Solderderas

In Nancy's reading report last class, we had a rather lengthy discussion on the type of clothing the solderderas wore. Through the articles, it seemed as though some women chose to wear dresses whereas others chose to wear more masculine clothing. I find it interesting that there is a big difference between the types of clothing that the solderderas wore. I tried searching for some photos of these women, in an attempt to try and get a better understanding of perhaps why there were two very distinct choices.

The website that I found showed mainly woman in long dresses, with sashes and guns. The image was very striking to me, because the women were wearing traditional clothing in a non-traditional way. The image definitely would stir up emotions during the time because it was obvious that the solderderas were so powerful. At the bottom of the page, there was an image of a single woman dressed in mens clothing. After looking back and forth at the two images, I still cannot decide which type of clothing is more powerful. In some ways, the more masculine image is more powerful because it is taking the femininity out of the woman and showing her as a powerful, strong individual. At the same time, however, the images of the women in dresses fighting are in way even more powerful simply because the image is more unusual and striking.

Here is the website with the images: http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/soldaderas-1.htm