Contribuciones de las escritoras a la construcción de la identidad nacional en La Mariposa (Guadalajara, México, 1894)

Abstract

This article arose from the concern to know the ways in which women contributed to forging the national identity during the Porfiriato (Porfirio Diaz presidency period). It was based on the fact that, history was one of the elements through which national values ​​were transmitted, so the analysis focused on the poems on historical themes published in the issues of the second period of La Mariposa. Weekly Newspaper Dedicated to the Beautiful Sex of Guadalajara printed in Guadalajara, Jalisco between August 1894, and January 1895. Although the writings of female authors were compared with those of male authors, the main interest was focused on women, because they were one of the groups excluded from historiography, thus, the text contributes to the reconstruction of the historical and cultural memory of nineteenth-century women in Mexico. Some of the most relevant findings were that the values ​​with which they described the national heroes and heroines drew from religious notions such as: kindness, sacrifice, and others such as leadership. Some elements such as the altar and the angel were also mentioned. Another important discovery was that the writers spoke of national historical figures including women, whom they represented in their role as liberators, financiers and central agents of Mexico's independence and not as mothers and/or educators of future citizens, which was the main task assigned to them in liberal ideology. In another hand, the writers focused on local and regional history, naming only one woman.