La Virgen de Guadalupe, la Malinche, la Llorona, and la Chingada reflect different myths of motherhood in Mexican culture. Mythological Constructs of Mexican Femininity explores the texts of Nellie Campobello, Juana Belén Gutiérrez de Mendoza, Sara Estela Ramírez, and Andrea Villarreal González to examine their use of motherhood as a political discursive position. Grounded on a postcolonial theoretical framework, and on the writings about womanhood and motherhood by Gabriela Mistral, Antonieta Rivas Mercado, Victoria Ocampo, and Rosario Castellanos, this book seeks to create a basis for the examination of non-canonical texts by Mexican women, but will also be useful in the examination of other marginal voices about femininity in Latin America and in Chicanx/Latinx studie. It also recognizes the value of analyzing writing through the ideas of Latin American female intellectuals who have theorized motherhood and womanhood and who know and understand the mythological constructs of (Latin American) feminisms.

Pilar Melero is Associate Professor of Spanish at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, USA. Her publications include From Mythic Rocks: Voces del Malpáis (short narrative), La Casa de Esperanza. A History, and several journal articles.

Introduction: Motherhood as a Feminist Discursive Space
1. Desde las faldas de la madre/From Underneath Mother's Skirt: Nellie Campobello (Re)Claims (Single) Motherhood and Mothers as Historians
2. Juana Belén Gutiérrez de Mendoza: Writing from the Margins of Word, Class, and Gender
3. (Re)Thinking Woman(hood): Sara Estela Ramírez, Activity, and Being
4. Andrea Villarreal González: Forming Rebels/Rebel Forming

5. Conclusion: Being Woman (Within) Patriarchy