The Never-Ending Story of Women's History : Week of 9.8

    Given the light of recent women's rights issues that are populating the media, I found it very interesting to have the rights of Colonial Latin American women be our topic of reading for the week. Women have for most of history been controlled by our male counterparts, and just when we think we are breaking that barrier, we slide backwards. Back to the real topic, when I was reading the first handful of pages of Susan Socolow's, The Women of Colonial Latin America, I couldn't help but be intrigued. When I was taught Latin American history in school, we never talked about the rights of a human being, and focused solely on the architecture or food of the time. I had always thought that in colonial Latin America, it was just like its European counterparts, even though they hadn't had connect yet. Little did I know that Latin women, while still being the "property" of their husbands they had so many more opportunities. 

    Women were held to high esteem as Virgins of the Sun, or seen as some of the most important Deities' of their religions. Yes, they were still feared for their mensuration and ability to bear children, but after menopause a whole world of opportunity opened up. Women also had rights to possessions', which is something that took me off guard. It is not the near as good as the Spaniard equivalent to being able to inherit and own land, but having the sole possession over household items and the weaving machine that made them a living, was a great leap for a woman to have independence. 

    You may ask, how to you connect any of this with today, or how we have regressed as a society? Well, I see this as a small stepping stone into what was women's rights. Even when we have surpassed a mid-evil and early Mesoamerican thinking of stoning a woman charged of adultery or abortion, we have now slipped. These women that may have been stoned in Colonial times and now whistleblowing has made this harsh consequence come back into conversation among some groups. What this weeks reading has taught me is that the fight for women's rights to be independent of their male counterparts will be constant, and all we can hope for is progress in the right direction.