Women Through Women's Eyes: Latin American Women in 19th Century Travel Accounts (Latin American Silhouettes) - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0842026339 ISBN 13: 9780842026338

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 1998

Synopsis

The nineteenth century was a period of peak popularity for travel to Latin America, where a new political independence was accompanied by loosened travel restrictions. Such expeditions resulted in numerous travel accounts, most by men. However, because this period was a time of significant change and exploration, a small but growing minority of female voyagers also portrayed the people and places that they encountered. Women through Women's Eyes draws from ten insightful accounts by female visitors to Latin America in the nineteenth century. These firsthand tales bring a number of Latin American women into focus: nuns, market women, plantation workers, the wives and daughters of landowners and politicians, and even a heroine of the independence movement. Questions of family life, religion, women's labor, and education are addressed, in addition to the interrelationships of men and women within the structure of Latin American societies.

Women through Women's Eyes is a perceptive look at Latin American women from various walks of life during this period. Within these pages, the reader catches lengthy glimpses of the women on both sides of the travel accounts-author and subject-and thereby may examine them all and their societies close-up.

About this title

About the Author:

June E. Hahner is professor of history at the State University of New York at Albany.

Review:

Women through Women's Eyes is a fascinating, revealing and instructive document which captures the role of women in Latin-American society. . . . (Bulletin of Spanish Studies)

June Hahner's excellent volume provides attractive texts for classroom analysis and learning experiences. Women through Women's Eyes will be of interest to all historians who use travel accounts in teaching and writing about women's history in Latin America. (Mary Karasch, Oakland University)

This is a wonderful book! Hahner presents lively readings that reflect the experiences of women travelers, their views of Latin America, and the lives of Latin American women themselves. The choice of travelers includes women who were themselves from various national and social backgrounds, and who visited or lived in Mexico, Guatemala, Cuba, Brazil, or Chile. In addition to giving us a fascinating picture of the lives of women of all social classes and racial groups, we are treated to everyday life ranging from housekeeping to church-going to marriage customs to slave dances. This book is a must-read for any class on the history of Latin American women. It will whet appetites to read and re-read both the classic travelers and some newfound nineteenth-century voyagers. (Susan M. Socolow, Emory University)

Habner provides a rare look at the daily life of a wide range of nineteenth-century Latin American women. (Canadian Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Studies)

About this edition

• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0842026339
• ISBN 13: 9780842026338
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 184
• Editor: Hahner June E.