Thursday, January 16, 2014

Mexico’s Women Liberators


"The centenary celebrations were over and all that glowing garbage was swept away.

And the revolution began.

History remembers the revolutionary leaders Zapata, Villa and the other he-men. The women, who lived in silence, went on to oblivion.

A few women warriors refused to be erased:

Juana Romona, “la Tigresa,” who took several cities by assault;

Carmen Velez, “la Generala,” who commanded three hundred men;

Angela Jimenez, master dynamiter, who called herself Angel Jimenez;

Encarnacion Mares, who cut her braids and reached the rank of second lieutenant hiding under the brim of her big sombrero “so they won’t see my woman’s eyes”;

Amelia Robles, who had to become Amelio and who reached the rank of colonel;

Petra Ruiz, who became Pedro and did more shooting than anyone else to force open the gates of Mexico City;

Rosa Bobadilla, a woman who refused to be a man and in her own name fought more than a hundred battles;

And Maria Quinteras, who made a pact with the Devil and lost not a single battle. Men obeyed her orders. Among them, her husband."

~Eduardo Galeano, Children of the Days

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