If Adelita should go with another
I would follow her over land and sea.
If by sea in a battleship
If by land on a military train.
Adelita, for God's sake I beg you,
calm the fire of my passion,
because I love you and I cannot resist it
and my faithful heart suffers for you.

"La Adelita" was one of the most popular songs of the Mexican Revolution (1910-1920). According to some sources (see Soto 1990:44), this ballad was originally inspired by a Durangan woman who had joined the Maderista movement4 at an early age. Troubadours made the song -- and Adelita herself -- a popular emblem of the revolution. As Baltasar Dromundo put it, "las guitarras de todas partes se iban haciendo eruditas en ese canto hasta que por fin la Revolucion hizo de ella su verdadero emblema nacional" (guitarists from all over were becoming experts in that song and it became the true emblem of the Revolution) (1936:40). Significantly, Adelita's surname, as well as the family names of many other soldaderas (soldier-women), remained virtually unknown. However, the popular songs composed in honor of these women contributed enormously to their fame and to documenting their role in the Revolution. Shirlene Soto has pointed out that: "Two heroines of the Revolution, Adelita and Valentina, were considered `the essence of Mexican femininity,' and the corridos written to honor them had widespread popularity" (1990:44).(5) Over time, Adelita's name was used to refer to any female soldier who participated in the Mexican Revolution, so that "Adelita" gradually became synonymous with "soldadera." Today, among women in both Mexico and the U.S., Adelita is a symbol of action and inspiration, and her name is used to mean any woman who struggles and fights for her rights.

"La Adelita" is a composition that stages gender relations within their interrelated subjectivities. In situating "La Adelita" as the focus of my text, I discuss the narrative and subject position of the protagonist as a soldadera of the Mexican Revolution. Throughout this essay, as I employ the tools of literary criticism, textual analysis, and historical interpretation to gain a deeper understanding of the problematic identity of the soldier-woman Adelita, I am guided by insights from the work of contemporary feminist scholars. just as Anna Macias, Clara Lomas, Maria Herrera-Sobek, and Shirlene Soto have attempted to reconstruct the dynamic participation of women in various contexts during the Mexican Revolution, so in this work I attempt to construct and deconstruct romantic notions of the revolutionary subject in the contexts of culture, and specifically drama, as I examine how the soldadera has been variously represented and misrepresented. Adelita, whether in popular songs or in plays, represents a contested paradigm that demands further critical reflection.

I begin my analysis by discussing the narrative included in Baltasar Dromundo's 1936 book, Francisco Villa y La Adelita, in which "La Adelita" is presented as a major figure among the troops of General Francisco Villa. I also analyze Josefina Niggli's play Soldadera, which she wrote about the same time that Dromundo's book was released.(7) Niggli's drama stages the participation of women in the Mexican Revolution, characterizing Adela, the protagonist of "La Adelita," as a hero of the Revolution. In both works, Adelita is presented as a soldier, but in Dromundo's book, the central tension involves the age-old equation of male power with superiority and female subordination with inferiority. Niggli preserves Adelita's bravery but undermines her position by attributing to the heroine overwhelming naivete and romantic idealism.

Clearly, Adelita's identity, in particular her subjectivity as a soldier of the Revolution, has been shaped and reshaped many times and in many contexts. Thus the aim of this study is to trace the connections between these various treatments of Adelita and the gender and power relations embedded in the larger social, political, and cultural environment.

'Soldaderas' and the staging of the Mexican Revolution.
TDR (Cambridge, Mass.)| March 22, 1998 | Arrizon, Alicia

If Adelita should go with another
I would follow her over land and sea.
If by sea in a battleship
If by land on a military train.
Adelita, for God's sake I beg you,
calm the fire of my passion,
because I love you and I cannot resist it
and my faithful heart suffers for you.

"La Adelita" was one of the most popular songs of the Mexican Revolution (1910-1920). According to some sources (see Soto 1990:44), this ballad was originally inspired by a Durangan woman who had joined the Maderista movement4 at an early age. Troubadours made the song -- and Adelita herself -- a popular emblem of the revolution. As Baltasar Dromundo put it, "las guitarras de todas partes se iban haciendo eruditas en ese canto hasta que por fin la Revolucion hizo de ella su verdadero emblema nacional" (guitarists from all over were becoming experts in that song and it became the true emblem of the Revolution) (1936:40). Significantly, Adelita's surname, as well as the family names of many other soldaderas (soldier-women), remained virtually unknown. However, the popular songs composed in honor of these women contributed enormously to their fame and to documenting their role in the Revolution. Shirlene Soto has pointed out that: "Two heroines of the Revolution, Adelita and Valentina, were considered `the essence of Mexican femininity,' and the corridos written to honor them had widespread popularity" (1990:44).(5) Over time, Adelita's name was used to refer to any female soldier who participated in the Mexican Revolution, so that "Adelita" gradually became synonymous with "soldadera." Today, among women in both Mexico and the U.S., Adelita is a symbol of action and inspiration, and her name is used to mean any woman who struggles and fights for her rights.

"La Adelita" is a composition that stages gender relations within their interrelated subjectivities. In situating "La Adelita" as the focus of my text, I discuss the narrative and subject position of the protagonist as a soldadera of the Mexican Revolution. Throughout this essay, as I employ the tools of literary criticism, textual analysis, and historical interpretation to gain a deeper understanding of the problematic identity of the soldier-woman Adelita, I am guided by insights from the work of contemporary feminist scholars. just as Anna Macias, Clara Lomas, Maria Herrera-Sobek, and Shirlene Soto have attempted to reconstruct the dynamic participation of women in various contexts during the Mexican Revolution, so in this work I attempt to construct and deconstruct romantic notions of the revolutionary subject in the contexts of culture, and specifically drama, as I examine how the soldadera has been variously represented and misrepresented. Adelita, whether in popular songs or in plays, represents a contested paradigm that demands further critical reflection.

I begin my analysis by discussing the narrative included in Baltasar Dromundo's 1936 book, Francisco Villa y La Adelita, in which "La Adelita" is presented as a major figure among the troops of General Francisco Villa. I also analyze Josefina Niggli's play Soldadera, which she wrote about the same time that Dromundo's book was released.(7) Niggli's drama stages the participation of women in the Mexican Revolution, characterizing Adela, the protagonist of "La Adelita," as a hero of the Revolution. In both works, Adelita is presented as a soldier, but in Dromundo's book, the central tension involves the age-old equation of male power with superiority and female subordination with inferiority. Niggli preserves Adelita's bravery but undermines her position by attributing to the heroine overwhelming naivete and romantic idealism.

Clearly, Adelita's identity, in particular her subjectivity as a soldier of the Revolution, has been shaped and reshaped many times and in many contexts. Thus the aim of this study is to trace the connections between these various treatments of Adelita and the gender and power relations embedded in the larger social, political, and cultural environment.

'Soldaderas' and the staging of the Mexican Revolution.
TDR (Cambridge, Mass.)| March 22, 1998 | Arrizon, Alicia