The documents that our group was
assigned with was reading and learning from the perspective of the soldiers and
the soldaderas, Chapter 3 of Mark Wasserman's The Mexican Revolution A Brief History with Documents. Throughout all the documents
there is a general theme that emerges from them; the soldiers
didn’t want to be there and without the soldaderas they wouldn’t have any will
left in them to fight. It was very evident that after reading these documents
the soldiers were miserable. It seemed like the soldiers themselves didn’t even want
to be soldiers during the Revolution. The soldiers’ lives were very harsh. They didn’t have proper
clothing, they didn’t have enough food or supplies, they were short on ammo
supplies, and didn’t have proper shelter. Troops were also unreliable and very
undisciplined, desertion was always a problem (pg. 69). For the soldiers, the
women played a very important role as the men needed the women both domestically
and emotionally. The women did what they were told to do by the men because that was what they were expected to do.
Blake Wilkinson
The first document by John Reed entitled The Soldaderas described a man's personal account of three women during the Revolution. The first woman, Elizabetta, was following a captain who had needed a woman. "Needing a women, he ordered her to follow him. Which she did, unquestioningly, after the custom of her sex and country" (pg. 70). The narrator and Elizabetta spent the night together because of her fear of the captain. Yet, the next morning she was now calling the captain her man. This lifestyle was common for women during the Revolution. It seemed impossible for a relationship to last a lifetime if the lifetime of a soldier going in to war was drastically decreased. Later in the document, the narrator describes his encounter with two soldaderas. They go into more detail about the lifestyle of women during the Revolution. "We follow our men out in the campaign, and then we do not know from hour to hour whether they live or die" (pg.71). These soldadera's accounts provided a clear picture of how women were treated during the Revolution.
The next document by Anthony Quinn entitled A Soldier's Wife, describes the relationship between a soldier and soldadera. Francisco was a soldier who was about to join the army when he propositioned Manuela to be his soldadera. "I decided that if I went off to fight I would like you beside me" (pg. 75). It was clear that the role of the soldadera was important to soldier's during the Revolution after reading this narrative. It was interesting to read how Francisco and Manuela's relationship developed in only a short amount of time. Battle after battle, Francisco and Manuela started to realize the love for each other and how their relationship was important to their survival.
The next document Experiences of the War includes three accounts from veterans of the Mexican Revolution. In Nicolas Duran's narrative, he describes the troop of soldiers he was with during the Revolution. At one point, the younger soldiers were dismissed and the more mature soldiers were kept in his troop. Yet Duran convinces his general the value of a young soldier. "I finally convinced Canuto Reyes that youth was superior in battle because the young men did not run away and were not afraid of danger" (pg. 82). But Duran and his army were continually defeated in battles. The poor training and lack of order were major factors in these defeats. Duran also describes his admiration for women during the Revolution. "When I remember the Revolution I find very deep within me a sacred sentiment, a sort of veneration, for the Mexican woman" (pg. 82). We see that once again, women played an important role for the men both domestically and emotionally during the Revolution. Maria Villasana Lopez' account, she describes how she and her sister were kidnapped when she was young to help take care of the soldiers. Being taken from your home and thrown into a life of wounded and dead soldiers seems unfathomable, yet that was the lifestyle of many women during the Revolution. These documents help paint a clear picture of the men and women of the Mexican Revolution.
Fighting without Pay by Marcelo Caravaeo was a short narrative about how seasoned revolutionary soldiers of the war were faced with food shortages and no money while latecomers to the revolution were treated with banquets and parties. It was especially interesting to read about this treatment to the soldiers who had been fighting for the Revolution from the beginning. Caraveo explains that their location, near the United States, wouldn't tolerate looting or disorderly behavior. But when there is no food and no money, that order begins to disappear. The anger from these soldiers is completely validated. Were they fighting for nothing if they couldn't even reap the benefits the new revolutionaries were receiving?
The final two documents were photographs of soldiers and soldaderas and a song about the gratitude to the soldaderas entitled Adelita. The picture on page 90 really captures the relationship between the soldier and soldadera. Adelita is a tribute to soldaderas and the lyrics provide a clear picture of just how important the soldadera was. "Adelita never dies always fighting by the side of her soldier" (pg. 91).
All the documents had similar accounts of the soldiers and what they were faced with, and
these documents go more into depth about what they were faced with than a
normal textbook would do. The documents really almost put you into the shoes of
the soldiers and soldaderas and makes you feel what they had to go through. It was especially surprising
to read about how the military was unfit for battle, but we learned about how
the military modernized and received the latest European weapon’s.
Blake Wilkinson
I found this to very, very interesting. The main question that kept coming to mind is, if these men didn't want to fight in the Revolution, then why did they? Was there anything in it for them? Was there anything keeping them around? Were they forced into it? To me, it seems as though they felt obligated to participate or were coerced into doing so then didn't feel as though they could leave. How sad of a life to live, to fight for something that you don't want to fight for. I imagine the same sentiment was felt among many during the draft here in America.
ReplyDeleteI find it interesting that the women would follow the men through the battles (though not in them), especially when they barely knew these men. It's very different than a lot of other civalizations handled things, where the women would stay home and wait for their men to come back home to them. In some ways, I'm sure this was better; they could be with their significant other rather than separated for months on end. In other ways, it was probably fairly stressful on the women and men to travel around like this. Was there a stigma on these women who followed the men? Were they considered to be outcasts of society for doing so or were they seen as important parts to the morality of the men?
Blake, I also enjoyed your post! As I was reading through it I also had the same questions as Steph. I find the relationships between the men and women so strange! Like Steph I am curious how these women were viewed by the rest of society, was this seen as helpful or were they looked down upon by other people? I know some women knew the men before traveling with them but for the most part it seems as though the women were forced into the support role for the soldiers or chose to just randomly help out. I am curious what decision making process the women went through to decide to follow around and help these men in battle.
ReplyDeleteIt is my belief that the young soldiers were more enthusiastic because they were inexperienced with warfare. At the very beginning, they probably had no prior experience with gunfire, artillery fire, and the barking of drill captains. As a result, they were afforded the opportunity to become passionate about their cause and most likely became integrated with it. Those who stayed or had prior experience would not have wanted to stay because they knew it was a fools errand. Based on my readings within the text, most battles between the revolutionaries and the federal army were a combination of nineteenth century tactics and twentieth century technology. This would have created chaos and disaster on the field. One of the great tragedies of WWI was that the armies did not understand the technologies that well and thus, sent mass charges of infantry into areas guarded by machine gun fire. Pancho Villa made an effort to counteract this with guerilla style tactics and what I like to call rushing (a strategy in RTS games where you mass strike the enemy base with a horde of weaker infantry and overwhelm the resistance). He was able to operate as such for over a decade so his tactics must have worked.
ReplyDelete