The Life and Deaths of Felipa Poot: Women, Fiction, and Cardenismo in Postrevolutionary Mexico

Abstract

On the night of 28 March 1936, gunmen linked to a cacique killed a young peasant leader in the village of Kinchil in western Yucatán. Such incidents proved far from rare in rural Mexico of the 1920s and 1930s, as factional disputes over land or local power often played out violently. What is exceptional about the murder in Kinchil is that the murdered community leader was a woman, Felipa Poot.Poot’s life and death inspired a series of writers, journalists, and amateur historians. For example, in 1938, Poot appeared in a short story penned by Martín Luis Guzmán.1 Yucatecan intellectuals later cast her as the victim of reactionary landlords who sought to halt agrarian reform and thus legitimize the postrevolutionary regime. In 1986 journalist Jesús Solís Alpuche published a series of articles based on oral history for the pro-government Mérida newspaper Diario del Sureste. Several subsequent intellectuals focused on the circumstances surrounding Poot’s life and death, but failed to separate her from revolutionary mythology.2This article reconstructs the events leading to Felipa Poot’s rise as a popular leader and, eventually, her death. By disentangling her life and death from semifictional accounts, I show how popular, leftist Cardenista mobilizations in Kinchil challenged limits on women’s political participation. My analysis of how and why Poot’s life and death became partially fictionalized, and how the transformation of Poot from a historical footnote into the subject of local revolutionary legend sheds light on the ideology of postrevolutionary Mexico.3 Finally, I will argue that the process of decontextualization and mythification of Poot’s life and death in later narratives yields important insights into both the nature of the postrevolutionary state in Mexico and the status of women.4In many ways, Felipa Poot represented the average Mexican of her day: young, female, and poor. She had acquired the ability to speak and write some Spanish despite her limited educational opportunities; however, the language of home and community remained Yucatec Maya.5 She became a mother at age 14 or 15, in either 1924 or 1925.6 Marriage and motherhood marked her transition into the adult world.7 At that time, Kinchil was a small town that gradually decreased in size: about a tenth of its population of 2,200 in 1930 would leave over the next decade.8Like other rural communities in southern Mexico, Kinchil was divided along lines of gender, ethnicity, and class that separated the Maya-speaking campesinos from the more Hispanicized wealthy and priviledged vecinos. For the most part, members of the campesino strata were poor, denied educational opportunities, and marked by prevailing attitudes as inferior due to their use of the Maya language, dress, and their occupations that typically required manual labor. Vecinos, on the other hand, owned almost all the handful of stores and more numerous ranches in Kinchil. They had more (but not a lot of) formal education, were generally lighter-complexioned, spoke Spanish, and dressed in the prevailing fashions of Western city folk.9Kinchil’s narrow world seemed superficially traditional (if not colonial). Although ideas of masculinity and femininity varied among poorer indigenous people and the wealthier mestizos, men from both groups viewed control of their unmarried daughters and their wives as necessary to define their own roles.10 Strictly gendered, Kinchil’s public space was considered to be a male preserve.11 For the most part, colonial (if not pre-Columbian) norms had long assigned different tasks to men and women.12 Women hauled water and tended the home and garden. Men scraped out a living working as cowboys on the numerous small cattle ranches around Kinchil, hunted, and farmed small fields of corn. The economic mainstay of many male Kinchileños had once been day labor on nearby large henequen haciendas, but their decline across western Yucatán curtailed this option during the revolutionary era.We should be careful in assuming that dominant cultural ideals and legally enshrined notions such as the patriarchal family pervaded society. Recent research by Christopher that often the of as as as and The a on colonial was not that in Kinchil in this such as who rural to Kinchil in the 1930s, would as a in its and cultural more and a and Kinchil had due to the of the of population had in the the and in and labor from its Although more research is to the to the labor and was the that many from peasant of the and to their and in some to as In Kinchil, the of and for and represented the most important economic to and many in Yucatán to family by male the traditional of communities such as Kinchil, and cultural gender, and Mexican the political and, to a of the in Yucatán by and on the henequen and their on political and in the of Mexico, the revolutionary process and, at as on and their men in In not far from Kinchil, as in her and to a in and political to the state in and into of the of the appeared to public state Although political were later men to a and during the of The Mexican and other such as the of the but not the traditional rural the Mexican some for and groups in the not at the of the society. In the revolutionary process popular linked to who were for state In the of and in the of other revolutionary a of popular power in many in rural Yucatán in the and in Kinchil, a of and by and economic and political power by the The the of the of the leader In the and the and their their over Kinchil by a of to its They a of as the to that around Kinchil. the state the to all of the their long history of political and Kinchil the of considered the most and in all of the that as a peasant the of Kinchil Kinchil, or political and economic the of in of the western of the over Kinchil be to more the of such as and Solís as a cultural the and Maya-speaking of the henequen labor and a of in the Yucatecan and to and power in the Although the were as a of the in of Poot’s death, the Solís had and were to and political of the of based on and of the local power as as in the state to from the henequen and the partially and Solís were not but state and to the of Mexico such as of who revolutionary to their over and their own economic for the at political and their Kinchil in a young to a Kinchil had in the for as in nearby had a rural In the of of the of not the Spanish, not and the but night for and to and that this of cultural by the of the postrevolutionary played a both and in Yucatán in the the of in Yucatán in the poorer and more on and generally more indigenous communities not its but the that the state had generally the of In a of some of Kinchil’s that the of the state their the Mexican had for the strata of rural who had a Spanish and from in other the vecinos. had political that and were for people and who had In the of campesino in the Yucatecan town of to a on their to how to their in city and the ability to speak Spanish as as Maya were among the challenged in Kinchil. the for and the patriarchal nature of rural the of Poot in Kinchil that for about by a in the revolutionary in that were to the status why and how challenged class and in Kinchil into not in the but the of the Cardenista and the of the of Mexico The Cardenista educational to community to adult and public and to ideas of and that the At the time, by as of and land By the power to labor as as to for land as a rural and and into the in Kinchil not as the of the Cardenista state but as a of the mobilizations and a and the to use to Mexico into the of and, in the long the for a the Cardenista state the in its to the in and popular the of the In the both and state its and the the of all Cardenista groups in The over and its important in Kinchil be to over the of of the in the state in the in Yucatán. not to and in but to that many young over and in the of class For had the in Yucatán and a Spanish of The of along own of into in communities such as Kinchil that had state from their on henequen haciendas, in and in small in and peasant a labor linked to the the Kinchil’s a of the of popular as as educational many other from due to of and a of the of political and local the and to the of the a to the of the over and the of the over the The communities the of by and labor. Solís to a for from by to to the the I to is the state that is by the state on the other hand, is the of the and is the the was to the Solís that the status in Kinchil. to a among the that a in Cardenista Mexico, the of a more patriarchal society. In the of the and of the a of to Cardenista as as the more ideas of the in communities the of the Cardenista was important economic The labor in Yucatán labor the power to the labor the the state on Solís the had their henequen as a not be to the of and the a of men who would be to not in the but to a and a the of small in peasant communities to as of such the community as the of the in Kinchil. would be on the of and community by the into at a the was in most of Mexico and not be by to the on and in the language of the and that challenged the by the of the For example, and of community had the from nearby The as a of both in the to In this speak of from the They and, to the to a on of the popular of leftist in Kinchil. The of not but and to of among most peasant men and local and popular the in from the of the and use to The of from a that challenged the of the on as a that on of the a in Kinchil, in or of the of and in a the economic and in Kinchil during of cattle owned by a and The Poot on Poot to the to for the men in state the for and for a the for the but the of and Kinchil’s the to Kinchil on to to the a village and of the the of to that Solís to out of Kinchil for not on to some out to about the Solís and to by the state Solís to by as the leader of a the of in local for the Solís the their to Mérida at a had and on of the political in Mérida and the and in Mexico the in Kinchil on the light of the by of the in Kinchil, and the not out the and On the in for a public in Kinchil to about the time, of the in the and of the state of the the the was for in and the at in for the to the of the and the that the would to the the once the the and of the as a the Cardenista state and Kinchil’s would on the from was the campesinos from a and the and to out in Kinchil. from to the on of by the and their on the night of a of that was by the of the rural Mexico in the the had to to local the how remained from by the and the was to out revolutionary at in the state by the town of Solís of the a that labor by the not of but the the who and to henequen the that Solís of to the of to the ideals of the and to a to The to and to but as for not I will in to to or all of this is a and this to a be to as cacique would the such the male and the out for the a history of murder and in Kinchil. members for a of by the Solís and their a not among the a of the Solís to death in of town local to death. were by a of out of the and the of not to in the the was by who for to the and of the and that in Several from the on the to on their of from Mexico will a of death other seemed but the that the local was the to labor of the of the and to or who to the into the agrarian reform was and by Kinchil’s to land from some the and and that the the Cardenista land reform that the by the were that would of land and in the land in was a women’s at the were in the community of the the by that the Women but to as were was the to the of Kinchil and spoke to not about or their economic but on the of In of the long of and the the to on the the state and the of the almost On the night of of the most and the by a of formal and of the later however, and failed to a on for the of Kinchil’s the to Solís as the the in Yucatán Mexico that not in that is of agrarian reform or the that the was to land the into the in Kinchil was or The of popular the Solís many popular to and the to local the for in state and local that and to At the time, the Cardenista state that the of land in the of a the of was to the in The not land reform in its to Solís the on would not that the land reform at the death of Felipa Poot in March In the and of in the of Yucatán due to their for agrarian however, not such in Kinchil. is that the of Kinchil were out for henequen land in or that the economic was a were by land of agrarian in Kinchil in light of its Kinchil’s a large and small henequen was Kinchil had a long history of to its by Although agrarian had in the in the of the revolutionary process in Kinchil, by the of the had in agrarian was the henequen around Kinchil were in not agrarian in that henequen fields Kinchil were and a that was across of the western of the henequen had in of fields from henequen that were around Kinchil. is not to that were economic day in Kinchil and who on and were over and not the in most of Kinchil to of not on on haciendas, but on for The of henequen fields to as The by and (but not became the of for most In the of a peasant leader on the of Kinchil, was The and state the as a economic and the on the of in of the of popular for agrarian in Kinchil. The was in a Poot’s the that Poot’s life a to the is that the of the to the not for for the of land owned by the and their for more agrarian to be to the of to Kinchil its land and the of Kinchil for more henequen land or or for henequen Poot’s death were not at all about for from to the land not in to a popular from the in Kinchil. In the of the over Kinchil was by not land and but and the Solís was a to the 1936, her Felipa Poot appeared in the historical as a for Kinchil in had to during in Kinchil and not in community however, were in adult Poot was not a a her as of the of and of of on the and male peasant Poot and other in the of the almost would her into the by the Kinchil Poot would her political education, some to ideas of class and some ideas of Mexican and world the historical as to how Felipa Poot as a leader in Kinchil. At the of the and to their into the that family Poot into the of and but this would not why other the leftist Cardenista at the Felipa Poot’s as a leader in Kinchil the in Mérida of a state of the most important Cardenista and the for some the Cardenista state and the of that the of into the age of during the of the The state by of the in that to and into the education, labor opportunities, and more political in the that the state of the and to At the time, had to to from the and of their The both the Cardenista to and as as as for women’s leftist Cardenista not marked a in women’s political in Yucatán but the of the of in In the the Mexican who to into the formal of from the and were and often from For example, the most important leader in Yucatán in the and was the of the Yucatecan Although the some of had and the as a of some over political the generally not to a women’s often into the public of leftist Cardenista to that use as a to to into the formal political of and linked to the a and economic that challenged the of from The of the however, to the male of both who to the of to political and from among their own over not the not for its the the that on women’s would that women’s a of the and the in that had to more and the the the for and the would their for political The a handful of limited in in and of that the would use to control as had in for the in the and Cardenista leading and as for in and Yucatán adult men and in Maya for or city both the lines to The the economic for day economic but not its for a of for to their own and the of the of many Cardenista and a in the by in into or Poot’s in Kinchil’s represented a in women’s status Although the that the and the on many about how in Kinchil. or the the of a of into the or was a to in Kinchil were to from the some events in that that the in the state to in a of the the in Yucatán was in of the in Yucatán at the time, Poot a her death in of her of Kinchil’s a that her as a leader and had her to the of the of the state In almost her to her as of the most important Cardenista is some that Poot’s as a leader about a the state of the in Kinchil. Although is the in all but of the and was not the in Kinchil. in or 1936, the assigned a to Kinchil, to in the large of and was not a the in or the of in Kinchil, the peasant by had been to Felipa would in the the Solís over economic in the of labor and to land for and over and the of to and state in and the of in the Kinchil leftist Cardenista the to Solís from this to of the and On members of in the of of Kinchil, town as of and and as of the In this Kinchil’s and a of and to for to the Solís of the the and and the Cardenista would be to or from Mexico agrarian reform was not the of 1936, a of from Kinchil and to Solís and town The community of the along the of and a peasant that some members of the to the the leftist the of of Yucatán to to to popular and On the the to a from Kinchil of and Felipa the and that on their to the of Kinchil. In of a of a leader of the the to to the on the of Kinchil a The by the of due for and to Solís who had would been the to Kinchil a town Felipa Poot not Kinchil’s a short to the of the newspaper Diario Yucatán in about the to their her Spanish was and was at in city 1936, leftist Cardenista in small due to Poot’s of the Kinchil’s and all in and the They of the and town the on their and of the the of The of their revolutionary to a but once not land reform as of a the of the a in Yucatán over a over into Kinchil. of a the in Yucatán and Kinchil’s to the for The of and Solís the of the of in for to the time, across Yucatán. The and its was of the state a The night Poot’s death, a in Mérida that would from the of that to all of had Poot a as as leader of Kinchil’s been a of leftist Cardenista The that was about by the and its the into a on of the and both on the of was at this that the of Kinchil to the in Mérida and to a in Kinchil in for in and of the in Kinchil for the The in Mérida to the to Kinchil. would later was by the Kinchileños who had been by and for for their The of Kinchil the of the on 28 March and of to their in as by the Solís to their Felipa Poot the of the a of Poot of was of or and is not Poot was by a of who or Poot was In Poot and by that The peasant in and a of Felipa Poot and men to to the and its as a of the and a not be as in state of their not in of the local agrarian for that but by the of that the people of Kinchil were a who to about not about Poot and her the on the of and out and Felipa Poot to the as to was in or Poot in a and her the men in the to in In of Poot’s murder the members of the to the to the was over more and of the were of the night of 28 March was in the of Mérida the based on their political as both the of local and Poot and her as in a The pro-government Diario del the often by state in the Poot’s murder as on the working class by The Diario Yucatán the death on the the who Kinchil’s and thus was for the to as The and the in a to the to of for the by the of the the of the that of Kinchil for Poot’s death. The however, spoke not either the Solís or of the and the the of the in the and would be to the Solís the in the Felipa Poot and her gradually from Kinchil’s but would in and subsequent of the was to a partially of Poot’s death. to the to that had Poot to the but to in Kinchil. the of the the Solís of Poot’s a by many that the was and that the had been by who the by was not a of from by of in the to this by The of in this of Poot’s death be was at to in Mérida and was of had of leftist to popular their that Poot’s death was linked to in be death of Felipa Poot and in Kinchil remained had been in the of and by to Mexico by and leftist all rural landlords and to a population and The of Solís and a as political who to the of The of the was that Poot’s was and the of Kinchil that would on who was a to Yucatán for on in Yucatán to the land reform in the henequen of the The to public of across the agra

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