Patriots, Prostitutes, and Spies by John M. Belohlavek

Author:John M. Belohlavek [Belohlavek, John M.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Women's Studies
ISBN: 9780813939919
Google: rC-fDQAAQBAJ
Publisher: University of Virginia Press
Published: 2017-07-05T04:11:13+00:00

6

The Señorita as Fantasy

THE FAN, THE FEET, AND THE REBOZO

In November 1845, fully five months before the first shots were fired along the Rio Grande, Lieutenant Napoleon Dana wrote to his wife about a supply train headed for San Antonio, Texas. Dana pointed out that among the inducements for the officers to make the trip was the understanding that the town “is said to have many pretty girls.” In January 1848, at the conclusion of the conflict, a columnist for the John-Donkey penned an article entitled “The Conjugation of Mexico.” The author recommended that the generals simply withdraw from the country and leave the “gallant and vigorous young privates to arrange a settlement of all the difficulties with the Mexicans.” Since women run nations, it would only be a matter of time before the señoritas capitulated to Yankee charm and the whole of Mexico was “conjugated.”

Prior to, during, and even after the Mexican-American War, US soldiers and the broader public reckoned with the notion of exactly who was a Mexican maid, how she might be approached, and whether relationships between soldiers and señoritas had any future. Tragically, illusion and courtship too often disintegrated into abuse and violence. Far too many American soldiers yielded to the forces of revenge or power to commit atrocities that would strike fear among the Mexicans and stain their reputations at home.1

The lure and fantasy of the Latin woman was very much alive in the 1840s. Many volunteers eagerly signed their papers and headed off to the land of Montezuma with the hope that at war’s end their dream of a payout, a homestead, and a Mexican damsel would usher in a new life in the West. Even those with less traditional ideas about farm and family relished the perception that physically and intellectually stronger Anglo men, “valiant knights,” would be welcomed by fair women, and rewarding liaisons would result. Nancy Isenberg points to the sexual politics that pervaded this thinking and how Mexican women were too often considered “trophies of war.” The cavalier racism and gender superiority of most soldiers sometimes led to tragic cruelty and devastating offenses against the civilian population. James McCaffrey accurately explains the double standard, widely embraced by the Americans, that vilified Mexican men and extolled the beauty of the women. Not surprisingly, the longer the men remained absent from the home front, the more attractive the local women became.

The historian David J. Weber evaluated the situation as follows: “American males allowed their hormones to overcome their ethnocentrism.” Understanding that hormonal rush and fantasies of youthful soldiers is critical to understanding this chapter. Base motives, violence, and anger provided a sinister backdrop to the actions of many men. Their voices will be heard, and their language used. While frequently smacking of racism and sexism offensive in the twenty-first century, their words most accurately convey the prevalent raw emotions, feelings, and desires.2

Race, Dress, and Behavior

Over the course of the war, the soldiers debated and disagreed about a variety of subjects, not limited to female elegance, dress, modesty, morality, and accessibility.

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