Mothers Making Latin America Gender, Households, and Politics Since 1825

Mothers Making Latin America utilizes a combination of gender scholarship and source material to dispel the belief that women were separated from—or unimportant to—central developments in Latin American history since independence. 

• Presents nuanced issues in gender historiography for Latin America in a readable narrative for undergraduate students
• Offers brief, primary-source document excerpts at the end of each chapter that instructors can use to stimulate class discussion
• Adheres to a focus on motherhood, which allows for a coherent narrative that touches upon important themes without falling into a “list of facts” textbook style

Erin E. O’Connor is Associate Professor of History at Bridgewater State University in Massachusetts.  Her publications include Gender, Indian, Nation: the Contradictions of Making Ecuador, 1830-1925 (2007), Documenting Latin America: Gender, Race, and Empire, Volume 1 (with L. Garofalo, 2011)and Documenting Latin America: Gender, Race, and Nation, Volume 2 (with L. Garofalo, 2011). 

Acknowledgments viii

Source Acknowledgments xi

1 Introduction: Gender and Latin American History, or: Why Motherhood? 1

2 Motherhood in Transition: From Colonies to Independent Nations 24

3 Poor Women: Mothering the Majority in the Nineteenth Century 51

4 Middle-Class and Elite Mothers: Feminism, Femininity, and the Nation in the Nineteenth Century 80

5 Motherhood at the Crossroads of Tradition and Modernity, circa 1900–1950 102

6 Poor Mothers and the Contradictions of Modernity, circa 1900–1950 133

7 Mothers and Revolution, circa 1910–1990: Mexico, Cuba, and Nicaragua 158

8 Maternalizing Politics, Politicizing Motherhood: Women and Politics, circa 1950–1990s 193

9 Bodies, Policies, and Globalization: Contraception and Abortion in Latin America 222

10 Motherhood Transformed? History, Gender, and the Shift into the Twenty-First Century 248

Bibliography 267

Subject Index 283

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