Every Woman is a World: Interviews with Women of Chiapas is a lovely collection of personal testimonials and photographed portraits edited by artists Gayle Walker and Kiki Suárez. Ms. Walker and Ms. Suárez, both having adopted Chiapas as their home, set out to find a deeper understanding of the region’s history and culture. Rather than relying on the more typical realms of history where accounts are dominated by the conquests of men, the editors turned to the lives of the women. Their work challenges readers to find a renewed understanding of domesticity as being a unique kind of adventure, requiring incredible courage of its own. Together they traveled through the urban and rural landscapes of Chiapas to interview and photograph the elderly women of the region. The result is a presentation of life stories that span most of the twentieth century and reach across the socially divided world of Chiapas.
The book presents the life stories of twenty-eight of the region’s elderly women and subtly draws out the region’s history and changing social landscape. Each section begins with an intimate portrait of the woman and is followed by an account of her experiences, in her own words (translated into English). The diversity of life experiences presented in the book recounts the deep stratification of Mexican society throughout the twentieth century. From the Spanish Influenza epidemic to the Mexican revolution and the recent Zapatista uprising, these women of Chiapas relate a century of history from a variety of perspectives. Urban, upper-class Ladinas who grew up with wealth and opportunity limited only by the demands of patriarchy are placed side-by-side with marginalized Indians and lower-class mestizas who struggled to find their own place somewhere in between. While some women recounted fondly their childhoods filled with prosperity, others spoke plainly of never having enough to eat. Some of the women told stories of the great loves in their lives, yet most spoke of the pain inflicted through gender inequality not bounded by class or ethnicity. Though their experiences are varied, commonalities run throughout the life stories. Alcoholism and abuse permeate the narratives, as does an abiding faith in God.
The lack of analysis in this book is frankly refreshing. The editors do not try to draw conclusions or assert theorizations. The reader is left to move easily and reflectively through the women’s own accounts of what has been important in their lives. It is a text filled with both beauty and pain that defies any impulse to homogenize a place or a people. In addition to the testimonials, the editors included two appendices for the reader’s further elucidation: a glossary of terms and a list of relevant people, customs, and events. It is in this final section where history proper reappears and culture is explained. Here at the end, almost as side comments, are brief paragraphs explaining aspects of the Mexican revolution, the Zapatista uprising, Mayan religious customs, and local ethnographic institutions. The appendices appear as simple necessities to complete an otherwise straightforward testimonial account of Chiapas from the perspective of the women who lived its history.
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[Review length: 513 words • Review posted on June 18, 2009]