Depictions in Contemporary Culture

American journalist John Reed and anthropologist Ricardo Pozas Arciniega both published work that depicted soldaderas first and foremost as sex workers. In his 1914 publication of Insurgent Mexico about the early years of the Revolution, Reed claimed that a soldadera begged him to let her stay with him for the night because she did not want to sleep with her soldier-employer.[1] Historian Elizabeth Salas believes that such an event is highly unlikely, as a soldier typically had to make a monetary or romantic offer to a soldadera in order to enter a union with her, and a soldadera probably would not have left an ongoing union unless she received an offer for better pay.[2] The main character of Pozas Arciniega’s Juan the Chamula: An Ethnological Re-Creation of the Life of a Mexican Indian has multiple sexual encounters with soldaderas; one of these women even seduces Juan and makes herself available to him at his request.[3] These depictions emphasize the sexual availability of soldaderas over the many types of work they performed and thus contribute to the erasure of the soldaderas varied duties in popular memory.

The most popular novel about the Mexican Revolution, Los de Abajo by Mariano Azuela, also contributes to the memory of soldaderas by creating a dichotomy of acceptable and unacceptable behavior for camp followers. The novel was originally published in installments in 1915 and depicted two symbolic soldadera characters: Camila, who suffered gracefully and willingly for her soldier, and La Pintada, a promiscuous woman who wore make up and lacked the maternal and submissive qualities of Camila.[4] Soldiers who praised soldaderas’ faithfulness to their soldiers and their willingness to suffer for the cause were drawing upon this acceptable archetype of the soldadera. A Villista lieutenant, Nicolás Duran, does exactly this in his recollection of soldaderas’ significance in the war:  “When I remember the Revolution I find very deep within me a sacred sentiment, a sort of veneration, for the Mexican woman. I will let my heart and my memory speak the words for the woman of the Revolution. She was the soul of the Revolution because she dedicated all her will to suffering…She was an angel for the soldier; lighting his spirit so that he could reach victory because that meant the realization of the ideals of the Revolution and dignity for his sons and future generations.”[5] Praising women who attached themselves to a single man and suffered for him not only stigmatizes the soldaderas who did not fit this archetype, but also places emphasis on the sexual or romantic relationship between soldiers and soldaderas and casts aside the other work women performed that allowed the military to function.

The popular folk song “La Adelita” (see lyrics and video below) also presents the soldadera as a sexual and romantic subject who suffers for her soldier. This song was such a widely recognized representation of the camp follower that “Adelita” became an interchangeable term for soldadera. The lyrics describe Adelita as both brave and pretty, and while her man goes to battle, she prays for his safety through her tears. At any moment, however, Adelita might become an unacceptable soldadera; the sergeant who loves her claims that if she ever left him for another man, he would “follow her by land and by sea.” This song, although it idolizes the soldadera as the sweetheart of the army, again erases the work she performed in keeping the army functioning. This recasting of soldaderas attempts to fit them into an acceptable performance of gender according to positivist ideology and denies the spaces of resistance which soldaderas created within masculinized spaces.