Not Your Mother’s Revolution

Revolution is often thought about only pertaining to the left side of the political spectrum. While this is true for most of Latin America, this does not mean that the right just watched from the sidelines. In Chile, one can see a counter-revolution, especially women’s involvement for right-wing movements against socialist President Salvador Allende. The Centro de Madres played an important role in organizing and bringing women together.

The Centros de Madres ran from 1930-1989, informally established by various women in small towns in the 1930s and in 1964 President Eduardo Frei formally organized and recognized the centers with state support. The centers served a range of women; anywhere from providing sewing machines to working women to providing a social and support space for upper-class women. Scholars have debated this organization regarding their degree of effectiveness for women. Since there were many Centros de Madres which were each ran differently, the Centros benefited rural women and women who supported the left, while at the same time facilitating upper-class housewives and women who supported the right. Therefore, some historians believe that the Centros de Madres helped to liberate women and empower them while others believe the centers only reinforced traditional gender ideas and roles. Although motherhood was universal among the centers, it is clear that women applied the motherhood rhetoric to multiple perspectives.

One way that the Centros de Madres promoted and shared their objectives was through literature such as pamphlets and guidebooks. One such guide was titled Charlas para centros de madres, published in 1962 with no individual author’s name credited. This specific book is not meant to be representative of all the Centros de Madres, but illustrates women’s conservative values that they would use to enter the public life in the overthrow of Allende.

The book began by stating the intentions of the Centros and the book. The purpose was “Para elevar el nivel de vida de una Población, el mejor método es agrupar a las madres.” There is a sacrificial tone in that women will come together to improve the country. The centers allowed women to leave the house and organize themselves to do so. The goal was that women would learn “todo lo que necesita saber una buena dueña de casa, una esposa y una madre.” These were the principle roles for women that the book goes into further details about, all with strong emphasis on Catholicism, gender differences, and conservatism.

Right-wing women employed the same conservative discourse and motherhood rhetoric as in Charlas para centros de madres in their mobilization to overthrow Allende. Right-wing women claimed that their participation in the Centros de Madres helped to first organize and empower them before their political mobilization against Allende. While the women were revolutionary in going out to the streets to politically protest, such as in the March of the Empty Pots and Pans, their rhetoric was not revolutionary. Their conservative discourse not only helped to defeat Allende but proved to be enduring in the Pinochet Dictatorship.

Works Cited:

Charlas para Centros de Madres. Santiago, Chile, 1962. http://www.memoriachilena.cl/602/w3-article-60724.html.

Memoria Chilena: Portal. “Mujeres del Centro de Madres Juanita Salgado trabajando en sus máquinas de coser, Conchalí (Santiago), 1965 – Memoria Chilena.” Accessed April 13, 2020. http://www.memoriachilena.cl/602/w3-article-60729.html.

Power, Margaret. Right-Wing Women in Chile: Feminine Power and the Struggle against Allende, 1964-1973. University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2002.

By Emily Beuter