Women, Gender, and Conservatism in Latin America, Part 2

AHA Session 256
Conference on Latin American History 50
Sunday, January 5, 2025: 1:30 PM-3:00 PM
Beekman Room (New York Hilton, Second Floor)
Chair:
Margaret M. Power, Illinois Institute of Technology
Papers:
Exploring Gendered Narratives Surrounding the 1930 Brazilian Coup
Elisa Fauth, University of Lisbon
Rosalina Coelho Lisboa: The Transnational History of a Right-Wing Feminist in the Americas
Luah Tomas, York University
Feminine Facades: Brazil’s Conservative First Ladies and the Forging of the 1964–85 Military Dictatorship’s Legitimacy
Marina Adams, Brown University
Panameñas No Alineadas: Panamanian Women Artists and Women Cultural Producers during the Dictatorial Regime of Omar Torrijos
Andrea Carolina Miranda Pestana, University at Albany, State University of New York
Comment:
Margaret M. Power, Illinois Institute of Technology

Session Abstract

Recently, historian Benjamin Cowan has argued that our collective shock in the face of the Right’s contemporary “re-emergence” is the result of scholars’ own academic neglect of the history of conservatism and its wide-reaching transnational articulations. With a gender lens, we propose two related panels that provide answers to some of the questions Cowan proposes, such as how conservatism “has been shaped and been able to downplay its own contradictions,” and, more significantly, how we arrived at this moment (Cowan, 2021, 6). These panels examine women, gender, and conservatism in twentieth-century Latin America–specifically, Mexico, Panama, Colombia, and Brazil. Methodologically, these panels integrate consolidated and emerging fields of history, which include Latin American history, the history of women, gender, and sexuality, and the increasingly sophisticated history of the “Right,” a term encompassing a broad range of reactionary, fascist, and conservative political positions and projects. By recovering women’s contributions–intellectual, political, social, and cultural–our papers challenge existing benchmarks for inclusion in disciplinary canons while expanding the locations, genres, and practices of history. In our dialogue with Cowan’s work, we draw on scholarship produced by historians during the last two decades, among them Margaret Power, James Green, Barbara Weinstein, Kristina Boylan, Sandra McGee Deutsch, and Mary Roldan.

As “Part 1” of these interconnected sessions, this panel explores the multifaceted roles and experiences of women within the context of authoritarian regimes and conservative thought in Latin America throughout the twentieth-century. It brings together four distinct studies shedding light on the socio-political agency, cultural production and ideological commitments of women under dictatorial rule–women who sponsored and disseminated conservative thought, knowingly or not. First, Elisa Fauth offers a historical analysis of the portrayal of women’s participation in the 1930 coup that brought Getúlio Vargas to power in Brazil. Through an examination of women-centric media outlets, the paper investigates how the press represented female involvement during this pivotal moment and its implications for societal roles and representations. Second, Luah Tomas provides a close analysis of the political commitments of Brazilian writer and “feminist” Rosalina Coelho Lisboa within the context of right-wing movements. The paper explores Lisboa’s engagement with feminism and conservative ideologies amidst her South American transnational networks, broadening the conversation on the role of women as international thinkers during the inter-war years and early Cold War. Third, Marina Adams shifts focus to Brazil’s military dictatorship (1964-1985), highlighting the integral role played by conservative women in supporting and legitimizing the regime. Through the role of prominent First Ladies, such as Yolanda Costa e Silva and Scylla Médici, the paper examines how First Ladyship was inherently attached to a President’s masculinity and also conflated the ideas of family and nation into one. Fourth, Andrea Carolina Miranda Pestana delves into the cultural production of Panamanian women artists during Omar Torrijo’s military regime. Examining the period from 1971 to 1985, the paper investigates how women artists navigated the strict cultural policies of the regime and used art to re-imagine sovereignty and redefine womanhood.

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