In July, “Las Soldaderas” made its debut at the 5th Annual Latino Theater Festival presented by the Goodman Theater. “Las Soldaderas” is a production of Aguijón Theater. Its mission is to explore Latin American literature through theater.

Oswaldo Calderón wrote and adapted the on stage performance inspired from the book of Elena Poniatowska, which talks about the women of the Mexican Revolution. Through photos of Agustín Victor Casasola, it also illustrates the two roles that these women had during the war.

Calderón creates five women of different social classes, played by Gaby Mayorga, Alicia Ponce, Susana Avitia, Erica Cruz Hernández, and Marcela Muñoz. Oliver Aldape performs the different male characters in the play. Each woman personifies a vulnerable situation due to the war and its daily existence. In one way or another, they had to fight a revolution, face hardships, look out for their families and tolerate abuse.

This devastating effect for women caught in a war is exemplified in this play which is also reminiscent of current situations for women around the world. Muñoz, Aguijón Theater’s executive director and artistic co-director said that unfortunately, women still experience mutinies in Africa and the Middle East.

One of the soldaderas featured in the play is Isabel, an indigenous woman played by Avitia. Due to her religious and moral beliefs, in addition to being married, decides to follow her husband and bring along her newborn son to the battlefield. But as time goes by, she questions whether it was worth jeopardizing her family and even her own life for an ideal.

Nevertheless, despite her pain and other women’s suffering, other women in the revolution continued to contribute to the struggle. Their duties included cleaning and carrying rifles, healing the wounded, getting and cooking food ...