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A review by bahareads
Celia Sanchez Manduley: The Life and Legacy of a Cuban Revolutionary by Tiffany A. Sippial
informative
reflective
fast-paced
5.0
Tiffany Sippial argues that by using Celia Sánchez’s life as a lens, one can see how the revolutionary’s “New Woman” was being made and remade with Sánchez as the standard. Sippial uses her book to answer posed questions about the official narrative purpose of Celia Sánchez’s life, like the lack of focus on her child and early adulthood. Through these questions Sippial contrasts who Sánchez was, with and against the official narrative.
Sippial employs feminist biography and cultural history methodologies to make history and mythology indistinguishable. She shows Sánchez becoming the embodiment of the New Woman, similar to J.M. Taylor’s study of Eva Perón. Sippial acknowledges her own presence, and the subjectivity needed for biography as a form of historical inquiry. She starts each chapter with her personal experiences in researching Sánchez. Sippial examines Sánchez’s purposeful and strategic framing of her public image, balancing it with concerns of time, space, and gender constraints. She looks at meanings assigned to Sánchez’s experiences within official discourses, memory, and sites of memorialization. An example of interrogating meaning is examining Sánchez’s embodiment of a mariposa and how it links her to national mythology.
Sippial uses a feminist biographer lens for her work, building upon the work of other feminist biographers like Susan Crane. She builds on the biographical work of Cuban women and gender studies. Sippial invites other scholars to explore the possibilities that exist in feminist biographies to enrich and understand women’s lives while emphasising there is more work to be done in this area of historiography. Sippial differs from other writers on Sánchez because she starts with Sanchez’s childhood instead of her revolutionary work.
One of Sippial’s points is that by posing questions one can see Sánchez’s life against the broader discourse of acceptable revolutionary womanhood as Sánchez is lauded as the acceptable revolutionary woman. Sippial’s second point is it is necessary to start with Sánchez’s childhood in her biography to understand her approach to politics. Sánchez’s life story is linked to the foundational myths of the revolutionary experience as a struggle for solidarity and survival (8, 11). The third point is the timing of Sánchez’s death, alongside the revolutionary government losing effectiveness, helped shape the official narratives of her life and career. Sánchez’s life and important contributions have been shaped through the cross-pollination of voices, memory, and media.
Sippial employs feminist biography and cultural history methodologies to make history and mythology indistinguishable. She shows Sánchez becoming the embodiment of the New Woman, similar to J.M. Taylor’s study of Eva Perón. Sippial acknowledges her own presence, and the subjectivity needed for biography as a form of historical inquiry. She starts each chapter with her personal experiences in researching Sánchez. Sippial examines Sánchez’s purposeful and strategic framing of her public image, balancing it with concerns of time, space, and gender constraints. She looks at meanings assigned to Sánchez’s experiences within official discourses, memory, and sites of memorialization. An example of interrogating meaning is examining Sánchez’s embodiment of a mariposa and how it links her to national mythology.
Sippial uses a feminist biographer lens for her work, building upon the work of other feminist biographers like Susan Crane. She builds on the biographical work of Cuban women and gender studies. Sippial invites other scholars to explore the possibilities that exist in feminist biographies to enrich and understand women’s lives while emphasising there is more work to be done in this area of historiography. Sippial differs from other writers on Sánchez because she starts with Sanchez’s childhood instead of her revolutionary work.
One of Sippial’s points is that by posing questions one can see Sánchez’s life against the broader discourse of acceptable revolutionary womanhood as Sánchez is lauded as the acceptable revolutionary woman. Sippial’s second point is it is necessary to start with Sánchez’s childhood in her biography to understand her approach to politics. Sánchez’s life story is linked to the foundational myths of the revolutionary experience as a struggle for solidarity and survival (8, 11). The third point is the timing of Sánchez’s death, alongside the revolutionary government losing effectiveness, helped shape the official narratives of her life and career. Sánchez’s life and important contributions have been shaped through the cross-pollination of voices, memory, and media.