As a point of departure I begin with a quote by Rita Felski that explains what this paper aims to demonstrate:"... periods of supposedly progressive change have frequently coincided with a loss of power and status for women and have in fact occurred at their expense"(47). In the context of third wave feminism that has often questioned the assumption that" modernity" and" progress" have gone hand in hand with women's liberation, examining texts by women that narrate transitions to modernity can help us to explore this assumption more closely. In the Latin American context where scholars have been debating the extent to which" modernity" has even developed, this type of inquiry is even more necessary. 1 Felski offers a general definition of" modernity," a potentially confusing term, that I find relevant for the purposes of this paper:

Modernity... signifies in the present context not only such socioeconomic processes as industrialization, urban expansion, and the increasing division of labor associated with the development of capitalism, but also the epistemic shift towards a secularized worldview exemplified in the articulation of universalizable concepts of rationality, freedom, and equality.(47)