Abstract
This paper examines how although most Latin American countries were given suffrage as early as 1940, 30 years later, by 1971 women were still locked into a culture of Catholicism, control and machismo. The paper discusses the many aspects of women's rights that need to be addressed in order for women to be truly accepted as equals.

Table of Contents:
General Suffrage
Latin American Suffrage
Human Rights/Women's Rights
Women and Employment
Employment and Working Conditions
Argentina and Mexico
Latin American Women Reproductive and Health Issues
Latin American Women's Health Issues
Latin American Women in Politics
Human Rights Issues for Women in Latin America
Legal Protection for Latin American Women
Latin American Women and Violence
Conclusion

From the Paper
"The Roman Catholic Church has a strong political hold on the hearts and minds of Latin American and the influence of the Roman Catholic Church has kept a majority of Latin American women chained to the cycle of childbirth. Despite the fact that a majority of Latin American women have been the "beneficiaries" of universal suffrage since World War II, family planning that was not in accordance with the Roman Catholic Church's edicts has been severely limited. A woman who is unable to obtain or hold a job because of her constant gravid state is unlikely to put emancipation before basic survival. Unfortunately Latin American's economic condition has suffered because of as burgeoning uncontrollable population explosion which compromises the health and welfare not only of the women large numbers of children but the children themselves."

Tags:suffer, vote, literate, activist, democratic, equality, workforce, church, children, pregnancy

Abstract
The paper argues that studying Latin-American literature is one of the best ways to understand the social and cultural times of colonial Latin America. The paper discusses how throughout history, women have written about their identity within the family, the struggle of feeding their family during economic hardships and their second class citizenry and historians have learned about food and folklore, race and culture and independence and captivity through the writings of women during the colonial period in Latin America. The paper shows how the feminine perspective of life in colonial Latin America is unique and tells a different tale than has been told in male writings of the same period.

From the Paper
"Latin America is twice the size of Europe and has a very rich culture and way of expressing its history through literature. The literature of Latin America has as its base 20 sovereign countries. Each country has had its own struggle for independence and recognition that lead Latin America eventually to the end of colonialism. Studying Latin American literature is one of the best ways to understand the social and cultural times of colonial Latin America. Latin American women writers expressed colonial times in memoirs, letters and essays. Their insight into the daily life is unique in perspective. Throughout..."

Tags:oral, eradication, voices

Abstract
This paper presents the story of three women who were instrumental to Latin American history. The writer explores the contributions of Eva Peron, Sarah Chamberlain Eccleston and Violeta Barrios to illustrate the importance of females in the historical context of the Latin American political arena.

From the Paper
"Another very influential women in the world of Latin American history was Violeta Barrios. Violeta married a prominent Nicaraguan journalist named Pedro Chamorro. He was not only a journalist in the year 1950 when they met he was also acting editor of the La Prensa paper. Because of his political beliefs and his refusal to stop using the paper as a lobbying platform he was jailed many times and spent time in prison as well."

Tags:history, Eva, Peron, Sarah, Chamberlain, Eccleston, Violeta, Barrios, female, feminism, politics, nation, building

Abstract
Nearly a decade ago, academic attention was being given to understanding the central role that women have played in the economic and political changes occurring in Latin America. The books currently under review demonstrate the broadening scope of literature on women in the region. Scholars continue to analyze the roles women play in political change, but an increasing number of academics are studying how women are affected by those changes in political and economic regimes and by state institutions. The paper shows that, in a sense, the causal arrow now moves in two directions rather than one. A predominant research question in the late 1980s and early 1990s was, how do women's movements influence democratization processes? The works reviewed in this paper demonstrate that scholars have now adapted their query to reflect the changing political systems of Latin America: how does a transition toward democracy affect women and women's organizations? Or, how can these democracies be altered or fine-tuned to be more hospitable to women?

From the Paper
"This subordination inhibited women from becoming political and being viewed as such by others. Diane Mitsch Bush and Jean Franco Mumme's contribution to the Nazzari volume, "Gender and the Mexican Revolution," echoes this idea. Their case study confirms the hypothesis that gender issues become subordinated to broader objectives within revolutionary movements. Movimiento de mujeres en Centroamerica offers further insights into the tensions between a woman as an individual political actor and the collective women's movement in Central America. This book is a must for anyone planning to do research on women in Central America."

Tags:SERNAM, gender, feminist, revolution, Allende

Abstract
In this essay, the writer discusses that in both 'The House of the Spirits' by Isabel Allende and 'One Hundred Years of Solitude' by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, females figure prominently in the authors' narratives of magical realism. The writer notes that in both novels, the struggles of the main female protagonist exist on a literal level of story and have a symbolic level of significance beyond the story, about the nature of politics or the nature of women, respectively. The writer concludes that Allende ultimately seeks to question the reasons for man's inhumanity to men, and women, in a political reality, and uses magical realism to heighten the consequences of her character's actions and cruelties, while Marquez relates his tale of a fictional village and family exclusively in the register of the fantastic and the surreal.

From the Paper
"True, some of the actions of Allende's characters may be heightened by supernatural narrative motifs such as the matriarch Clara's ability to see into the future, but these plot points have ramifications beyond those of the psychological, symbolic, or merely mystical. For example, in a parallel of the terror that will come to Chile, Esteban hits his wife, and Clara takes a vow of silence, and never speaks to him until he dies. This act of defiance, although taken to an extreme in the novel, can also be read as a heightened example of a difficult relationship between husband and wife, and how the oppression within a patriarchal family structure mirrors the politics of the land."
"In contrast, Marquez's female archetypes lack the complex psychology of Allende's females, existing in the material dimension alone rather than on simultaneous spiritual and material planes."

Tags:female, mythic, Macondo, Pinochet

Abstract
Discusses the suffering Ribobuta Menchu endured as part of an exploited and abused people in Guatemala. Her overcoming poverty and powerlessness and becoming a social and political activist to fight oppression in her native land. Indian culture. Peasant women in Latin America who refused to be passive and fought against oppression and injustice.

From the Paper
"Rigoberta Menchu, in I, Rigoberta Menchu: An Indian Woman in Guatemala, tells the story of her life in poverty and powerlessness and her gradual awakening to the necessity of social and political activism to fight the oppressive forces in her native land. The story of the evolution of her leadership ability, motivation and beliefs is told through the medium of interviews conducted by anthropologist Elisabeth Burgos-Debray. Burgos-Debray argues that the book tells the life of not only one twenty-three-year-old woman, but also the society and culture of which her life is an integral part:
Her life story is an account of contemporary history rather than of Guatemala itself. It is in that sense that it is exemplary: she speaks for all the Indians of the American continent (Burgos-Debray xi)."

Abstract
The paper claims that these two books read together give a full picture of the history of women who have refused to be silent and passive in the face of oppression from individuals or socioeconomic conditions or military dictatorships. The writer looks at examples from both books that illustrate this thesis.

From the Paper
"Another significant feature of the Indian culture to which Menchu belongs is the belief that all children belong, in a sense, to the community. In other words, from their earliest memory, a child feels herself an intimate part of her culture, her surroundings, her community. This sense is deepened by the relationship of the child to the land and to nature (Burgos-Debray 7). A deep respect and love for her culture, for her people, for the land and for nature was instilled into Menchu at an early age. The people's religion is tied to nature through such aspects as the nahual (Burgos-Debray 18). In other words, religion to Menchu was not a separate aspect of life, any more than culture or economy or nature was something separate. When she later studied the Bible, she drew from its stories the same sense of connection with culture and ancestors that marked her own Indian culture (Burgos-Debray 131). These factors played a central role in her development as a committed leader of her people in Guatemala and later as an exile. She developed a sense of duty not only to the living but to those who had suffered and died."

Tags:military, dictatorship, culture, oppression, Indian

Abstract
This paper discusses the history of Latin American revolutionary movements and the circumstances that have shaped Latin America since the arrival of the Europeans. It discusses the role of the United States in Latin America, particularly its economic and political interests. The paper ends by discussing, briefly, the role of women in the Latin American revolutions.

From the Paper
"The history of Latin American revolutionary movements is one of repeated social and political fragmentation. Of course, this is true of most revolutionary movements in world history; however, the unique circumstances that have shaped Latin America since the arrival of Europeans have placed their independence movements in the midst of heated struggles between the imperial powers of the world. As a result, the varied socioeconomic structure of many Latin American nations has generated intense hostility between the social elites, the working class, as well as outside political and economic forces. Nevertheless, one of the recurring themes in Latin American history is the emergence of a powerful labor movement; far more influential than those in the United States, and accordingly, threatening to American business interests."

Tags:independence, coup, Castro

Abstract
The paper focuses on the roles women in Argentina, Cuba, Chile, India, and Burma have been able to play in direct political and social change.

Tags:political, role, women

Abstract
This paper briefly discusses the rise and growth of feminist movements in Latin America. It shows how these movements were linked to other socialist movements of the 1960's and how they gain strength. It explains how the feminist movements argued for rights for women just as other socialist movements were demanding equal and civil rights for many population groups.

From the Paper
"--------------------
The women's movement of Latin America is a comparatively young one. It's seeds were planted in the 1950s and 1960s when socialist revolutionary fervor swept through much of the world. In the face of poverty, inequality and oppression, people's movements rose up in every corner of the Latin world. And in much the same fashion as Civil Rights, Women's Rights and anti-Vietnam sentiments in the United States coalesced into a unified counter-culture movement by the 1960s, broad social revolution proved to be opportune for politically inclined women in Latin America. In these early days of women's liberation, female guerilla combatants and revolutionaries had to contend with all the same concerns as their male counterparts (i.e. dictatorial central governments, unequal distribution of wealth, federal corruption, etc.). But this was compounded by the threat of sexually motivated violence, social subjugation and the general gamut of gender oriented prejudices. (Winn, 397). As such, women's struggles to gain freedom from oppression extended beyond simple political discontent."

Tags:civil, equal, rights, socialist, women, sexism, gender