Blog #6: Tamales & Feminism

“Tamales & Feminism”

 

In a recession dominated by news outlets regarding a declining economy, the tamale industry, and its subsidiaries of “ladies dancing with men’s hands between their legs” remains strong. It was a compelling statement, that Señora Socorro seems to have a stable flow of work, in a culture dominated by a machismo business culture, and patron politics. I feel like Señora Socorro embodies the Mexican female abstract of independence, progressive politics, and stability. Socorro is the definition of a soldadera. The byproduct of decades of gradual progression from the Revolution of 1910.

If it were left in the hands of Diego Rivera, women would be portray as corn mothers, flower vendors, gaunt wives of suffering workers, school teachers…” (pg.25).  Looking out to the Plaza de Santo Domingo, there are the handful of flower and candy vendors, which are women. However most of the downtown business owners are surprisingly female. “…In the last quarter of the nineteenth century intense market development and improvement in communications and transportation fostered urbanization and industrialization, culminating in twentieth-century Fordism…” (pg.23). Socorro is a Oaxacan Henry Ford. Other women in Oaxaca that I have met, like Angeles Padilla, resonate that “revolution” persona, as she is a single mother, who has raised two daughters both who are attending college, and supports herself through entrepeneurship and business savvy. Listening to her speak, she speaks of her mother’s childhood. Her mother is a mestizo, and being a woman in the 20^th century her woman experienced hardships in fear that her mother’s character, of strong intellect and conviction would transcend class and sex differences. Her mother eventually attended pivate schools, became educated and was elected to public office of her pueblo. However, the first hand account of her experience is inspiring. It is as if the text in Sex in Revolution: Gender, Politics, and Power in Modern Mexico, came to life. Angeles or “Tico”, wouldn’t have had it any other way. She believes that like the famous female pioneers of the United States, like Frances Harper, and Ida B. Wells, are rare individuals that had the honor of being recognized by their country. She expressed that Mexico has its share of France Harpers, but even though they will live forever in obscurity, their impact will perpetually effect the direction of Mexico’s future. It has only been roughly over a century (not that long ago in a historical context), that the idea of women as sexual objects, suffering voices, and marginalized social lepers has receded and the idea of women as the individual, mobilized and pursuit of her innate rights has succeeded in its wake. Angeles Padilla and her mother are the faces of this movement, and that revolution. 

- Miguel Ramirez Jr.