Soldaderas

Who is Soldaderas?

Soldaderas were female soldiers who went into combat alongside men during the Mexican Revolution, which initially broke out in opposition to the conservative, authoritarian Díaz regime. The term is derived from the Spanish word soldada which denotes a payment made to the person who provided for a soldier's well being. This payment would usually be for the everyday tasks, much like a wife would perform, or for sexual relations. Soldaderas had been a part of Mexican military long before the Mexican Revolution, however, numbers increased drastically once the revolution began. As well, the revolution saw the emergence of the female soldier, whereas before, soldaderas would have only been what we now call camp followers and performed tasks such as taking care of the male soldiers; cooking, cleaning, setting up camp, cleaning their weapons and so forth. For soldaderas, the Mexican Revolution was their greatest time in history. Even though female soldiers were numerous during the revolution, the majority of soldaderas were still what would be considered camp followers, and whether a soldier or camp follower, the majority were lower class, rural, mestizo and indian women. There has been a lot of emphasis on female soldiers but without the camp followers, the armies fighting in the revolution would have had a lot harder lives. Joining the revolution happened for many different reasons, however, it was not always voluntarily.