UC Riverside

An important cultural and political figure in Mexico’s twentieth century, Concha Michel was part of a generation of Mexican women activists whose actions and resolutions demonstrated their resolve in calling for changes to the law, access to the vote, and altering education and culture. While Mexican women participated in organizational efforts in both Mexico and internationally during the first three decades of the twentieth century, scholars have continued to identify the need to recognize their work as activists and their intellectual writings. In focusing on the activism and political thought of Michel during the 1920s and 1930s, I trace out Michel’s militant resolve to advocate on behalf of women’s complex structural needs: immediate and long-term. A globally significant activist, singer, and composer, Concha Michel was an advocate for women’s, campesino’s, and worker’s rights within the women’s movement in Mexico. Historical and archival in nature, this biographical study employs qualitative analysis, including a close reading of primary sources. I utilize governmental archives, periodicals, published books and articles from the period in question. Michel published a number of articles, books, and treatises, that are significant for my study. I analyze these texts as a lens to better understand Michel’s feminism and theoretical dispositions. The chapters present a reconstruction of Michel’s lived experiences, political activities, and engagement with reformist efforts as they pertain to women during the period that encompasses the years 1920-1940. This study proposes that during the 1930s, Michel articulated a theoretical position to simultaneously abolish class oppression and patriarchal oppression that was unusual for her time. Michel took part in international activities in connection with the Communist Party. For Michel, the Communist Party did not develop effective mechanisms for organizing against gender inequalities, prompting her to develop proposals to transgress the obstacles that kept men and women from fighting for each other’s liberation. I show Michel was asserting gender demands while rejecting the socialist stance of advancing the indiscriminate and undifferentiated incorporation of women into productive work.