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While reading Citizenship and Rights in the New Republic, I found it astonishing the level of determination people had to make their opinions on their rights and freedoms heard. As, the Declaration of Rights of a man and Citizen did not included woman or slaves. I do agree with the statement that “freedom and equality […]

This weeks readings focus on the different groups that made up the new republics of Latin America and the struggles they undertook for citizenship and rights. The last two readings I will focus on because one is a direct rebuttal to the other and I bel…

This weeks readings focus on the different groups that made up the new republics of Latin America and the struggles they undertook for citizenship and rights. The last two readings I will focus on because one is a direct rebuttal to the other and I believe they show very well a distinct battle of sorts being fought in Latin America.
             The first written by Maria Eugenia Echenique is a manifesto of sorts directed at the women of Latin America. I would say that this work is directed in particular at middle class women. I say this because she speaks of women who need philosophy and education of a practical and sensible time. Education was at this time reserved for the upper and the newer middle classes. Maria likens women to slaves, slaves to the tyranny of men. I bring this up because it is a description in direct contrast to the description in the rebuttal. Maria believes that women are needed to help smooth the path of civilization and are necessary for civilization to advance in general. I find this statement remarkable in comparison to the thought of the period. The building of civilization was a male dominated act. Science, engineering, math, religion, these and many other “civilized” acts were lead and driven by men as was “right” as was set out by god. SO for someone, especially a woman, to declare that women were vital to the advancement of civilization must have been quite a shock and seen as absurd to many.
              The rebuttal written by Josefi na Pelliza de Sagasta illustrates how absurd this idea was considered by many. Here is a woman who many would argue has the most to benefit from emancipation writing why woman should not be emancipated. Where Maria says women are slaves to mans tyranny, Josefi claims they are masters of their domain. However a domain defined and ruled in turn by men. She claims that the beauty and greatness of women comes from and is accentuated by the dominion of man above them. They have been placed in these positions by God and that to change so presumes too much. I believe that the rebuttal highlights the difficulty of the battle that many who desired the emancipation of women had to fight. It is not as simple a battle of women versus men, but also of women versus men and women who were quite content in their societal positions. Once again these documents show that history is not a direct linear progression with clear “lines of battle” between opposing forces. But much more blurry and difficult to define.

This document is is a proposition for a  constitution for the Cuban republic.  It promotes the drive for equality throughout the population as well as immigration.  I was quite surprised when I read about the suggestion for free immigration.  This has not been achieved, as far as my knowledge goes, and would be quite a revolution within a government.  

“Soft”, “pure”, “nature”, “guardanship”, “slave”, “home”, “family”, “weak'”, “emotional”, “body” are words that are associated with the female body. Judith (Josephina Pelliza de Sagasta) uses all of these nouns and adjectives when referring to women’s place and role in society in her piece “Women: Dedicated to Miss Maria Eugenia Echenique”. The female is constructed and othered by its counterpart, the male in what is called a dualism. Judith uses this dualism to reinforce women’s place in society and glorify our oppression. What makes me uneasy is her use of religion to justify women’s role as emotional, soft bodies that are only good for gawking and for being daughters (owned by her father), wives (owned by her husband), and mother (slave to her children) (99). She denies women the right to be independent and self-defining by her own agency. Instead she characterizes her as only through her relationships with her male counterparts. In her own words, “She is a slave! you emancipated women will exclaim – and I in turn will reply to you: not a slave but a companion, man’s other half, slave perhaps to her children, but how seductive and poetic is her beautiful sacrifice”(99-100). This notion of women as docile, body and emotion is still highly visible in Latin American culture today. I’ve witnessed my cousins and aunts disciplining their daughters when they act unladylike, threatening them with the idea that they will never be loved by a man if they behave assertively, play “like boys do”, get dirty, or wear pants instead of dresses. The dualistic nature of gender is harmful to women because it forces them into a position of second-class citizen and denies them agency. 

Maria Eugenia Echenique briefly rants about the necessity for emancipation by the power of the pen in her piece “Brushstrokes”. She is enraged by the denied access to a good and full education, and the dependence women are forced into due to the social institutions that impede her emancipation. She blames the centralized ambitions for gold and “prosaic shine of possessions”. How can women progress along with men when they have been excluded from this progression? When they are possessed and cannot possess themselves needless to say objects? I believe that her approach to change in writing is a well intended one and throughout history has proven to make many changes societal changes. However, despite the number of feminist theories, papers, and speeches, this dualism that oppresses women and raises men to the status of superior master and owner of the objects of knowledge is still very much with us today. There is a missing link between what is written and what is done/thought. The key for full women emancipation is in finding out what that missing link is.