Margarita Neri
Pancho Villa’s army actively recruited Soldaderas to fight alongside the men. Some Soldaderas were feminists and socialist activists who not only fought on the rebel side, but fought for women’s suffrage, fair wages and affordable housing. Dolores Jiménez y Muro was a former schoolteacher and activist who was involved in drafting the ideas behind the “Political and Social Plan,” which led to the Complot de Tacubaya, a failed attempt to overthrow Díaz and install Madero as president near the start of the revolution. Her writings influenced Emiliano Zapata’s own ideas of social reform.
But the majority of the Soldaderas of the Mexican Revolution were women who accompanied the men they loved into battle. They traveled the plains and sierras of the country, always at the rear, behind the large battalions of soldiers, carrying kitchen utensils, their children, and sometimes even their husband’s rifles.
