Gender Violence and Rape in Nineteenth-Century Puerto Rico

• In Event: Beyond Nation: Feminism and Protest in Nineteenth-Century Latin American Print Culture

Abstract

Nineteenth-century nationalist discourse promoted the idea of love and mutual support as basis for the modern family. At the same time, cultural practices accepted moderate forms of violence against women as disciplinary punishment. Within this context, feminist writers such as Ana Roqué elaborated a strategy to support nationalist discourse’s romantic ideal while denouncing women’s physical aggression inside and outside of the domestic sphere. This paper focuses on Sara la obrera, a short novel published in 1895 that narrates the rape of Sara by her best friend’s husband, the forced participation of her friend, and the tragic results of the assault. I argue that through the development of an uncommon plot for the time, Sara la obrera stands out as an effort to raise awareness among women of the need to secure their bodily integrity while questioning the traditional concepts of victim-perpetrator for women offenders that are also victims of violence. I further contend that by setting the narrative in an urban environment and by including characters from different racial and social backgrounds, Roqué rewrites the discourse of the period and endows her novel with nationalist overtones.

Author

• Brenda Ortiz-Loyola, University of Louisville