#petra herrera
Mexican Revolutionary Petra Herrera Posed as a Man to Fight for Her Country
In 1998, Disney released its Oscar-nominated film Mulan, an animated movie that followed the heroic adventures of one fictional woman who took her father’s place in the Chinese Imperial Army. In changing her name, training with the troops, and disguising herself as a male soldier, Mulan took actions that might be far from reality, but her story is eerily similar to that of a real Mexican heroine: Petra Herrera.
Unlike Mulan, Herrera’s story isn’t filtered through rose-colored lenses. There is no happy ending, few history books that remember her heroic actions. But Herrera’s valiance and skills as one of the Mexican Revolution’s most successful soldaderas are an example of the bravery and sacrifices women during this time made to change the history of Mexico’s politics — and should not be forgotten.
The year was 1910, and revolutionaries across Mexico were rising up to fight against elitist dictator Porfirio Díaz’s corrupt government. It would be a decade-long bloody civil war that would claim the lives of an estimated 1.5 million people. Herrera herself was killed during that time.
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