Anarchists - Juana Belén Gutiérrez de Mendoza

[1871]

Juana Belén Gutiérrez de Mendoza







Juana Belén Gutiérrez de Mendoza (27 January 1875 – 13 July 1942 )
was an anarchist and feminist activist, typographer, journalist and poet born in San Juan del Río, Durango, Mexico. While many women contributed in the Mexican Revolution 1910-1920 by fighting alongside their husbands others wrote against the injustices of the Díaz regime.








In May 1901 she found an anti-Díaz newspaper called Vésper. She attacked the clergy in Guanajuato and wrote against foreign domination in Mexico. She also wrote against the Díaz regime and criticized Díaz for not carrying out the requests and needs of the people. As a result her newspaper was confiscated and she was also put in jail several times by Díaz between 1904 and 1920. She established a new newspaper called El Desmonte (1900-1919) and continued her writings.






She encouraged workers and peasants to vote as she wrote “not to integrate power, but to disintegrate it, as a means of forming, not a new oligarchy but of transforming the oligarchies into truly public administrations.” She argued that the Mexican Population could not count on the leadership of political parties given that they wanted to obtain office in order to protect their own interests. To propagate liberation ideology throughout Mexico, Juana Belén Gutiérrez de Mendoza translated the works of Peter Kropotkin, Mikhail Bakunin, and Pierre Joseph Proudhon to Spanish. Even though she was intimidated throughout her life, she continued writing and educating the public on the injustices the different governments brought upon Mexico. She is one of the many intellectuals who contributed with her writings to the Mexican Revolution.
She was also a Caxcan Indian from the state of Durango.





Juana Belén Gutiérrez de Mendoza

by Cristina Ramirez

recuerdo a Juana Belén Gutiérrez de Mendoza. She wrote in her autobiography, "Nací en San Juan del Río, Durango, el nevado amanecer del día 27 de enero de 1875. Este dato debe ser importanitísimo porque lo han anotado con minuciosa escrupulosidad en los registros de la cárcel, cada vez que he estado allí.... Trans. "I was born in San Juan del Río, Durango on a snowy morning on the 27th of January of 1875. This date must hold great importance because it has been recorded with exact scrupulousness in the prison records every time I have been there...." Juana Belén spent her life writing and speaking out against the injustices suffered by her people, the indigenous people of Mexico. This is why her name was recorded in the prison books so many times...her voice threatened the status quo of those who believed it just to abuse the indigenous people for cheap labor. She also spoke out against the inequalities of women in Mexico being on the forefront of the Mexican feminist movement. She lived an extra-ordinary life by traversing the boundaries of possibilities that were socially inscribed for women in Mexico in 1900.



Leaving her beloved homeland and mountain air of Durango, she followed her instinct to start her own protest newspaper Vésper: Justicia y Libertad (Vésper means evening star) and write about the injustices she witnessed growing up among the campesinos y trabajadores mineros (farmers and miners), and which were still plaguing the poor. In am incredibly symbolic action and show of deep dedication, she traded her goat "Sancha" for printing supplies to continue her newspaper in Guanajuato. After almost being arrested in Guanajuato, she fled to Mexico City with her two children continuing her fervent fight on the liberal front of Mexico.



Her sarcastic tone of voice and relentless desire to tell the truth as she perceived it, drew her into the circle of the most influential liberal intellectuals of her time: The Magón Brothers, Juan Sarabia, Librado Rivera and others. Later, she was accused by Ricardo Flores Magón of not upholding to the liberal ideas of the nation, and in a response in her newspaper, she displayed her rhetorical astuteness. "Las palabras que como lema lleva mi periódico, no las he puesto allí como adorno: las he puesto para que normen la conducta de mi pulicación. ¿Puede Ud. decirme que hay algo injusto o antiliberal en Vésper, creo que no." The words that my newspaper holds as a motto, I have not chosen them as adornment: I have published them as a guiding framework of conduct for my newspaper. Can you tell me what is unjust or antiliberal about Vésper, I believe not." Juana Belén held presented her own thoughts and perspectives in a time when women were only to speak on domestic issues, not political issues, let alone critique and personally attack the govern and its dictator, Porfirio Díaz. Her greatest legacy though rests in that she never was swayed from her beliefs; she claimed her discursive space and did not give it up. Politicians tried to buy her silence; but she kept her honor intact and accepted no bribe. She would later fight for the cause of the Mexican Revolution under



Zapata



who gave her the ranking of Colonel. Later, she was to work with the famous philosopher


José Vasconselos

as maestra rural leading the charge to educate the indigenous people and to prove to the people of the city that they were people endowed with dignity and strength.



The end of life summed up the gratitude that Mexico had for the efforts of women in the Revolution and social betterment. Juana Belén was forced to sell her printing press and ultimately her typewriter to buy medication for her young granddaughter. Eso no es la justicia ni la libertad. That ending is neither justice nor liberty. She has left us though with an abundance of words, knowledge, and history that on this day I celebrate and remember.

¡Viva México! ¡Viva!
¡Viva la mujer independiente! ¡Viva!
¡Viva el amor y bondad para el ser humano! ¡Viva! ¡Viva!
¡Viva la memoria de Juana Belén! ¡Viva! ¡Viva!
¡Que viva la raza, la jente de la tierra, y la jente que labora por lo bien! ¡Viva! ¡Viva! ¡Viva!

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