This has been truly a historic year for women. The American people have had women run for top positions in government and provide a great example of leadership for young women of many ethnicities. Though people may not agree with their politics, it is hard to deny that they have broken barriers and opened gateways for women to try and succeed in the future. Examples of strong women can be found throughout history but it takes research and being in tune to a culture in order to find heroines in Latino culture. One of the strongest examples of a driven woman was the innovative Frida Kalho.
Frida Kahlo was a Mexican painter who was born in 1907 in the town of Coyoacan. Originally going to school for the premedical profession (like my voice), she suffered a tragic accident that left her bed ridden for several months. Suffering through many tragedies such as constant pain, polio, a miscarriage, and divorce, she has become a symbol of resilience
for Mexican women. Growing up around the time of the Mexican Revolution, she no doubt had knowledge of the soldaderas of the war. These women soldiers were political figures and role models who were ordinary women, but doubt to out of the ordinary circumstances, were called to action to fight. Her art exposed the brutal reality of women in showing the truth, power, and suffering through self portraits and paintings. Over a third of her art portrays pain of some kind.
Providing a strong vision of women was a continuing theme in her artwork. In particular was the unique culture of the women of Juchitan de Zaragoza. In the city, the women have formed a matriarchy society where women control a large amount of commerce and daily tasks to make the area livable. In the 2000 documentary Blossoms of Fire (Ramo de fuego), it shows the women of Juchitan, Mexico. The society in the documentary is portrayed as strong, using progressive politics, and a tolerance for homosexuality. The documentary defies the stereotype of the spit-fire Latina who is hyper-sexualized and dominating. It portrays a balance of women who believe strongly in their community and has gotten everyone to "buy in" to equality for the greater good. This is just one example of how Latino women have created a life that they can call their own.
In America, much of the stereotypes and views are skewed by movies and television. In recent films such as "The Women" and "Vicky Cristina Barcelona", the woman, is portrayed in the spitfire image. In other types of media, such as "Lost", Michelle Rodriguez's character shifts to that of the tough woman. In either case, Latino women are not the victim but unfortunately due to marginalization and tough life situations, many women can not relate to this portrayal. This compared to early snapshots of Latinas which would fit into the characters of the saintly and exotic figures of Old Hollywood. Though progress has been made to create strong role modeling in media among Latino woman, there is still work to be done in all cases in creating characters that show respect to women of all ethnic backgrounds.
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An early portrayal of Latinos in movies:
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