Preface

This book is about the history of women in politics, letters, and intellectual life in Latin America. Its authors are scholars in literary criticism, history, and cultural studies working mainly at research universities in the United States. The collection by no means attempts a comprehensive account of the topics named in its title. Rather, it takes the form of a series of case studies that examine particular dynamics and raise questions that ultimately will prove essential to a more comprehensive account. The intention here is decidedly to open rather than conclude discussion.

The overall corpus of research on women in Latin America shows little focus on women's intellectual, literary, political, and pedagogical activity. In part owing to its very important links with policy studies, research on women has been oriented toward topics such as health, reproduction, migration, demographics, and development. When women's participation in politics is discussed in this context, often only grass-roots and local activity are considered. When the question of culture is raised, the term is often taken to encompass everyday life, domestic activity, manual work, religious practices, marriage, the body.

Feminism has taught us the immense importance of these dimensions of women's being and activity. At the same time, the tendency to restrict culture and politics in these ways with respect to women reinforces a male elitism that claims serious intellectual, artistic, and political work as exclusive preserves of men. Women now striving for legitimacy and equality in these arenas (such as ourselves) must contend with such prejudices every day. We must know our predecessors and the history of their struggle, and make them known to others.

The eight authors published here make up a study group, the UC-Stanford Seminar on Feminism and Culture in Latin America, which has

met monthly for the past seven years to discuss feminist theory and Latin American women's history and literature. In our reading and discussion we have examined women's literary and journalistic production and their participation in national and international political life; we have undertaken bibliographical projects; we have worked together to design new courses and made a number of panel presentations at regional and national conferences. At all such events, we have encountered other women scholars working in related areas, often in considerable isolation. Their enthusiasm for our project, and for the collective nature of our work, has been a vital source of encouragement.

While all of our members had at some time participated in feminist study groups or in women's studies programs, the decision to seek institutional support as a research group was without precedent among us. Some members had participated in an earlier group of California women Latin Americanists, which organized itself informally to counteract the marginalization of women and women's issues in mainstream scholarly meetings. This group's effectiveness, and the solidarity it promoted, inspired us to reconstitute it into the present seminar. The increasing legitimacy of feminist inquiry made it possible for us to seek institutional support from the Stanford-Berkeley Joint Center for Latin American Studies. We appreciate the funding and logistical support the center has provided over the years.

The essays included in this volume represent only a part of the seminar's work. The group remains a forum for discussion (most recently on issues of gender and state) and a setting where members can present their own work in progress and share new findings. Given the history of women in the academy and the continued resistance to feminist scholarship in most academic departments, one of the group's essential functions has been to guide and support individual members as they meet the challenges of the profession. Since our members represent a wide range of career situations, from graduate student to part-time lecturer to full professor, this support function has proved to be an important priority.

We have also sought continuously to shape our work along lines of feminist collective practice. The seminar retains a fundamental commitment to collaborative intellectual activity, with its particular ability to mediate among areas that benefit from mutual understanding. We see collective practice as the key to our efforts to mediate among literary studies, history, politics, area studies, feminist theory, and Europe and the Americas. To our great benefit, the group's activities have brought us into contact with information and research networks of feminist scholars in the United States and Latin America. It is clear that new forms of research and criticism are meeting the challenge of integrating women into the scholarly picture of Latin America. We hope to continue to participate in this vital and exciting project.

We are indebted not only to the Stanford-Berkeley Joint Latin American Studies Center, which provided us with subsistence support for several years, but also to the Hewlett Foundation, the UC Berkeley Women's Studies Program, and the Beatrice M. Bain Research Group for grants to do bibliographical projects and to the Stanford Humanities Center for logistical support in the preparation of the manuscript.