Why “soldadera” is a great word
SOLDADERA — [Noun] A woman who fought, supported, or followed the armies during the Mexican Revolution, performing roles from combatant to cook. From Spanish soldadera, the feminine form of soldado ("soldier"), from Italian soldato ("paid soldier"), from soldo ("pay, coin"), ultimately from Late Latin solidus, a type of gold coin. Unlike "Adelita" (which conjures a romanticized, ballad-sung archetype) or "soldado" (which denotes the generic, masculine combatant), "soldadera" encompasses the gritty totality of women's wartime labor. It is the calloused hand grinding corn on a stone metate, the determined silhouette marching with a child, a rifle, and a sack of beans, and the quiet presence binding wounds with strips of torn cloth—a testament to the unmonetized infrastructure that sustained the rebellion.