Whether or not Latin American feminists have been successful in meeting the many challenges they face continue to be the subject of fierce debate.  The same can be said of their relationship to the Cuban and Nicaraguan revolutions, to world feminist movements, and to leftist movements in their own countries.  In their own right, and as vital examples of "Global South" feminisms, they theory and practice of Latin American  feminisms raises important questions for feminisms throughout the world.

The purpose of their course is to study, and engage in, some of these debates.  We will begin by looking at the colonial period and nineteenth centuries, which according to current historiographical wisdom made up a "pre-feminist" era.  We will then study the "first wave" of feminist mobilization in the 1900-1940 period, and move on to the emergence of "revolutionary feminisms" in Cuba and Central America during the 1970's and 80's.  Our third focus will be recent women's mobilizations in the struggles agains authoritarianism and for redemocratization.  Finally, we will turn to questions of how feminist politics play out in scholarly research and production.

Course Requirements:

1) This course will be built around discussion.  Therefore, your active participation in discussion is required.  This does not mean saying "brilliant" things all the time (who knows what they are anyway, and even if we knew, who could say them all the time?), but contributing to class discussion, whether with a comment, question, doubt, or criticism.  The importance of this aspect of the class cannot be over-emphasized.  The entire focus and success of this course depends on your participation.

3) Two papers, of 8-10 pages.  Each paper must include some external readings.  I have attached a list of possible outside readings for each week/topic to help you in your bibliographic searches.  You are encouraged to use other sources, whether primary or secondary, which I have not mentioned.  The papers' focus is flexible.  They can be analyses of primary documents or life/oral histories, explorations of historiographical, theoretical, or methodological questions raised by the class, or comparisons of women's movements in different time periods or regions of Latin America.  Comparing Latin American feminisms to those of women of color in the United States is another option.  The field is open.  You must, however, clear the paper topics with me at least a week before the due dates.  The first paper is due in class on Feb. 17.  the second paper is due the first day of final exams.

Each paper will constitute 25% of your final grade.  Discussion will be 50%.

4) I will hold a number of separate meetings with the graduate students to discuss additional readings.  (See syllabus) In addition, their final paper will be 15-20 pages in length.  It should apply issues raised in the class to their own research, and incorporate a wide range of outside readings.  This paper will constitute 30% of graduate students' final grades; the first, shorter essay will be 20%. 

Course Texts (available for purchase at the Campus Store)

Required for all students:

Margaret Sayers Peden, trans., A Woman of Genius:  The Intellectual Autobiography of Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz (Salisbury, CT:  Lime Rock Press, 1987)

Gertrudis Gomez de Avellaneda y Arteaga, Sab and Autobiography (Austin:  University of Texas Press, 1993)

K. Lynn Stoner, From the House to the Streets (Chapel Hill:  University of North Carolina, 1992)

Margaret Randall, Sandino's Daughters (1981)

          , Sandino's Daughters Revisited (New Brunswick:  Rutgers University Press, 1993)

Sonia Alvarez, Engendering Democracy in Brazil:  Women's Movements in Transition Politics (Princeton:  Princeton University Press, 1990)

Rigoberta Menchu and Elisabeth Burgos-Debray, I . . . Rigoberta Menchu (London:  Verso, 1984)

Ruth Behar, Translated Women:  Crossing the Border with Esperanza's Story (Boston:  Beacon Press, 1993)

Xerox Packet of articles-- to be discussed with the professor

Required for graduate students only:

Steve Stern, The Secret History of Gender:  Women, Men, and Power in Late Colonial Mexico (Chapel Hill:  University of North Carolina Press, 1995)

Sherna Berger Gluck and Daphne Patai, eds., Women's Words:  The Feminist Practice of Oral History (New York:  Routledge, 1991)

Articles from George M. Gugelberger, ed., The Real Thing:  Testimonial Discourses and Latin America (Durham:  Duke University Press, 1996)

Course Schedule

Recommended Supplemental Reading:  "Rereading the History of Feminism", Chapter 1 of Joan Wallach Scott, Only Paradoxes to Offer (Cambridge:  Harvard University Press, 1996), pp. 1-18.

Jan. 27 (Week 2):  Precursors-- Searching for the Early Voices of Protest

Asuncion Lavrin, "In Search of the Colonial Woman in Mexico:  The Seventeenth and the Eighteenth Centuries" in Lavrin, ed., Latin American Women:  Historical Perspectives (Westport, CT:  Greenwood Press, 1978), pp. 3-22 (IN XEROX PACKET)

Sarah C. Chambers, "Witches, Mystics, and the Devil:  The 'Magical' Mediation of Gender Relations in Colonial Mexico", unpublished paper, 1989 (IN XEROX PACKET)

Sylvia Marina Arrom, The Women of Mexico City, 1790-1857 (Stanford, 1985) Chapter on divorce. (IN XEROX PACKET)

Feb. 3 (Week 3):  Precursors II-- Sor Juana and Mystic Nuns

Jean Franco, Plotting Women:  Gender and Representation in Mexico, pp. 3-22 (IN XEROX PACKET)

Margaret Sayers Peden, trans., A Woman of Genius ENTIRE

***Graduate Students meet this week to discuss exerpts from Steve Stern, The Secret History of Gender***

Feb. 10 (Week 4):  Liberalism, Feminism, and Race in the Nineteenth Century

Gertrudis Gomez de Avellaneda y Arteaga, Sab and Autobiography ENTIRE

Eileen J. Findlay, "Marriage, Motherhood, and Morality:  Male Liberals and Bourgeois Feminists in Puerto Rico, 1873-1890" IN XEROX PACKET

Feb. 17 (Week 5):  First Wave Feminism-- Cuba

K. Lynn Stoner, From the House to the Street ENTIRE

Feb. 24 (Week 6):  First Wave Comparisons (ALL IN XEROX PACKET)

***FIRST PAPER DUE IN CLASS ON WEEK 6***

Asuncion Lavrin, "Women, Labor, and the Left in Chile and Argentina, 1895-1920" Journal of Women's History 1:2 (Fall 1989):  88-116

Maxine Molyneux, "No God, No Boss, No Husband . . ." Latin American Perspectives 13:1 (1986):  118-146

Francesca Miller, "Latin American Feminism and the Transnational Arena" in Women, Culture, and Politics in Latin America (Berkeley: U. of CA, 1990):  10-27

Alaide Foppa, "The First Feminist Congress in Mexico, 1916" SIGNS 5:1 (1979): 192-199

Paulina Luisi, "Feminism" in Sara Castro Klaren, Sylvia Molloy, and Beatriz Sarlo, eds., Women's Writing in Latin America:  An Anthology (Boulder:  Westview Press, 1992):  249-253

Alicia Moreau de Justo, "Women in Democracy" in Women's Writing, pp. 263-272

March 3 (Week 7):  Revolutionary Women's Mobilization I-- Cuba (all in Xerox Packet)

***GRAD STUDENTS MEET TO DISCUSS LAVRIN BOOK***

Isabel Larguia and John Dumoulin, "Women's Equality and the Cuban Revolution" in June Nash, ed., Women and Change in Latin America, pp. 344-366

Nicola Murray, "Socialism and Feminism:  Women and the Cuban Revolution" Feminist Review #s 2 and 3 (1979)

Muriel Nazzari "The 'Woman Question' in Cuba:  an Analysis of Material Constraints on Its Solution" SIGNS (1983): 246-253

Lourdes Beneria "Capitalism and Socialism:  Some Feminist Questions" in Sonia Kruks, et al, eds., Promissory Notes:  Women in the Transition to Socialism (New York:  Monthly Review Press, 1989), pp. 325-333

March 10 (Week 8):  Revolutionary Feminism (II)-- Nicaragua

Margaret Randall, Sandino's Daughters ENTIRE

Maxine Molyneaux "Mobilization without Emancipation?  Women's Interests, the State, and Revolution in Nicaragua" Feminist Studies 11:2 (Summer 1985): 227-254 (IN XEROX PACKET)

Week 9:  Spring Break.  Have a great time!!!

Margaret Randall, Sandino's Daughters Revisited ENTIRE

Lois Wessel, "Reproductive Rights in Nicaragua:  From the Sandinistas to the Government of Violeta Chamorro" Feminist Studies 17:3 (Fall 1991): 537-549 IN XEROX PACKET

March 30 (Week 12):  Contemporary Movements-- Brazil

Sonia Alvarez, Engendering Democracy ENTIRE

April 7 (Week 13):  Contemporary Movements-- Protesting Torture and Respression in the Southern Cone (ALL IN XEROX PACKECT)

Nora Amalia Fememia "Argentina's Mothers of Plaza de Mayo:  The Mourning Process from Junta to Democracy" Feminist Studies 13:1 (Spring 1987):  9-18

Ximena Bunster-Burrotto "Surviving Beyond Fear:  Women and Torture in Latin America" in Nash and Safa, Women and Change

Maria del Carmen Feijoo and Monica Gogna "Women in the Transition to Democracy" Women and Social Change, pp. 79-114.

Maria del Carmen Feijoo "The Challenge of Constructing Civilian Peace:  Women and Democracy in Argentina" in The Women's Movement, pp. 72-94

Maria Elena Valenzuela "The Evolving Roles of Women under Military Rule" in Paul W. Drake and Ivan Jaksic, eds., The Struggle for Democracy in Chile (Lincoln:  University of Nebraska, 1995)

April 14 (Week 14):  The Politics of Oral History

Rigoberta Menchu, I . . . Rigoberta Menchu ENTIRE

***Graduate Students meet this week to discuss articles from The Real Thing***

April 21 (Week 15):  Remembering and Resting!

Viewing and reflection on movie:  The Official Story

Get going on Behar book (it's VERY long)

*** Grad Students meet to discuss Women's Words***

April 28 (Week 16):  "Feminine" Consciousness/ The Politics of Feminist Research

Ruth Behar, Translated Woman:  Crossing the Border with Esperanza's Story ENTIRE

***SECOND PAPER DUE ON THURSDAY, MAY 6***

Supplemental Bibliography for History of Latin Americna Feminisms

Steve Stern, The Secret History of Gender:  Women, Men, and Power in Late Colonial Mexico (Chapel Hill, 1995)

Jean Franco, Plotting Women:  Gender and Representation in Mexico, pp. 55-76

Asuncion Lavrin, ed., Sexuality and Marriage in Colonial Latin America (Lincoln:  Univ. of Nebraska, 1989)-- various articles

Irene Silverblatt, Moon, Sun, and Witches:  Gender Ideologies and Class in Inca and Colonial Peru (Princeton, 1987)

Ramon Gutierrez, When Jesus Came, the Corn Mothers Went Away (Stanford, 1993)

Week 3:

Franco, Plotting Women, pp. 23054

Stephanie Merrim, ed., Feminist Perspectives on Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz (Wayne State University Press)

          , Y yo despierta:  Towards a Feminist Understanding of Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz (Ann Arbor, 1987)

Week 4:

Franco, Plotting Women, pp. 79-101

Ana Alonso, Threads of Blood:  Gender, Colonialism, and the Mexican Revolution (University of Arizona Press, 1995)

Sylvia Marina Arrom, The Women of Mexico City, 1790-1857 (Stanford, 1985)

Francesca Miller, Latin American Women and the Search for Social Justice, pp. 29-51

Florencia Mallon, " A Democratic Patriarchy?  Gender and Mexican Peasant Rebellions in the Nineteenth Century" in Mary Kay Vaugan, et al, eds., Volume on Mexico and Gender

Francine Masiello, Between Civilization and Barbarism:  Women, Nation, and Literary Culture in Modern Argentina ENTIRE

Primary sources, in Spanish.  See Professor Findlay.

Weeks 5 and 6:

June Hahner, Emancipating the Female Sex:  The Struggle for Women's Rights in Brazil, 1850-1940 (Duke Univ. Press, 1990)

Asuncion Lavrin, Women, Feminism, and Social Change in Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay, 1890-1940 (University of Nebraska Press, 1996)

Catherine Davies "National Feminism in Cuba:  The Elaboration of a Counter-Discourse, 1900-1935" Modern Language Review (January 1996): 107-123

Anna Macias, Against All Odds:  The Feminist Movement in Mexico to 1940 (Greenwood Press, 1982)

Gabriela Cano, "The Porfiriato and the Mexican Revolution:  Constructions of Feminism and Nationalism" in Ruth Roach Pierson and Nupur Chaudhuri, eds., Nation, Empire, Colony:  Historicizing Gender and Race (Bloomington:  Indiana University Press, 1998): 106-121

Rosalyn Terborg-Penn, "Enfranchising Women of Color:  Women Suffragists as Agents of Imperialism" in Ibid., pp. 41-57

Miller, Latin American Women, pp. 68-109

Eileen J. Findlay, Love in the Tropics:  The Politics of Sexuality and Race in Puerto Rico, 1870-1920, forthcoming from Duke University Press.

Yamila Azize, La mujer en la lucha (Rio Piedras, 1985)

Norma Valle Ferrer, Luisa Capetillo:  Historia de una mujer proscrita (Rio Piedras, 1990)

Dora Barrancos, "Anarquismo y sexualidad" in Diego Armus, ed., Mundo urbano y cultura popular:  Estudios de historia social argentina (Buenos Aires, 1990), pp. 17-37

          , Anarquismo, educacion y costumbres en la Argentina de principios del siglo (Buenos Aires, 1990)

Mabel Bellucci, "Anarquismo, sexualidad y emancipacion femenina:  Argentina alrededor el 1900" Nueva Sociedad 109 (Sept-Oct 1990), pp. 148-157

Primary sources in Spanish.  See Professor Findlay.

Week 7:

Alfred Padula and Lois Smith, Sex and Revolution:  Women in Socialist Cuba (Oxford, 1996)

Marvin Leiner, Sexual Politics in Cuba:  Machismo, Homosexuality, and AIDS (Boulder, 1994)

Ruth Behar, ed. Bridges to Cuba (Ann Arbor, 1996)

Ruth Lewis, Oscar Lewis, and Susan Rigdon, Four Women:  LIving the Revolution, an Oral History of Contemporary Cuba (Urbana, 1977)

Retrato de Teresa-- a wonderful film, available subtitled, in video

Miller, Latin American Women, pp. 145-186

Margaret Randall, Cuban Women Now:  Interviews with Cuban Women (The Women's Press, 1974)

          , Women in Cuba Twenty Years Later (Smyrna Press, 1981)

Week 8:

Susan Ramirez-Horton, "The Role of Women in the Nicaraguan Revolution," in Thomas W. Walker, ed., Nicaragua in Revolution (New York:  Praeger Publishers, 1982): 147-159

Maxine Molyneux, "The Politics of Abortion in Nicaragua:  Revolutionary Pragmatism-- or FEminism in the Realm of Necessity?"  Feminist Review 29 (May 1988): 114-131

Norma Stoltz Chinchilla, "Revolutionary Popular Feminism in Nicaragua:  Articulating Class, Gender, and National Sovereignty" Gender and Society 4:3 (Sept 1990): 370-397

Week 9:

Maxine Molyneux, "Socialist Societies Old and New:  Progress Toward a Women's Emancipation?"  Monthly Review (July-Aug. 1982): 56-100

Margaret Randall, Gathering Rage:  The Failure of Twentieth Century Revolutions to Develop a Feminist Agenda (NY:  Monthly Review Press, 1992)

Norma Stoltz Chinchilla, "Marxism, Feminism, and the Struggle for Democracy in Latin America"  Gender and Society 5:3 (Sept. 1991): 291-310

Weeks 10-11, Contemporary Women's Movements:

Gaby Kruppers, ed., Companeras:  Voices from the Latin American Women's Movement (Monthly Review Press, 1994)

Arturo Escobar, "Culture, Economics and Politics in Latin American Social Movements Theory and Research" in Arturo Escobar and Sonia Alvarez, eds., The Making of Social Movements in Latin America:  Identity, Strategy, and Democracy (Westview Press, 1992): 62-89

Miller, Latin American Women pp. 187-239

"Latin American Women:  The Gendering of Politics and Popular Culture" Special Issue of NACLA/Report on the Americas 27:1 (July/Aug. 1993)

The Andes--

Peru:

Carol Andreas, When Women Rebel:  The Rise of Popular Feminism in Peru (Lawrence Hill and Company, 1985)

Maruja Barrig, "The Difficult Equilibrium Between Bread and Roses:  Women's Organizations and the Transition from Dictatorship to Democracy in Peru" in Jane Jaquette, ed., The Women's Movement in Latin America:  Feminism and the Transition to Democracy, pp. 114-148

Cecilia Blondet, "Establishing an Identity:  Women Settlers in a Poor Lima Neighborhood" in Elizabeth Jelin, ed., Women and Social Change in Latin America, pp. 12-46

Bolivia:

Rosario Leon, "Bartolina Sisa:  The Peasant Women's Organization in Bolivia" Women and Social Change, pp. 135-150

Andean Oral History Workshop, "Indigenous Women and Community Resistance:  History and Memory" Women and Social Change, pp. 151-183

Ecuador:

Amy Conger Lind, "Power, Gender, and Development:  Popular Women's Organizations and the Politics of Need" in Escobar and Alvarez, pp. 134-149

Brazil--

Sonia E. Alvarez, "Women's Participation in the Brazilian People's Church:  A Critical Appraisal," Feminist Studies 16:2 (Summer 1990): 381-408

Teresa Pires de Rio Caldeira, "Women, Daily Life, and Politics," Women and Social Change, pp. 47-78

Florisa Verucci, "Women and the New Brazilian Constitution" Feminist Studies 17:3 (Fall 1991): 551-568

Southern Cone in General--

Jo Fisher, Out of the Shadows:  Women, Resistance, and Politics in Latin America (Latin American Bureau, 1993)

Argentina:

          , Mothers of the Disappeared (Zed Books, 1989)

Marguerite Guzman de Bouvard, Revolutionizing Motherhood:  The Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo (Wilmington:  Scholarly Resources Press, 1994)

Alison Brysk, The Politics of Human Rights in Argentina:  Protest, Change, and Democratization (Stanford, 1994)

Chile:

Thelma Galvez and Rosalba Todaro, "Chile:  Women and Unions," in Women and Social Change, pp. 115-134

Patricia M. Chuchryck, "Feminist Anti-Authoritarian Politics:  The Role of Women's Organizations in the Chilean Transition to Democracy," The Women's Movement, pp. 149-184

Central America--

Jennifer Schirmer, "The Seeking of Truth and the Gendering of Consciousness:  The Comadres of El Salvador and the Conavigua Widows of Guatemala" in Sarah A. Radcliffe and Sallie Westwood, eds., "Viva":  Women and Popular Protest in Latin America (Routledge, 1993): 30-64

Venezuela--

Elisabeth J. Friedman, "Paradoxes of Gendered Political Opportunity in the Venezuelan Transition to Democracy" Latin American Research Review 33:3 (1998): 87-135

Weeks 12-15, The Politics of Oral History and Feminist Research--

Life Histories:

George M. Gugelberger, ed., The Real Thing:  Testimonial Discourse and Latin America (Duke, 1996)

Domitila Barrios de Chungara, Let Me Speak!  Testimony of Domitila, a Woman of the Bolivian Mines (Monthly Review Press, 1978)

Lynn Stephens, ed., Hear My Testimony:  Maria Teresa Tula, Human Rights Activist of El Salvador (Boston:  South End Press, 1994)

Medea Benjamin, with Elvia Alvarado, Don't Be Afraid Gringo:  A Honduran Woman Speaks from the Heart (Institute for Food and Development Policy, 1987)

Honor Ford-Smith, Lionheart Gal:  Life Stories from Jamaican Women

Lewis, Lewis, and Rigdon, Four Women (See above in Cuba section)

Daphne Patai, Brazilian Women Speak:  Contemporary Life Stories (Rutgers, 1988)

Feminist Research and Methodologies:

Katherine Borland, "'That's Not What I Said':  Interpretive Conflict in Oral Narrative Research" in Women's Words:  The Feminist Practice of Oral History, pp. 63-75

Daphne Patai, "U.S. Academics and Third World Women:  Is Ethical Research Possible?" in Ibid., pp. 137-153

Claudia Salazar, "A Third World Women's Text:  Between the Politics of Criticism and Cultural Politics" in Ibid., pp. 93-106

Judith Stacey, "Can There be a Feminist Ethnography?" in Ibid., pp. 111-119

The Politics of Sexuality:

Norma Alarcon, Ana Castillo, Cherrie Moraga, eds., Third Woman:  The Sexuality of Latinas Vol. IV (Berkeley:  Third Woman Press, 1989)

James Green and Enrique Asis, "Gays and Lesbians:  The Closet Door Swings Open" NACLA/Report on the Americas Vol. 26:4 (Feb 1993): 4-7

Roger N. Lancaster, Life is Hard:  Machismo, Danger, and the Intimacy of Power in Nicaragua (Berkeley: Univ. of CA, 1992)

Marvin Leinter, Sexual Politics in Cuba:  Machismo, Homosexuality, and AIDS (Westview Press, 1994)

Juanita Ramos, ed., Companeras:  Latina Lesbians (An Anthology) (New York:  Latina Lesbian History Project, 1987)

Elizabeth Station, "Brazil:  Activists Take On AIDS" NACLAS/Report on the Americas Vol. 23:4 (Nov/Dec 1989): 8-11