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David M. Pena-Guzman

Scholar: David M. Pena-Guzman

Major: Women's Studies

Faculty Mentors: Rosemary Dixon, M.Phil.

Research Topic: "Remembering the Soldaderas: Subalternity and Feminism in the Mexican Revolution"

Abstract: The historiography of the Mexican Revolution has been characterized by a blatant disregard for the ways in which women soldiers (soldaderas) influenced the course of the movement and the success of the revolution. This paper uses post-colonial philosophy (especially theories of the subaltern) and feminist critiques of history to provide an account of the highly political space that soldaderas occupied in the Mexican public sphere from 1910 to 1917. Viewing soldaderas as a subaltern community exposes their complex consciousness and rebellious identities while challenging modern nationalist representations of women soldiers as embodied symbols of the national. Such an exercise is essential not only to analyze how women's participation in the revolution was conditioned by their positionality as female peasants, but also to expose the ways in which women who were active in the creation of the nation-state were subsequently excluded from political representation by the male-dominated government that emerged after the revolution.

New Scholar: Fall 2008

Graduated With Baccalaureate Degree: Spring 2009

Masters or Doctoral Program Update: Accepted into a Master's Program at Emory University in Georgia for fall 2009.