Claiming the Revolution as Our Own: Revolutionary Mothers and Maternal Feminism, 1944–54

Following the October revolution in Guatemala 1944, urban ladinas (women who speak Spanish and do not identify as indigenous) moved eagerly into public life to engage in a wide range of activities. They formed political parties and reform movements designed to address an array of social problems historically ignored by military style dictatorships. Despite their suitability for the tasks at hand, ladinas found themselves marginalized within a newly democratic state that remained fundamentally patriarchal.

            Ladinas responded to this apathy and resistance by challenging existing laws and creating organizations on their own terms designed to bring reforms to women and children. In turn, they successfully altered the revolutionary trajectory to include social and political reforms otherwise ignored by male leadership. As a result, two spheres of revolutionary activity emerged during this era, one dominated by masculine politics while the other by female social reformers. This paper will focus on the ways urban ladinas engaged with a hostile state in order to enact social change for a vast number of urban Guatemalans.