Dissident Women: “Key Women’s Documents” & Introduction

This reading began with a few key women;s documents; Women’s Revolutionary Law, Women’s Rights in Our Traditions and Customs, and Comandanta Esther: Speech Before the Mexican Congress. After these, the introduction to the book presented the material that would follow in later chapters as well as some history on indigenous and gender related struggles in Mexico. In the Zapatista movement, women are including their rights in the indigenous struggle for autonomy. Before the 1994, the Mexican government had people’s rights based on the idea of mestizaje, which only allows the recognition of one mixed culture. This made the Indians seem like a race that was only located in the past, and modern Indians were somewhat erased. The Zapatistas are fighting for recognition and support of their culture and traditions, while also fighting for women’s rights within them. This is an interesting idea because, in protecting their rights, they will be altering some of their traditions, such as forcing a daughter into marriage. This is because they recognize that some of the ‘traditions’ are harmful and detrimental to women, and by protecting and educating the women, their communities will prosper. When women become better off, their children benefit, and as the children grow, they become the community, and therefore, the community is better off. Also, it makes no sense to think that to be a culturally native person, you have to live and behave the same as your people did hundreds of years before. Cultures change and grow over time, just as anything else. In this way the women are trying to be recognized. They want their rights and the rights of their people so that they can hold on to their way of life and their history in today’s world.