Military Mujeres: Mexican American and Puerto Rican Women in the World War II U.S. Armed Forces

FAIN: FT-286277-22

Elizabeth Rachel Escobedo
Colorado Seminary (Denver, CO 80210-4711)

Writing a history of Latina servicewomen in World War II.

“Military Mujeres: Mexican American and Puerto Rican Women in the World War II U.S. Armed Forces” explores the history of Latina military personnel in the Second World War and the ways in which the military institution served as an avenue for Mexican American and Puerto Rican women to challenge traditional gender roles, better their socio-economic status, and fight for access to first-class U.S. citizenship and civil rights both during and after the war. In focusing on two different populations of Latinas, “Military Mujeres” is also significant in its use of both comparative and relational lenses to explore the arbitrary social constructions of race and gender that federal officials imposed on women from various Spanish-speaking communities, and the implications of these federal policies on the wartime and postwar lives of Mexican American and Puerto Rican military women.