Patriots, Prostitutes, and Spies: Women and the Mexican-American War by John M. Belohlavek (review)

Women have played major roles in wars throughout American and Mexican history, and women have been greatly impacted by all wars, yet historians have only recently started to examine this topic in depth in relation to the U.S.-Mexican War. In Patriots, Prostitutes, and Spies: Women and the Mexican-American War, John M. Belohlavek dives into this endeavor, examining Mexican and American women who were actors in the conflict. He also explores the ideas that American men had about Mexican women and the consequences of such ideas. The task of studying women on all sides of the conflict is a major undertaking, but one that adds tremendously to the historiography of the U.S.-Mexican War and women's history.

In telling these remarkable stories, Belohlavek examines how women in the United States supported or opposed the war effort. Turning to Mexico, Belohlavek relates the stories of the soldaderas who had long played a major role in the Mexican army as cooks, laundresses, nurses, and sometimes soldiers. In exploring the war's impact in New Mexico, Belohlavek studies two women, Susan Shelby Magoffin, who traveled the Santa Fe Trail with her merchant husband, and Gertrudis Barceló, also known as Dôna Tula, who rose to fame as a businesswoman in New Mexico. Belohlavek also examines the few women who traveled with the U.S. military, women who lived in Mexico, and women writers and editors who wrote about the war. The author continues by examining fantasies that American men had about Mexican women and the actual relationships between them. Finally, Belohlavek examines some Mexican poetry as well as American literature, songs, and poetry written about the war.

There are many challenges involved in attempting to examine both American and Mexican women's experiences in the war. Sources on the American side, especially those written by women, are greater in number and more easily accessible than those written by Mexican women. Literacy rates for Mexican women were lower, and printed sources are scarcer compared with those portraying American views. As a result, the stories of American women come to life in this book, but the telling of stories of Mexican women is less complete due to source challenges. The chapter on women editors in the war is fascinating. Belohlavek provides in-depth profiles of three women who had different views of the war but exercised great independence for the time. Another critical chapter examines American men's views of Mexican women. The writings of American men were sometimes contradictory and often racist and misogynistic, and Belohlavek provides insightful analysis in this section. He also explains the implications for Mexican women who worked for or had relationships with American men. Many of these women faced retribution, sometimes murder, for their interactions with the Americans. Belohlavek also describes the violence that Mexican women experienced at the hands of some American soldiers.

Belohlavek does an excellent job connecting the historiography and histories of the U.S.-Mexican War, women's history, and the political history of the era. The author aptly explains how protest against the war was often tied to other reform movements, such as abolitionism and women's rights. The populace in the United States was torn over support for the war, and Belohlavek shows that women, too, were part of these debates.

In sum, Patriots, Prostitutes, and Spies enlightens readers about women and the U.S.-Mexican War. As Belohlavek notes, "This work seeks to explore and recognize the courage, spirit, and influence of women heralded and unheralded, of varying backgrounds and nationalities, who powerfully impacted the war that changed the continent," and he succeeds in this endeavor (p. 2).