454 UNIT 4 MESOAMERICAN CULTURAL FEATURES
that they played active roles in the independence movement, although it is difficult
to assess their numbers.
In Mexico City and in Mexican provinces, women carted messages, arms, and in-
structions in their baskets from one place to the other. Wealthy women contributed
funds to the insurgent cause. One of the most important tasks that women carried
out in the independence movement was to attempt to convince soldiers to desert
the Royal Army and join the insurgency. In a propaganda document dated 1812,
Mexican women were enjoined to enlist in the armed struggle to avenge the deaths
of their male relatives by the Spanish army. This document displayed a picture of
two women wearing military hats and holding raised swords (Figure 12.4).
Although the insurgents praised women’s participation as central to the success
of the movement, after independence the new republic did not allow women a
greater role in political life. Women were not granted the right to vote or hold office.
In fact, just the opposite occurred: Books and newspapers of the period urged women
to mind their homes and children.
By the end of the nineteenth century, a greater number of women entered into
the labor force. At tobacco and textile factories, women were active in unions. Many
unionized women later joined the opposition to Porfirio Díaz and sought member-
ship in the various political parties and groups that opposed him.Figure 12.4 Mexican
women heeded the call of this
1812 propaganda document
enjoining them to participate
in the struggle for their
country’s independence.
“Personajes de un corrido.”
Archivo General de la Nación
(AGN) de Mexico. Peraciones
de Guerra: Vol. 406, f. 195
(Catalogue no. 2648).