There is always merit in searching for new ways to explain relationships between peoples, especially if they have been at war over a long period of time. The frontier civilization of Chihuahua was forged by the presence of an aggressive, nomadic enemy, whose characteristics the author of this book places in the framework of gender. Using the tools of linguistics, she dissects the vulgar macho language of northern Mexico and applies the resulting images and definitions to the values of that particular society. Fighting the marauding Indians, in her view, became more a question of honor than of survival or economic necessity.
In interviews and in documents, the author encounters repeated sexual references that lead her to compare the struggle for land and water among different ethnic groups, Indians and settlers, with the struggle between the sexes, in which imposition, violence, penetration, and dishonor seem to be the norm. Sexual relations are mentioned only in these terms, never as complementary to men and women. Indeed, in her discussion of motivations, attitudes, and customs, the author misses the universality of the human experience, common Latin American practices, and the biological division of labor. What she presents is a limited interpretation of men’s feelings about their roles as Indian fighters, caciques, or worthy citizens, with its elements of truth, of course, but nonetheless exaggerated.
The author and the unaware reader are misled by a linguistic jargon that equates the Indian with untamed, extraordinary masculinity and the frontier settler with the mission of emasculating him, as violently as this same settler assaulted the women within his reach. The discussion of a woman’s dishonor when marrying and conceiving children is questionable in the context of frontier settlements. The image of women’s general unworthiness, moreover, is contradicted by their special role as mothers, healers, nourishers, and companions. Men were not as dominant in that society as the author would lead us to believe, and they did not control “female generativity.” Human reproduction is not that simple.
Historians try to be cautious with their sources, noting the time and place of documents. Many of the opinions the author has collected concerning attitudes about women come from a local urban newspaper published during the Porfiriato, El Correo de Chihuahua. It, in turn, reprinted popular editorials or articles from other papers. The prevailing attitude toward women became more idealized during the late nineteenth century; but El Correo cannot be said to represent the serranos’ position or to be an “important source attesting to the centrality of gender in Chihuahuan society” (p. 248).
The first part of the book, with its emphasis on symbols, icons, indexes, discourses, subjectivities, and gender honor, will undoubtedly be more useful to foreign students of the subject than native speakers, who, understanding the intricacies of the language, do not need those concepts explained to them. The second part is more historical in nature, a reminder of how the very characteristics that made the frontiersmen so worthy in their fight against the Indians became themselves a threat to the government once the Indian danger had passed. These men, previously members of opposing bands, became excellent candidates for revolution as their traditional modes of existence clashed with the incipient capitalism and agribusiness of the northern frontier.
Anthropology and history need to speak to each other, as the author forcefully points out; but in this particular case, going to the point of marriage was ill advised. All aspects of human nature should be taken into account when recreating the past; unfortunately, the proper measure for each is seldom found.
