an introduction from the guest editor
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Women’s studies and feminist critique are interdisciplinary of necessity and this issue of Feminist Review is no exception. The articles have at their centre a nexus of ideas pertaining to women’s history, the history of sexual difference, women’s bodies, warfare and the legacy of militarism. Coherence is ensured by their focus on one place, Latin America (Chile, Mexico, Colombia and Brazil mainly), and primarily one period, the 19th century.1 The first four articles focus on the Spanish American Wars of Independence (c. 1810–25); the following three on 19th-century medical and nursing practices in Latin America; and the final three plus the dialogue section on how the patriarchal values and attitudes embedded in the very formation of the Latin American nation-states have carried over until today. The articles provide further knowledge about women as historical subjects and agents and also indicate ways in which the terms ‘man’ and ‘woman’ are produced historically, especially in crises of war (Davies, Brewster, Fowler and Brown) and military repression (Acun˜a, Green). Of interest is to underline women’s complicity in the objectification of women’s bodies and in the politics of exclusion based on sexual difference (Gorbach, Cha ´zaro, Liddell, Miller, Craske). The common denominator in these studies is authoritarianism and, conversely, the submission, dependence and exclusion of subjects or citizens denominated ‘woman’. Gender inequality, seen here to be exercised in the political, intellectual, cultural and medical spheres, is arguably both the symptom and the cause of the constant threat of war (Goldstein, 2001: 401).2
women/war/Latin America Apart from nationalist celebration of iconic female heroines, especially during the centenary commemorations c. 1920, relatively little attention had been paid to Latin American women in war and the subsequent implications for the social organization of sexual difference (although see Cherpak (1978) in Lavrin (1978), and Earle (2000) in Dore and Molyneux (2000)). Yet since independence (and before) the region has been marked by violence and conflict. Most warfare has been in civil wars between conservatives and liberals, or central governments and the regions. The lengthiest and bloodiest were the Wars of Independence with Spain, especially in Venezuela (which was almost entirely destroyed) and Colombia; these were civil wars between rebels/ patriots on the one hand and royalists/loyalists on the other. Thereafter five major wars between the Latin American republics were caused primarily by
feminist review 79 2005 c 2005 Feminist Review. 0141-7789/05 $30 www.feminist-review.com (1–4)
1 Latin America denotes Spanish America and Portuguesespeaking Brazil; Spanish America denotes the Spanish-speaking republics extending from Mexico to Argentina and Chile, but does not include the Spanish Caribbean. Cuba and Puerto Rico did not achieve independence from Spain until 1898. The independence of Brazil from Portugal (in 1889) was the result of a relatively peaceful process. 2 F
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