Lessons learned
Real life bandits have always been of great interest for writers. Those symbolic heroes, who by doing wrong do right, have always represented a great opportunity to express ideologies, viewpoints and opinions about an economic, political, or even judicial system. La Pintada, Joaquin Murieta, and Pancho Villa are great examples of this.
Most antiheroes- and heroes are male, but there were some women reclaiming a place in history as well. The records of the participation of women in the Revolution war in México are usually reduced to their role as soldaderas, rieleras, a role represented by the image of Adelita. In this light, women went to war to take care of their men, to feed them, offer them a realm of calm in the midst
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Women fighting in the Revolution were denied recognition as soldiers, therefore losing all benefits: finally they were disbarred from the army in 1925, gaining chances to enter only as medical and nursing students till 1934, but not as fighting soldiers but as nurses, secretaries, and similar clerical occupations. Withal, historians such as Griffin (1993 in Baker, 2012) have identified strong female characters, both in novel and real life, in the revolutionary period who were strong presences and determined the course of history. Even if their names got lost at times.
La Pintada, a character in Los de abajo novel by Mariano Azuela, represents these women who were not just following their men, but leading men and making the most of the so far unknown freedom women gained with the Revolution but would lose later on. La Pintada would represent women who would not comply with the control of society, the mujeres bravías who spoke up and did allow themselves to enjoy the same liberties men have. Pintada is a woman without virtue who lives up to her emotions and needs and not to the traditional passive female role. She’s not the soldadera, but the soldada (Baker,
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Among all the bandits, heroes, and anti-heroes in Mexican American history, there is no one as famous and iconic as Pancho Villa. México had suffered a lot of invasions in the Méxican American war and at other times, but no one but Villa ever attempted to invade American land; and not only that, but to succeed in the trial. Villa’s reasons to invade the United States were related specially to his repudiation of President Woodrow Wilson’s support and acknowledgement of Venustiano Carranza’s position in México.
Villa’s attempt to invade the U.S. has been considered the effect of a delusional mind and it was only around the mid-20th century that new evidence has been found related to the real reasons he had to do it. Villa had been informed of the plans of Venustiano Carranza to sign a treaty that would transform México into a protectorate of the United States (Katz,