncan, "The Wounded at Ojinaga," p. 435. Quoted in Salas, Soldaderas, p. 58.

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 ANDRtS REStNDEZ FUENTES 543

as harmless women in-supposedly-a war of men.

anti-Huertista revolution until February 1914 the
arms embargo on the Mexican rebels and eventua
ernment too.89 The embargo never stopped comple
reduced it considerably providing a strong incen
capabilities. Women and children took active role
nition and equipment across the border.90 Accord
wore small belts under the skirt that dropped ne
carried hundreds of rounds of ammunition. Countless rifles and machine
guns were also smuggled into Mexico, many by soldaderas.91

We know little about the private world of camp followers. The majority
had stable relationships with soldiers; an American officer explained that
many soldaderas seemed to have lived happily and faithfully for years with
their "so-called" husbands.92 In this case the soldadera was like a house-
wife on the battlefield. She would take care of her spouse, although occa-
sionally she tended her husband's friends, or even worked for other soldier
to supplement the family income.93 Unattached camp followers comprised a
second and more varied group. For instance bachelor soldiers often hired the
services of a special type of soldadera called "mother" who procured and
prepared food for them.94 Prostitutes also travelled with the armies caterin
to the needs of unattached soldiers. Dr. Duncan estimated that as many as
half of all Federal soldiers at Ojinaga had venereal diseases: "syphilis wa
very common, chancroid and gonorrhoea a little less so. Men with one or
two huge neglected buboes frequently came in."95

89 Knight, The Mexican Revolution, 2, p. 30-31.

90 Manuel L. Lujin, representative of Pascual Orozco in the United States, declared that during the
Orozco uprising men, women, and children smuggled arms and ammunition. Manuel L. Lujin, Unite
States Senate Hearings, p. 295.
91 El Paso Morning Times, January 24 and May 6, 1914. Quoted in Salas, Soldaderas, p. 56.
92 Captain George H. Estes, "The Internment of Mexican Troops in 1914," Infantry Journal 11
(May-June, July-August, September-October 1915), pp. 54-55. Cited in Salas, Soldaderas, p. 64
Rivalries among soldaderas could have serious consequences since they had easy access to weapons.
Whitaker describes how one soldadera blew off the head of a rival with a bomb that she had picked up
on the battlefield. Whitaker, "Villa and his People," p. 254.
93 First Captain Jestis Herrera Calder6n, PHO/1/66, 13. Cited in Salas, Soldaderas, p. 44; Oscar
Lewis, A Death in the Sdnchez Family (New York: Vintage Books, 1969), p. xvii.
94 Dr. Francisco Ruiz Moreno, PHO/1/155, p. 22. Quoted in Salas, Soldaderas, p. 44. See also the
account of Jacobo Estrada, PHO/1/121, p. 31.
95 Duncan, "The Wounded at Ojinaga," p. 435. For prostitution among soldaderas see also Ricardo
Pozas, Juan Perez Jolote: biograffa de un Tzotzil (Mexico City: Editorial Jus, 1948), p. 302. We can ge
some glimpses of this world in the reports of United States officials concerned with the internment of the
Federal army commanded by General Salvador Mercado at Fort Bliss, Texas and Fort Wingate, New

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544 BATTLEGROUND WOMEN

Camp followers were vital to all armies but

in terms of strategy soldaderas were burdens
the large infantry columns along the railway l
the swift cavalry units that pushed onward a
Indeed the requirements of cavalry units ofte
of soldaderas. When traveling by train, hors
freight cars pushing soldiers into the roof t
officers to leave the camp followers and thei
the ground soldaderas had no hope of keep
troops. Many cavalry units had no women; V
and Obreg6n's First and Second cavalry briga
battle accompanied by soldaderas.97 In fact, f
manders toyed with the idea of eliminating s
closer than anyone else to attaining this goal
backbone of the Villista forces, Villa became
camp followers. He complained bitterly abou
and sought to supplant their functions as com
professional services such as the hospital t
tried, he met the unified opposition of so
Villista Major put it: "we had to have solda
soldiers.' 98

While the cavalry constituted terra inhospita for soldaderas it was the
natural habitat of female fighters. Female soldiers also thrived in the revo-
lutionary campaigns of 1913-15 although in sheer numbers there were only
a handful of them. According to one late-1913 estimate there were around
200 female soldiers scattered in all warring factions.99 They came into the
army through varied and often accidental routes. Many were relatives of
soldiers and officers: "La Coronela" Rosa Bobadilla was the wife of Pedro
Casas, she simply took over his command after he got killed; Angela "An-
gel" Jimenez was the daughter of a Zapatista and then Villista officer; "La
Gera" Carrasco was the wife and mentor of Sinaloan General Juan

Mexico in 1914. There is evidence that some soldaderas were prostitutes. American officers at Fort
Wingate decided to set up a detention area for camp followers who "engaged in repeated acts of
infidelity or who appeared incorrigible," and were at the brink of expelling Guadalupe Ramirez from the
camp. Salas, Soldaderas, p. 64.
9 Thord Gray, Gringo Rebel, p. 211; Reed, Insurgent Mexico, pp. 141, 189; and Plenn, "Forgotten
Heroines," p. 60.
97 Salas, Soldaderas, p. 46; Thord Gray, Gringo Rebel, p. 212.
98 Major Constantino Caldero Vizquez, PHO/1/110, 29. See also Knight, The Mexican Revolution,
2, p. 143, 162; Salas, Soldaderas, pp. 43, 45-46; and Thord Gray, Gringo Rebel, pp. 36, 208-209, 216.
99 The Sun, September 21, 1913, BP.

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 ANDRIS RESINDEZ FUENTES 545

Carrasco; Encarnaci6n Mares was the wife of Isidro Cairdenas, bot

rancista soldiers.100

Other female fighters were outlaws. "La Coronela" Maria de la

Espinoza Barrera had spent five years in prison for killing her husba
lover before joining the revolution. Margarita Neri had killed he
husband and was a fugitive by the time she enlisted with the Zapatis
Women leaders of bandit gangs often joined the revolution; John Wo
mentions a band of women dressed in rags and plundered finery and
stockings led by "La China." They fought with the Zapatistas ostensi
avenge their dead men but also conducted raids in the district of Tet
Thord Gray asserts that similar bandit gangs led by women joined Vill
Carranza. 101

It is hard to make generalizations about female soldiers given their small

number and heterogeneity, but marked differences set them apart from
soldaderas.102 In the first place female soldiers generally belonged to a
higher social class. A female soldier had to own her own horse since it was
unlikely that an officer would deprive a male soldier of his animal to give
it to a woman. Indeed in some instances female fighters were outright
affluent. "La Giiera" Carrasco was so wealthy that she may have contrib-
uted in financing Juan Carrasco's army; Carmen V61ez fought in Tlaxcala
leading a company composed of her own hacienda peons; "Chiquita," a
female soldier of the Federal army, had been educated in France and the
United States.103

Admittedly this class distinction is hard to prove beyond circumstantial

evidence; but the difference in status accorded to each group of women is

100 Interview with doctor Juan Olivera, PHO/Z/1/11. Reproduced in El Album de la mujer, 4, p.
83-85. See story of Angela Jim6nez, in Those Years of the Revolution, 1910-1920, p. 35-64; La Opinion,
August 15, 1937; Mendieta Alatorre, La mujer en la revoluci6n mexicana, pp. 89-90.
1'0 Macias, Against All Odds, pp. 42-43. There are contradictory reports about Margarita Neri. See
El Nacional (Mexico City), November 29, 1959; and Soto, Emergence of the Modern Mexican Woman,
p. 45. Womack, Zapata and the Mexican Revolution, p. 170; Thord Gray, Gringo Rebel, p. 212. For
criminal acts of women soldiers see El Imparcial, August 19, 1914.
102 Macias draws the distinction very clearly: Macias, Against All Odds, p. 41. Salas, on the contrary,
contends that the difference is less than clear-cut and argues that because of the changing configurations
of battle lines, many times camp followers by necessity had to perform as soldiers. Salas, Soldaderas,
pp. 73, 77.
103 For "La Gidera" Carrasco see Soto, Emergence of the Modern Mexican Woman, p. 52-53. Other
persons who met her confirm the impression that she was a sophisticated lady. See Adolfo M. Wilhelmy,
La Opini6n, August 15, 1937; and Plenn, "Forgotten Heroines," p. 60. For Carmen V1lez see El
Nacional, January 3, 1947. For the story of "Chiquita" see The Sun, September 21, 1913, BP.

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 546 BATTLEGROUND WOMEN

evident. Soldaderas were never officially reco

advancement. In contrast female fighters usually
rosters, se dieron de alta, and could climb up i
proved themselves in battle.'1" Using the rank sy
many female soldiers rose to be captains and a ha
rank of colonel.'05 This status distinction is summ
witness: there were "commanders [such as] Petra
they were feisty and spirited, and had their ow
were only good for stealing boots from the dead

Female soldiers and soldaderas served different p

this was perhaps the most important distinction
arms except in unusual circumstances and ver
bat.'07 Female soldiers, on the other hand, set out to
was their main occupation, female fighters also p
the troops such as spying. One ploy was to have f
with the enemy's camp followers which constitu
information. "Angel" Jim6nez recounts that s
woman and infiltrate the soldaderas of the Federa
of information."108 This maneuver was standard
revolution. One Zapatista woman said that on
suspicious-looking women came to the camp selli
The next day Carrancista troops fell upon the Za
morning!109 General Francisco L. Urquizo said tha
spy was Maria Martinez, "la nifia de los velo
Monclova, Saltillo, and Monterrey when these
Federales.110 Federal troops also made use of wo
from the South called "Chiquita" was the protag
dramatic spying operations of the Revolution. Sh
huahua at the time of the Orozco rebellion, a
trained nurse. She worked for some time minister

4" See declarations of General Ram6n F. Iturbe in Mendieta Ala

mexicana, pp. 108-09; Casasola, Historia grdfica de la revoluci6
November 8, 1959; Thord Gray, Gringo Rebel, p. 212; King, Tem
105 Interview with doctor Juan Olivera L6pez, PHO/Z/111. Repr
85.

'06 Recollections of Esperanza, in Lucia Fox Lockert ed., Chicanas: Their Voices, Their Lives
(Lansing, Mich.: State Board of Education, 1988), p. 1.
107 Kelley, Yaqui Women, p. 142; Macias, Against All Odds, p. 41.
108 Angela Jim6nez, in Those Years of the Revolution, 1910- 1920, p. 41.
109 Interview with Irene Copado viuda de Reyes. Reproduced in El Album de la mujer, 4, p. 83.
110 El Nacional, March 5, 1954.

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 ANDRtS REStNDEZ FUENTES 547

day she "made a dash out of Jimenez on horseback

maps, and documents of Pascual Orozco.""'111

Female soldiers also furnished valuable assist

go-betweens. In his memoirs General Urquizo w
woman named Belem whom served as courier between General Pablo
Gonzailez and Venustiano Carranza.112 Mrs. Castillo, wife of Maix
Castillo, a Federal officer detained in the United States, declared
interview that she was a messenger between her husband and Genera
toriano Huerta.113

In short female fighters differed from soldaderas in their social back-

ground, status in the armed forces, and functions. In everyday life the
contrast was striking. A Mexican journalist and photographer put it suc-
cinctly: "la autentica soldadera es la que va en las columnas pesadas, sin
perder su caraicter de mujer, de esposa, de madre y hasta de victima . . en
las columnas volantes, la soldadera necesita masculinizarse completamente,
en lo exterior y en lo interior: vestir como hombre y conducirse como
hombre; ir a caballo, como todos, resistir las caminatas y a la hora de la
acci6n demostrar con el arma en la mano que no es una soldadera sino un
soldado. "ll4

How did women become female soldiers? We know very little. Self-
defence and a yearning to fit in with the rest of the troops may have led these
women into such a stunning transmutation."115 While some female fighters
preserved their feminine appearance, most of them fancied khaki suits with
broad-brimmed Stetsons, cartridge belts across the chest or around the
waist, and pistols or a Mauser rifle slung on one shoulder. Some even
lowered their voices or swaddled their chests to hide their breasts.116 After
women such as Captain Enriqueta Martinez established themselves as pow-

ll' The Sun, September 21, 1913, BP. From an independent source, Soto tells almost the same story
so the character, probably called Josefina Ranzeta, may have been real. Soto, Emergence of the Modern
Mexican Woman, 38.
112 Francisco L. Urquizo, Memorias de camparia: de subteniente a general (Mexico City: Costa-
Amic, 1971), p. 135.
113 El Paso Morning Times, February 19, 1914. Cited in Salas, Soldaderas, p. 61.
114 Casasola, Historia grdfica de la revoluci6n mexicana, 2, p. 664. Part of this quote can be found
in Macias, Against All Odds, p. 42.
115 See the story of Angela Jimdnez, in Those Years of the Revolution, 1910-1920, pp. 35-64.
116 There are several photographs of female soldiers in Casasola, Historia grdfica de la revoluci6n
mexicana, 1, p. 241-42. For details about their attire see The Sun, September 21, 1913; and Urquizo,
Memorias de camparia, pp. 133-34. Cross-dressing has been a common feature of female soldiers in all
wars and revolutions. See Jean Bethke Elshtain, Women and War (New York: Basic Books, 1987), pp.
173-74.

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548 BATTLEGROUND WOMEN

erful troop leaders, the transformation bec

followed. Captain Martinez rose under the Fig
and had twenty women under her comman
followers, commented that whenever the troo
Martinez would go from home to home in her
women to join in. Maria Cadena indicated that
were seen wearing men's garb in a short tim
confessed that she felt shy when she first wor
took part in a battle near Acapulco she felt bet
combat she could claim full membership in th
Wives of officers sometimes armed themselve
killed; this is the case of Rosa Bobadilla viuda
viuda de Alaniz.119 But the same transformation was far more difficult for
soldaderas. Thord Gray indicates that camp followers sometimes picked up
the guns of their dead men and fought for a while, but he also points out that
as a rule they later reattached themselves to other men.120 Indeed a few
women did manage to move from the world of soldaderas to that of female
soldiers and vice versa, but by and large the two female domains remained
distinct.

After two years of continuous revolution the battleground women had

become entrenched in the military system. However, their presence in the
field was dependent upon circumstances that started to change in 1915.

Decline and Fall of the Battleground Women

Pobre de la Cucaracha,
en que triste situaci6n
se encuentra esa muchacha
pues su Juan se fue al pante6n'21

The decline of women from revolutionary armies occurred as rapidly as

their rise. By mid-1915 very few female soldiers were seen in the field and

117 La Opinion, October 19, 1930 and January 31, 1932. See also Excelsior, November 23, 1930.
Enriqueta Martinez was not the only female leader encouraging women to join; Petra Ruiz also com-
manded a brigade of female soldiers. El Nacional, November 8, 1959. Cited in Salas, Soldaderas, p. 47.
118 La Opini6n, January 31, 1932.
119 Anita Brenner, The Wind that Swept Mexico (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1971), p. 46; and
Mendieta Alatorre, La mujer en la revoluci6n mexicana, p. 77-78.
120 Thord Gray, Gringo Rebel, p. 212.
121 Corrido "La cucaracha," in Romero Flores ed., Corridos de la revolucidn mexicana, p. 146.

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 ANDRtS REStNDEZ FUENTES 549

all factions were abandoning soldaderas by the h

Villa's decision to revert to guerrilla warfare
professionalize the Constitutionalist army force
field in a matter of months.

Food was easily obtained in the early stages

armies in the North and in Morelos were suppo
of edibles that hacendados had stored throughou
Porfiriato. Bands of rebels simply raided hacien
visions.123 Moreover, as revolutionaries came to
ticularly in the North, they confiscated-or in t
"intervened"-some of the largest and richest
resources were converted into arms and food for the insurrection.124

But after two years of continuous warfare granaries throughout Mexico

were brought to near exhaustion. Food shortages occurred in Morelos as
early as mid-1914, hitting both rebels and government troops. When Pedro
Martinez returned from the Mexico City campaign, he found his wife at the
brink of starvation. People in Morelos were scraping a living out of quelites,
tejocotes, raw mangos, guavas, and sugar cane.125 The situation was not
better for the Federal troops. Even the resourceful soldaderas could not find
food and thus Federal soldiers began to starve to death.126 At this juncture
soldaderas, far from being helpful, became yet more mouths to feed.

In the North there were famines in Torre6n, Saltillo, Monterrey, and

Piedras Negras in 1915-16 and food riots in Guaymas in 1914.127 There is
some evidence that the scarcity of provisions led to the abandonment of
camp followers. In June 1916 thirty-eight Yaqui Indians were released from
the Islas Marias prison and immediately drafted. As they passed through
Guadalajara on their way to the battlefront a group of soldaderas offered
their services. The men refused to take them.128

122 La Opini6n, October 19, 1930.

123 See declarations of Charles Smith, United States Senate Hearings, 674-75.
124 Katz, The Secret War in Mexico, p. 145-147; Knight, The Mexican Revolution, 2, p. 119.
125 King, Tempest Over Mexico, p. 184; Pedro recounts that the Carrancistas were so hungry that they
ate raw mangos and fell sick. Zapatista General Marino fell upon the Carrancistas at this point and "zas,
zas he finished them up. That's why they named Marino General Mango." Lewis, Pedro Martinez, pp.
93-93, 101-02. For accounts of starvation in Hueyapin see Judith Riedlander, Being Indian in Hueya-
pdn: A Study of Forced Identity in Contemporary Mexico (New York: Saint Martin's Press, 1975), p. 58.
126 King, Tempest Over Mexico, p. 184.
127 Oscar J. Martinez, Border Boom Town: Ciudad Judrez Since 1848 (Austin: University of Texas
Press, 1975), p. 41.
128 Kelley, Yaqui Women, pp. 105-06.

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550 BATTLEGROUND WOMEN

Apart from starvation, the military situation its

camp followers. After the battles of Celaya
crushing defeats for Villa-several Villista leade
fold.129 Greatly diminished the Division of the
warfare. The mighty Division dispersed in sm
now hinged upon hit-and-run operations. Sold
new tactical scheme based on mobility and swif
doned in the field.130 Simultaneously Carrancis
too. Carranza's troops were plagued by the o
bloated army, much too large to maintain. In
ranza through his war minister proceeded to reo
had swelled to more than 200,000 troops. So
been considered to be a burden-were the first
victory women suddenly became unwelcome in
ahead to a bleak future. One of the outcomes of
drastically the number of jobs available to wom
close and pressure to accommodate returnin
women dried up.132

The lack of jobs had a tremendous impact on

women in the aftermath of the revolution. Alt
difficult to distinguish soldaderas and female f
women, it seems that their lives forked into t
returned to their old homes. Chepa Moreno
more than fifteen years of adventure at the h
and in the revolution, returned to the Yaqui va
there were full of hardship and toil as were
ex-soldaderas.134 Female fighters may have
Coronela" Maria de la Luz Espinoza Barrera ret
Morelos and became an itinerant vendor of clot

129 Katz, The Secret War in Mexico, pp. 260-73; Knight, The
Lieuwen, Mexican Militarism, p. 34.
130 Knight, The Mexican Revolution, 2, pp. 333, 338; Lieuwe
description of the American consul at Piedras Negras, Januar
Villismo decayed to the point where reckless acts of violence w
instance in 1916 Villa had eighty or ninety soldaderas shot. S
131 Lieuwen, Mexican Militarism, p. 45; Mendieta Alatorre, L
90; Kelley, Yaqui Women, pp. 143, 172.
132 See Estadisticas Hist6ricas de Mexico, 2 vols. (Mexico Cit
Geograffa, e Informatica, 1985), 1, pp. 254-57.
133 See Salas, Soldaderas, pp. 79-81.
134 Kelley, Yaqui Women, pp. 75, 144-45, 171-72. In Morelos
equally grim. See Lewis, Pedro Martinez, p. 116; Knight, The

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 ANDRtS REStNDEZ FUENTES 551

famous female soldiers also managed to secure p

ment. But most of them faced harsh economic co
died in poverty.135

A second destination of the battleground wom

Mexico City became a powerful magnet for refu
Oscar Lewis found former soldaderas in his urban studies of the Federal
District.136 The frontier towns of the North also attracted uprooted popula-
tions and veterans of the revolution. Border towns boasted new jobs, some
related to prostitution because after Prohibition began in the United States in
1920 much of the entertainment industry moved south of the border.137

The third path taken by soldaderas and female fighters was emigration to
the United States. With their reputation tarnished, their families missing,
and few jobs available in Mexico, many women sought a fresh start across
the Rio Grande.138 Some soldaderas found their way to Tucson or went to
work to El Paso as house maids and laundresses.139 Enough veterans arrived
to California to establish a league of former combatants. The story of the
battleground women can be pieced together in part thanks to the testimonies
of members of this league.140

Conclusion

For nearly ten years Mexico was converted into a gigantic battleground
peopled by countless bands and armies. But as the story of the battleground
women shows, there were nuances: different armies were organized in dif-
ferent fashions and made use of women's labor in diverse ways; moreover,

135 Macias, Against All Odds, p. 43. The entire roster of women recognized as veterans of the
revolution by the Mexican War Ministry is reproduced in Mendieta Alatorre, La mujer en la revoluci6n
mexicana, pp. 112-122. For biographies of female fighters see El Popular (Mexico City), April 29, May
1, 4, and 7, 1939.
136 Lewis, Pedro Martinez, pp. 162-77; and A Death in the Sdnchez Family, pp. ix-x. See also Knight,
The Mexican Revolution, 2, p. 523; and Salas, Soldaderas, p. 80.
137 Martinez, Border Boom Town, pp. 41-43, 57; Knight, The Mexican Revolution, 2, p. 523.
138 The story of Maria Villasafia L6pez sheds light on the bad reputation of soldaderas after the
revolution: "Ya no podifamos regresar a nuestro hogar pues habiamos quedado descreditadas [sic], yo
entonces decidi venirme a este pais." Maria Villasafia L6pez in Those Years of the Revolution, 1910-
1920, p. 80. See also Salas, Soldaderas, pp. 80-81.
139 Kelley, Yaqui Women, p. 208; Mario T. Garcia, Desert Immigrants: The Mexicans of El Paso,
1880-1920 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1981), pp. 60, 74-79.
40 See testimonies of Maria Villasafia L6pez and Angela "Angel" Jim6nez in Those Years of the
Revolution, 1910-1920, passim.

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552 BATTLEGROUND WOMEN

armies themselves changed in the course of th

long way towards explaining the nature of th

Only a handful of women participated in the

when they did so it was almost exclusively as
were hard to find among the rebels in these ear
military strategy adopted by the Maderista and
were organized as small and mobile bands best
swift retreats. Ad hoc support services were
moving contingents of soldaderas. The abse
reveals the local and regional character of this
Maderism o attained victory too quickly and O
rapidly, thus their military campaigns rem
allowed soldiers and officers to maintain their home ties and therefore had
no need to bring their families along.

A second round of fighting broke out in 1913 but on this occasion warfare
raged in large areas of the country. Protracted military campaigns took
armies far away from their home bases so they rapidly evolved as self-
supporting, roaming communities of men, women, and children. Armies
had to be able to forage in unknown terrain or nurse the wounded on the trail
without diverting too many men into non-fighting tasks. The soldadera thus
emerged as the backbone of this type of military organization. The three
large armies of the revolution, the ones capable of attaining national hege-
mony-Federales, Carrancistas, and Villistas-all had large numbers of sol-
daderas.

The Zapatistas adopted a different system, they grew in symbiosis with

the villages and towns of Morelos. The southern fighters had neither formal
support units nor soldaderas. Instead they were dependent on neighboring
communities committed to support the rebellion. Women in the villages
provided food and were targets of the sexual needs of Zapatista soldiers but
did not accompany the troops. This symbiosis made the movement very
resilient within Morelos but hindered its ability to fight outside the state.
Furthermore, the ties between the village and the military camp explain the
ruthlessness of the anti-Zapatista campaigns conducted in Morelos by the
Federal and Carrancista troops which often entailed raiding and even burn-
ing entire villages.

Beyond the functioning of the armies the story of female fighters and
soldaderas raises the complex issue of what influence the revolution had on

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 ANDRtS REStNDEZ FUENTES 553

women.141 The experiences of the battleground w

Their job opportunities were severely curtailed as
and there was a need accommodate returning, ma
also uprooted thousands of rural women, solda
among them, who ended up in slums in Mexico Ci
a result, many women had few other options but
some even had to resort to prostitution. Other wo
the hardships of a devastated country decided to
States.142 As they spent their elderly years in penury
women became a living testimony of one injustic

APPENDIX 1

PROPORTION OF FEMALE LABOR FORCE, 1900-1940

Women's Jobs/Total Jobs (%)

State 1900 1910 1921 1930 1940

Coahuila 25.3 14.5 2.7 4.2 5.2

Chihuahua 15.6 18.7 2.2 3.3 5.0
Morelos 7.5 10.1 3.4 3.2 4.4
San Luis Potosi 25.3 12.2 4.3 3.2 4.4
Sonora 11.9 11.3 6.6 4.2 5.9
Country 16.3 13.9 6.7 4.6 7.4
Source: Estadisticas Hist6ricas de Mexico, 2 vo
Geograffa, e Informatica, 1985), 1: 245-57).

Stanford, California ANDRtS REStNDEZ FUENTES

141 This is question that has been frequently raised and seldom been answered. See C
Escand6n provides a brief historiographical review on the subject: Ramos Escand6n, "iQ
no es nada?," pp. 592-93.
142 The impact of the Mexican Revolution on women has many parallels in other wars an
See Carol R. Berkin and Clara M. Lovett eds., Women, War and Revolution (New York
Meier Press, 1980); and Margaret R. Higonnet, Jane Jenson, Sonya Michel and Margare
Behind the Lines: Gender and the Two World Wars (New Haven: Yale University Pres

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