Women and the common origin of the nation in Mexico

Abstract

his article explores the powerful influence of sexuality and gender roles on national identity and nationalism. Therefore, the objective of the article is to review how the common origin of the Mexican nation is conceived, and how women in history contribute to it. The article includes three parts. The first identifies the main types of nationalism in Mexico and their interrelation with gender roles and nationalisms that Nira Yuval-Davis and Floya Anthias raised in 1989. The second develops in what way, both the types of nationalisms and gender roles , contribute to the construction of masculinity and femininity. The third explores gender roles and their different levels of subordination in contemporary nationalist mythology, particularly, the myth of miscegenation as a founding couple of the modern nation. To exemplify the argument, some unconventional sources were used, such as the popular calendars of the first decades of the twentieth century, and a narrative about the myth of mestizaje written by a Spanish writer based in Mexico in 1884.