Soldaderas and the Staging of the Mexican Revolution

Abstract

militar.Adelita, por Dios te lo ruego, calma el fuego de esta mi pasión, porque te amo y te quiero rendido y por ti sufre mi fiel corazón. 2 If Adelita should go with another I would follow her over land and sea.If by sea in a battleship If by land on a military train.Adelita, for God's sake I beg you, calm the fire of my passion, because I love you and I cannot resist it and my faithful heart suffers for you. 3"La Adelita" was one of the most popular songs of the Mexican Revolution (1910-1920).According to some sources (see Soto 1990:44), this ballad was originally inspired by a Durangan woman who had joined the Maderista movement 4 at an early age.Troubadours made the song-and Adelita herself-a popular emblem of the Revolution.As Baltasar Dromundo put it, "las guitarras de todas partes se iban haciendo eruditas en ese canto hasta que por fin la Revolución hizo de ella su verdadero emblema nacional" (guitarists from all over were becoming experts in that song and it became the true emblem of the Revolution) (1936:40).Significantly, Adelita's surname, as well as the family names of many other soldaderas (soldier-women), remained virtually unknown.However, the popular songs composed in honor of these women contributed enormously to their fame and to documenting their role in the Revolution.Shirlene Soto has pointed out that: "Two heroines of the Revolution, Adelita and Valentina, were considered 'the essence of Mexican femininity,' and the corridos written to honor them had widespread popularity" (1990:44).5 Over time, Adelita's name was used to refer to any female soldier who participated in the Mexican Revolution, so that "Adelita" gradually be-Downloaded from http://direct.mit.

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