Women's Struggle Against Patriarchy in Colonial Latin America"

Gender is still an essential element in Latin America from pre-colonial era[footnoteRef:1]. Early Latin America was a rich and complex environment of economic, political, social, and cultural factors with a European core that impacted forces within the colonial system. In addition to wealth and power that governed the colonial system, there arose a culture of religious ideology and cultural figures that was dominated by Spanish and Portuguese[footnoteRef:2]. Also, society was not fully composed of Europeans because there was also an African slave population and an indigenous Indian population. The structure of hierarchy and system of Castas assisted in shaping the colonial way of life by combining these unique groups. The hierarchical structure is still influential in the modern Latin American world. Struggle against patriarchy has been in existence from the time the complementarity was destroyed until in the 20th century when it was revived. Being an ever-evolving entity, patriarchy must be resisted through methods that are also ever-evolving. Today, men and women have put endless efforts to eliminate its presence, but the image of its dominant past has shown its immortality. In history, women from Latin America have utilized any method possible to resist patriarchy of any form[footnoteRef:3]. They have rejected and accepted social norms, they have fought with men, but due to patriarchy ability to adapt, it has never been defeated. This essay will focus on the significance of women in Latin colonial America. [1: Byam, Melanie. 'The modernization of resistance: (2008), 145.] [2: Melanie, 146.] [3: Melanie, 147.]

The Role of Women

In the late 15th century, the Europeans nations had started colonizing Latin America. The Europeans instilled strong patriarchy over the nation’s inhabitants, manipulated gender roles, and formed a centralized government that remained undefeated for over three hundred years[footnoteRef:4]. In this colonial way of life, the place of women in the society was determined by how they related with a religious institution or man, though some women acquired progressive roles in Europe and Latin America. Women were entitled to defying the cultural norms, but they found no enjoyment in sexual or social equality with men. Women served as the center point for the pervasive honor system in their role of maintaining social customs. Hence, the non-elite women were head of the households. Elite women, on the other hand, defended their virginity, were faithful to their husbands, combined motherhood with matrimony and helped maintain their family’s honor and their own purity. [4: Socolow, Susan Migden, The women of colonial Latin America. (Cambridge University Press, 2015), 157.]

Latin America tended to view race as a negotiable spectrum in which families could ascend. Nonetheless, the class system influenced the woman’s role in marriage, since she did not have many choices on what to do in life. In return, they could join churches, get married, or stay with their families under their brothers and fathers[footnoteRef:5]. In the Spanish social structure, marriage was a crucial social and religious institution used in the distribution of property. Socially, marriage allowed a man or a woman to heighten, maintain, or weaken their place within the society. Women could only maintain their purity by engaging in sexual intercourse after they are offered a formal marriage. Unmarried women could not have private pregnancies so as to protect their own and families honor. Among the elite women, sexual and other behaviors were tightly controlled but among the women of low social class were given comparative freedom. Purity was a social value that was supported by Catholicism and Judeo-Christian faith ideologies which portrayed that the redeemer of sin was born from a non-sexual, pure and virgin woman. Therefore, Christian womanhood was interlinked with purity, and it advocated that women should stay at home while men should provide for the family. But because the elite women achieved a high social class, Christian womanhood helped reinforce and rationalize the lack of honor and status held by the majority. Despite being a Spanish or an Indian, whether a slave or free, honor was a cluster of ideas that separated a man’s honor from a woman’s[footnoteRef:6]. Honor measured how well women and men played their social roles. The honor of a woman was defined if she remained sexually pure, while a man’s honor was perceived from how well he could defend the virginity of his daughters and the faithfulness of his wife. Hence, widows who were poor and slaves in the middle class of indigenous people were less honored which helped them maintain their social status quo of white elitism. Women in the higher class did not work or leave their homes. [5: Socolow, 160.] [6: Melanie,148.]

Widows, single women, and those who had their husbands absent would engage in activities that kept them at home, while men would interact socially and sell products[footnoteRef:7]. These economic activities restricted direct entry into the public, and as a result, the activities were allowed for the individuals in the finer class. In addition, the low-class women would also work in the fields in contrast to the norms that allowed women to own property and business. Across races, women were also engaging in commercial activities, agricultural positions, served as merchants, and grocers. In the Mexico City, some women worked as maids and wet nurses while some were tobacco sellers. These working women were grouped by humiliation and verbal, physical, and sexual mistreatment due to low honor given to them as opposed to the women who were protected. All these factors influenced and complicated the women lives’ in colonial Latin America. [7: Burkholder, Mark, and Lyman Johnson. 'Colonial Latin America.' (OUP Catalogue, 2010),121.]

Contribution of Women in Resisting Patriarchy

Women found it worthy of resisting patriarchy by using techniques such as maintenance of indigenous culture, religion, and witchcraft. However, by the 16th century, a Spanish colony that was formed in Peru attempted to civilize the people living in Peru to fit in European values by destroying their culture. The Spanish colony carried charges against the religious cult of women as witches[footnoteRef:8]. In an attempt to fight back, the women held to their indigenous ways of living. Through the Spanish colonial, the patriarchal power rose where some indigenous men were given political ranks. Nonetheless, marginalization of the indigenous continued and fell under the radar, forcing non-Christians to flee to mountains of Peru, where they resisted the European culture and re-created the female component and social ideologies that governed their ancestors’ world[footnoteRef:9]. This was a helpful method of resistance, hence making women the representatives of indigenous culture. They were able to maintain their ancient culture because they were not offered any chance to rise politically. [8: Irene Silverblatt, Moon, Sun and Witches (New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1987), 32.] [9: Silverblatt, 209.]

Irene Silverblatt opened up witchcraft resistance to remain in the colonial period[footnoteRef:10]. The fear that was associated with witchcraft was used by women to empower themselves. When the Colonials went to Christianize Peru, the customs of healing used by the women was seen as witchcraft. As a result, these convictions led to an indirect gift of power. For instance, the Spanish men made powerful social commentary because they feared the unknown source of healing power that the women used. In return, the women were given the option to resist the colonials and their religious views. In the colonial period, women of an African origin also made powerful social commentary by manipulating the religion. Ursula de Jesus, one of the religious servants, unlike other Peru indigenous women embraced religious beliefs to resist the patriarchy that oppressed the people who were poor and non-white. She was believed to have a power of visions, so she used these visions to resist patriarchy. She used the European faith to resist patriarchy in church and reprimand those with more power[footnoteRef:11]. Sor Juana de ka Cruz, also a religious woman, used the church to manipulate the social values by becoming a nun and rejecting marriage and its associated patriarchy. By joining the convent, women were respected, and they attained a certain sense of freedom. She resisted patriarchy in marriage that had loomed over her. Micaela Bastida Puyucahua played an important in resisting patriarchy of the home and patriarchy of colonialism. She fought with her husband Gabriel Tupac Amaru, which was dangerous during those times[footnoteRef:12]. To resist patriarchy at home, Micaela used the reflection and welfare of social values to resist home patriarchy. [10: Silverblatt, 182.] [11: Nancy E. Van Deusen, “Ursula de Jesus; A Seventeenth-Century Afro-Peruvian Mystic,” In Kenneth J. Andrien, eds. The Human Tradition in Colonial Latin America. (Wilmington, DE: SR Books, 2002), 97.] [12: Micaela Bastidas Puyucahua, “Indian Revolt in Peru,” in June E. Hahner, eds. Women in Latin American History: Their Lives and Views (Los Angeles: UCLA Latin American Center Publications, 1980), 35.]

In the 19th the women were facing patriarchy from their own countrymen and not foreign invaders. As a result, the women started looking for new techniques of handling the resistance to resemble support of home and state. At this time, patriarchy was with men above women and children. Independence did not solve the problems of women as it was believed. Women who were considered feminists only advocated education of women. The intelligent women became best mothers to mother good citizens. Education was directed towards raising patriotic sons who were beneficial to the state. Clorinda Matto de Turner wrote a novel to argue on better lives of women and indigenous people[footnoteRef:13]. In her story, she depicted the struggles between the wealthy city folks, landed elite, and indigenous people[footnoteRef:14]. She, therefore, started with a plea for the poor. In the novel, she depicted that officials in the government officials left large and unwanted loans with the poor family which is later demanded at a high-interest rate. Other feminists such as Francisca Senhorinha da Motta Diniz used education as a tool to gain rights[footnoteRef:15]. She requested the women to use their intellects and moral beauty to demand political rights to vote and be elected to office[footnoteRef:16]. In her novel, Carolina Maria de Jesus attacked the men and patriarchy[footnoteRef:17]. She rejected marriage patriarchy by remaining unmarried, and she revealed that most men cling to their wives for survival due to their own poverty. She also rejects state patriarchy by stating that everything in the country including democracy and politicians is weak[footnoteRef:18]. She indicates that her state always preaches democracy and equality, but it falls short of these promises regarding the poor and non-white. [13: Clorinda Matto de Turner, Torn from the Nest (New York: Oxford University Press, Inc, 1998), 67.] [14: Matto de Turner, 48.] [15: Francisca Senhorinha da Motta Diniz, “What Do We Want?” in June E. Hahner, eds., Women in Latin American History—their lives and views. (Los Angeles: UCLA Latin American Center Publications, 1980)., 54.] [16: Senhorinha da Motta Diniz, 54.] [17: Carolina Maria de Jesus, Child of the Dark (New York: Penguin Group, 2003), 31.] [18: Maria de Jesus, 31.]

During the Mexican Revolution, many women acted to resist patriarchy independence, and they hence worked as camp soldiers and followers. With the failure of revolutionary regime, the memory of these women was lost. After the post-revolutionary regime, the modernization of the idea strengthened patriarchy. Women adopted new resistance techniques such as the Progressive Era, but the government controlled the education towards interests of national development. Revolutionary leaders were cruel and harmful to the poor, because those who benefited with land, water, and justice were the elite white men[footnoteRef:19]. This forced the women to adapt their resistance again through methods such as the military force that retained their roles as protectors of culture and label as mothers. However, they were not given the freedom to exercise their rights fully and their promises were not kept. During the leftist regimes, women worked as spies, army generals, and soldiers. But the men were reluctant to follow women commands; therefore, they started fighting patriarchy from below under the control of men of the lower status. Women started proving to men that as leaders they would be successful. Ana Julia even stated that it was essential for the men to know that women had earned their rights of participating in the struggle[footnoteRef:20]. [19: Martinez, Pedro. “The Revolution,” in Pedro Martinez; A Mexican Peasant and His Family (1964), 88.] [20: Margaret Randall, “The Women in Olive Green,” in Sandino’s Daughters, (Toronto: New Star Books, 1981), 133.]

However, a true realization of women equality was not accomplished. The unisex military comrades were broken because not because the women were not capable, but some men had no experience of fighting against women[footnoteRef:21]. Other extremist governments such as the military Proceso in Argentina entered the Latin American power[footnoteRef:22]. The Mothers of the Disappeared group rose in resistance of these governments. This female organization rose from a minor group to an international group and joined other organizations dealing with human rights with the aim of publicizing the plight of the disappeared in United States and Europe[footnoteRef:23]. Since the group was composed of women, it accepted the patriarchal perspective of motherhood to work towards finding their children. Later, in the 20th century, Indigenous Movement was started to fight against resistance. Women and men joined hands in redefining and strengthening their culture. The indigenous people joined together and fought the patriarchy of the white elite to claim prosperity land. Nina Pacari, an indigenous government official, since her rise in the government she fought for land as a symbol of power[footnoteRef:24]. She stood firm to her indigenous customs and dress as a way of resisting patriarchy that oppressed her people. [21: Margaret Randall, “Appendixes”, in Women in Cuba: Twenty Years Later (New York: Smyrna Press, 1981), 139.] [22: Randall, 140.] [23: Marysa Navarro, “The Personal is Political: Las Madres de Plaza de Mayo,” in Susan Eckstein, ed., Power and Popular Protest; Latin American Social Movements, (Berkley: Univ. of Cal. Press, 1989), 120. ] [24: Jaquette, Jane S. Notable twentieth-century Latin American women: (Greenwood Publishing Group, 2001), 56.]

Ideally, it was ironical that the isolation of potential corrupting factors brought social freedom to women who were viewed as less worthy in the society. As a result, some women afforded an honorable lifestyle, with those in America experiencing social freedom of high degree while those in Europe played an essential role in the economic sector. Regardless of this freedom, some of the women in the low social spectrum experienced several hardships and legacy of gender and race relations remained challenging to overcome. Until today, the resistant women continue to fight the battle regardless of rejection of social codes. The battles continue to morph, therefore, there is a high probability that the idea of resistance will never end[footnoteRef:25]. In ten years to come, the situation that the women are in today will still be the same until they adopt new methods if they want to progress. Further, women resistance might not come to an end as long as they will continue being forced to acquire new situations now and then. [25: Melanie,149.]

Conclusion

This essay focused on the significance of women in Latin colonial America. The roles that the women played in Latin America were remarkably different from that of men. Men were depicted as independent, active, and intelligent, while women were seen as silly, passive, and dependent creatures. Men were to protect the family’s fortune and honor whereas women could endanger their families through sexual misbehavior. Due to gender differences, men could come and go freely, but the physical movement of women was closely scrutinized. Women in Latin America lived in a patriarchy society where men occupied authority and power positions. Men did not have rights over other men, but they had over women, and the female characters did not have rights for themselves. The acceptable female conducts were defined by men and the women who overstepped the established boundaries were punished. Men also controlled the justice system. However, an associated advantage was that there was still room for negotiation to protect the women who had not adhered to the rules. In defining the possible roles and expectations from a woman, her race and class mattered. The acceptable female conducts, and activities were linked to her social class and racial. Elite white women lived and worked on direct supervision of their male kin.

Bibliography

1. Bastidas Puyucahua, Micaela. “Indian Revolt in Peru.” June E. Hahner, eds. Women in Latin American History: Their Lives and Views (Los Angeles: UCLA Latin American Center Publications, 1980), 35.
2. Burkholder, Mark, and Lyman Johnson. 'Colonial Latin America.' OUP Catalogue (2010).
3. Byam, Melanie. 'The modernization of resistance: Latin American women since 1500.'
4. Undergraduate Review 4, no. 1 (2008): 145-150.
5. Gonzalez de Fanning, Teresa. “Concerning the Education of Women.” Women in Latin American History 1980: 34.
6. Ines De La Cruz, Sor Juana “Letter to Sor Filotea” Colonial Latin America Chapter 6 1691, 207 Jaquette, Jane S. Notable twentieth-century Latin American women: a biographical dictionary. G reenwood Publishing Group, 2001.
7. Maria de Jesus, Carolina Child of the Dark. New York: Penguin Group, 2003.
8. Martinez, Pedro. “The Revolution.” In Pedro Martinez; A Mexican Peasant and His Family (1964): 88, 92-94.
9. Matto de Turner, Clorinda. Torn from the Nest. New York: Oxford University Press, (1998), 48 Randall, Margaret, “The Women in Olive Green.” Sandino’s Daughters, Toronto: New Star Books, (1981), 133 Senhorinha de Motta Diniz, Francisca. “What Do We Want?” Women in Latin American History (1980): 54.
10. Silverblatt, Irene. Moon, Sun and Witches. New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1987, 3 Socolow, Susan Migden. The women of colonial Latin America. Cambridge University Press, 2015.