Changes

Women played an instrumental role in legitimizing the ideology of the Shining Path, as teachers, members, martyrs and propaganda images. By 1990, women made up approximately one-third of the revolutionary group’s membership.[18] <ref>Starn, “Maoism in the Andes,” 297.</ref> Guzman, although aloof from bourgeoisie feminist movements, had formed the Popular Woman’s Movement in 1965, and worked as the director of student teachers in the Education department, where more than half the teachers were women, and according to Robin Kirk, “By 1981 half of Ayacucho’s teachers had received their degrees from the Shining Path-controlled San Cristóbal of Huamanga University (UHSC) Education Department.”[19] <ref>Kirk, <I>The Monkey’s Paw</I>, 79.</ref> In this way, women were involved in the diffusion and reception of the Maoist ideas that underpinned the Shining Path. Women were not only teachers and students of Maoism and Gonzolo Thought, but also members of the movement’s leadership. Guzman’s wife, Augusta was the director of the Popular Women’s movement, but her early visibility waned until a video of her funeral surfaced in 1991.[20] <ref>Kirk, <I>The Monkey’s Paw</I>, 90-92.</ref> As wife, warrior, or martyr, Augusta was a symbol of the Shining Path’s appeal to Peruvian women and women’s ability to serve in leadership roles. The Shining Path celebrated the image of one young female member very successfully.

In 1982, Edith Lagos, a member of the Shining Path, or Senderista, died at the hands of the police. Earlier that year she had helped mastermind the Ayacucho prison break, and was, according to Robin Kirk, “the most famous Shining Path member after Guzman.” [21] <ref> Kirk, <I>The Monkey’s Paw</I>, 80-81.</ref> Lagos was misti, or a Peruvian with non-indigenous features, well-educated and the daughter of wealthy parents. Her life an example of the emergence of politicized Peruvian women into the public sphere, and her death an illustration of the power of the image of fierce, dedicated Senderistas. Lagos’ funeral in Huamanga drew ten thousands mourners, who appeared in an amateur video of the event as a “solid carpet of people”.[22] <ref>Kirk, <I>The Monkey’s Paw</I>, 83.</ref> Since her death, Lagos’ grave has been destroyed three times, attesting to the military’s recognition of the power of her martyrdom to inspire Shining Path members and sympathizers. The Shining Path continued to use her as an icon seventeen years after her death, extolling her dedication and martyrdom in a presentation given in San Francisco by a member of the Committee to Support Revolution in Peru at a gathering on International Women’s Day called “Women Hold up Half the Sky, The Role of Women in the Revolution in Peru.”[23] <ref>CSRP, “Women Hold up Half the Sky, The Role of Women in the Revolution in Peru,” 1-2.</ref>

The Shining Path appealed to women within Andean communities, building its membership and ideological legitimacy. They did this by holding trials of wife-beaters, adulterers, and rapists.[24] <ref>Kirk, <I>The Monkey’s Paw</I>, 80.<ref> Later publications of Shining Path propaganda recount their role proudly, “Peru’s traditional Andean peasant culture is quite a lot more rigid than prevailing in the urban areas. Peasant women who would stray from their husbands are severely punished but sexual harassment and adultery on the part of men is rather prevalent. On the other hand, where the Party established its influence, divorce is introduced and sexual harassment is not tolerated.”[25] <ref>CSRP, “The Other Half of the Sky,” 5-6.</ref> Previously “invisible,” in the words of Isabel Coral Cordero, and trapped within a system that recognized only their domestic contributions, the Shining Path gave Peruvian women education, social justice, and opportunities to act alongside men in the People’s War.

Yet at the same time, gender issues were not part of the Shining Path’s platform, only their rhetoric. Guzman, like the primary influences in his life, Marx, Lenin, Mao and Mariategui, found gender insignificant in comparison to class struggle, but recognized the necessity of women’s involvement in the Revolution. “Only the direct and massive participation of revolutionary women, principally working women,” Guzman is quoted as saying “…in the (the revolution) remains the sole guarantee of genuine defense and promotion of women’s rights within a real and concrete path of liberation.”[26] <ref> CSRP, “The Other Half of the Sky” 6.</ref> The Shining Path recognized the need for women in the movement, yet it cannot be said that they offered Peruvian women emancipation or political agency, only that they sought their support through policies and rhetoric that validated their significance within Peruvian society and the revolution.

In contrast to the image of invisibility, domesticity, and sacrifice of Peruvian women described above, the figure of the female Senderista fighter inspired fear. The perception of these women warriors often had racial and gendered implications, harkening back to both stories of fierce Andean females, and the teachings of Mariategui. Mariategui described the nature of women as, “Lack[ing] a sense of justice. Women’s flaw is to be too indulgent or too severe. And they, like cats, have a mischievous inclination for cruelty.”[27] <ref>Kirk, <I>The Monkey’s Paw</I>, 74.</ref> Robin Kirk conducted interviews and research on the role of women in the Shining Path and found two prevailing perceptions of the “crazy” women drawn to join the People’s war, either “sexless automatons,” or “bloodthirsty nymphomaniacs.” Kirk writes that “It was as if Nature had delivered a totally new creature…it frightened and gave Guerillas an aura of unnatural, witchy power,” and quotes her cabdriver’s sentiment that “women from the mountains were, strong-willed, warlike.”[28] <ref>Kirk, <I>The Monkey’s Paw</ref>, 67-70.</ref>

Senderistas were rumored to regularly deliver the ‘coup de grace’ in targeted assassinations and popular trials, further building their image as cold and deadly.[29] <ref>Kirk, <I>The Monkey’s Paw<I/>, 65.</ref> The Shining Path reinforced this racialized perception of Andean women in its literature, quoting a 1923 El Tiempo newspaper article that described Andean women’s “rich history” of involvement in rebellions in the Ancco and Chusqui districts, saying, “They mistreated the mayor and the chief tax collectors of theses districts in a cruel and inhumane way, and left them fatally wounded.”[30] <ref><I>The New Flag Magazine</I>, “How Women Advance and Join the Revolution,” (1998), 2.</ref> The Shining Path did not create this image of strong, dangerous Peruvian women, they merely applied it in order to legitimize their appeal to indigenous communities, using both fear of women’s innate cruelty, and pride in Andean resistance and independence.