women and the Spanish-American Wars of Independence: an overview
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abstract This article looks at the ways in which Spanish American women exploited the political and social turmoil of the late 18th and early 19th centuries to move beyond their traditional sphere of influence in the home. Women directly participated in the Tu´pac Amaru Rebellion (1780–1781) and in the Wars of Independence (1810–1825) providing funding, food supplies, infrastructure and reinforcements for the troops, and nursing the wounded. Others contributed by taking part in the physical fighting (both openly and disguised as men) and a few led troops into battle. This article looks at some of the individuals behind the statistics and reveals their determination to participate despite the punishments imposed on women found guilty of disloyalty to the Spanish crown. Spanish colonial law had to be amended to ensure that women dissidents were given as equally harsh sentences as men. In the immediate post-independence period, rather than be seen as misfits or a threat to the patriarchal system, several of these women were given national awards.
keywords women; the Tu´pac Amaru Rebellion; Spanish American independence; Order of the Sun; women spies; women’s battalions
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feminist review 79 2005 c 2005 Feminist Review. 0141-7789/05 $30 www.feminist-review.com (20–35)
As with most wars, the Spanish American Wars of Independence are generally acknowledged to have been fought and won by men. Women, if mentioned at all, are said to have played minor, supporting roles in the struggles as befitting wives, sisters and daughters, or serving the troops as nurses, cooks or prostitutes (Lynch, 1986, 1992; Bushnell and Macauley 1988; Williamson, 1992: 237–239). This is not surprising; although there were regional and local variations, colonial Spanish American society was overwhelmingly patriarchal. These attitudes were sustained by a legal system that endorsed ‘the economic, social and physical subordination’ of women to men (Keen, 1992: 117–118). Studies of Spanish American women of this period do exist but, as the selected bibliography below indicates, they generally focus on specific countries or regions, and there has been a tendency to romanticise and embellish their stories rather than presenting the facts. Women had opportunities to better themselves through education, but conditions varied throughout the continent. In Peru, for example, the education of upperclass girls in convent schools had been formalized by the end of the 16th century (Martı´n, 1983: 75), whereas Mexican laws in 1810 stated that women could be taught to read, but not how to write (Arrom, 1985: 64). Men dominated politics, of course, controlling rules and customs, and the tightly structured class and caste system further determined women’s behaviour. White, upper-class urban women tended to be more closely chaperoned; working-class women who made a living outside their homes had more freedom of movement, but within obvious economic and time restrictions. All women were, to a greater or lesser extent, constrained by marriage and child bearing. Ge
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