An Incomplete Redemption

• Published in: Reviews in American history 2019-09, Vol.47 (3), p.399-403
• Main Author: Guidotti-Hernández, Nicole M
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: 20th century; American history; Feminism; Hispanic Americans; Patriarchy; Political activism
• ISSN: 0048-7511; 1080-6628; 1080-6628
• DOI: 10.1353/rah.2019.0068

While highly paternalistic, middle-class Mexican women reproduced the structures of patriarchy with their activism in what González calls "maternal feminism," they drew on the same conventions of republican motherhood utilized by white women during the U.S. colonial period, which mandated that they maintain the virtues of the home and the family in service of the nation, uniting contradictory feelings about how proper patriotism could be expressed.3 González's book's main contribution lies in the way it extends the conversation about patriotism, racial uplift, and class benevolence to communities along the U.S.–Mexico border in the early-twentieth century. Villegas de Magnón was able to leverage a particular kind of capital in securing support for the White Cross/La Cruz Blanca organization that aided wounded Mexican soldiers on the U.S. side of the border in her meeting with future Mexican President Venustiano Carranza in April of 1914. [...]she split with LULAC because the organization refused to incorporate Mexicans immigrants into their political platform. [...]women like Emma Tenayuca or Juana Belén Gutiérrez de Mendoza who defied those gender ideologies of middle-class propriety were punished for their distinct forms of racialism.