Despite the near universality of some of its representations, motherhood is far from being a stable referent. If it is normatively associated with an ethic of care and inclinations to peace, the history of armed conflict brings to mind more combative and pitiless images of motherhood most strikingly symbolized by the Spartan mothers offering up their sons for the sake of their country and shedding “not a tear” on their demise.
In Latin America, motherhood bears meanings suffused with Catholic symbolism. This endows it with a privileged morality that, when deployed for political ends, has an exceptional potency. Governments, social movements, and political parties have all sought at different times to capture its symbolic force and to use it for their own ends, while maternal identifications have also animated the grassroots women’s movements that are such a feature of the region. No one particular politics follows from the discursive deployment...
