Pan American Women: U.S. Internationalists and Revolutionary Mexico

255 Pages·2014·1.737 MB·English

by  Megan Threlkeld

Pan American Women
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Pan American Women
U.S. Internationalists and Revolutionary Mexico
Megan Threlkeld
university of pennsylvania press
philadelphia
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POLITICS AND CULTURE IN MODERN AMERICA
SeriesEditors
MargotCanaday,GlendaGilmore,MichaelKazin,ThomasJ.Sugrue,andStephenPitti
Volumesintheseriesnarrateandanalyzepoliticalandsocialchangeinthebroadestdimensions
from1865tothepresent,includingideasaboutthewayspeoplehavesoughtandwieldedpower
inthepublicsphereandthelanguageandinstitutionsofpoliticsatalllevels—local,national,
andtransnational.Theseriesismotivatedbyadesiretoreversethefragmentationofmodern
U.S.historyandtoencouragesyntheticperspectivesonsocialmovementsandthestate,on
gender,race,andlabor,andonintellectualhistoryandpopularculture.
Copyright(cid:2)2014UniversityofPennsylvaniaPress
Allrightsreserved.
Exceptforbriefquotationsusedforpurposesofrevieworscholarlycitation,noneofthisbook
maybereproducedinanyformbyanymeanswithoutwrittenpermissionfromthepublisher.
Publishedby
UniversityofPennsylvaniaPress
Philadelphia,Pennsylvania19104-4112
www.upenn.edu/pennpress
PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmericaonacid-freepaper
2 4 6 8 10 9 7 5 3 1
ACataloging-in-PublicationRecordisavailablefromtheLibraryofCongress
ISBN978-0-8122-4633-9
Frontispiece:PanAmericanUnityMural:TheMarriageoftheArtisticExpressionoftheNorthand
oftheSouthonthisContinent,DiegoRivera.CourtesyofCityCollegeofSanFrancisco,
(cid:2)2013BancodeMe´xicoDiegoRiveraFridaKahloMuseumsTrust,Mexico,D.F./
ArtistsRightsSociety(ARS),NewYork.
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For Trey
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Contents
Introduction 1
Chapter1.TheBestKindofInternationalism 15
Chapter2.ThePanAmericanConferenceofWomen 48
Chapter3.TheLimitsofHumanInternationalism 78
Chapter4.ThePeacewithMexicoCampaign 117
Chapter5.PoliticizingInternationalism 144
Chapter6.NotSuchGoodNeighbors 174
Epilogue 200
Notes 205
Index 239
Acknowledgments 245
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Introduction
In the summer of 1931, Ellen Starr Brinton, a pacifist from Pennsylvania,
traveled to Mexico City as a representative of the Women’s International
League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF), which had been founded during
WorldWarIbyactivistsintheUnitedStatesandEurope.PartofBrinton’s
missionwastosolicittopicsonU.S.-LatinAmericanrelationsforstudyand
discussion by the U.S. section of WILPF. To that end she met with several
groups of women students in Mexico City, who provided her with what
she called ‘‘irritating suggestions.’’ Their list of potential topics included
Mexicans’ hatred of the United States, discriminatory attitudes toward
Mexican students in the United States, and ‘‘appropriation by residents of
theU.S.oftheterm‘Americans,orNorthAmericans.’’’AllU.S.Americans
had an ‘‘irritating superiority attitude,’’ the students told Brinton. ‘‘Your
mannersinthiscountrysuggestthatyoufeelyourselvesaboveus,andmake
us conscious that the United States is a powerful nation. You ‘high hat’
everyoneyoumeet.Naturallywedonotlikeit.’’Theycomparedthesegre-
gation of Mexican students in the United States to that of African Ameri-
cans, arguingitwas done notwithregardto‘‘intelligence orlanguage,but
entirelyasamatterofrace.’’Finally,theyresentedwhattheysawasmisuse
ofakeyterm.‘‘WeareAmericansaswell,’’thestudentsinformedBrinton.
‘‘You should call yourselves E---- U---- (using the Spanish equivalent of
‘UnitedStatesians’).’’WhenBrinton,bewildered,repliedthatthere wasno
suchwordinEnglish,‘‘thesereneanswerwasthatweshouldgetone.’’1
Brinton’sbewildermentandirritation—andtheMexicanstudents’frus-
tration—capturethetensionsbetweenU.S.women’sinternationalistideals
and Mexican women’s nationalist aspirations that lie at the heart of this
book.BrintonandhercolleaguesinWILPFandinotherU.S.organizations
saw themselves as leaders of a globalizing women’s movement that origi-
nated in the United States and Europe but had reached most of Latin
America only recently. They believed they had much to teach women
throughout the Americas about their campaigns for international peace,
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