Evelyn Paniagua Stevens (1919 – March 19, 1996) was an American scholar of
Latin American studies
Latin American studies (LAS) is an academic and research field associated with the study of Latin America. The interdisciplinary study is a subfield of area studies, and can be composed of numerous disciplines such as economics, sociology, history ...
. She spent much of her career at the Latin American Studies Center in the
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...
, where she was a scholar of Latin American politics and
women's studies
Women's studies is an academic field that draws on feminist and interdisciplinary methods to place women's lives and experiences at the center of study, while examining social and cultural constructs of gender; systems of privilege and oppress ...
. Stevens may have been the first to introduce the concept of ''
marianismo
''Marianismo'' is a term that describes an ideal of true femininity with characteristics derived from a central figure of Catholicism, Mary of Guadalupe. It defines standards for the Female gender, female gender role in Hispanic American folk cu ...
'' to the academic literature, when she controversially argued in 1973 that ''marianismo'' was a widespread counterbalance to ''
machismo
Machismo (; ; ; ) is the sense of being " manly" and self-reliant, a concept associated with "a strong sense of masculine pride: an exaggerated masculinity". Machismo is a term originating in the early 1930s and 1940s best defined as hav ...
''. Stevens was the 10th President of the
Latin American Studies Association
The Latin American Studies Association (LASA) is the largest association for scholars of Latin American studies. Founded in 1966, it has over 12,000 members, 45 percent of whom reside outside the United States (36 percent in Latin America and the C ...
, and the first woman to be president of that organization.
Life and career
Stevens was born in Chicago in 1919.
She attended
Northwestern University
Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1851, Northwestern is the oldest chartered university in Illinois and is ranked among the most prestigious academic institutions in the world.
Charte ...
and the
University of Puerto Rico
The University of Puerto Rico ( es, Universidad de Puerto Rico, UPR) is the main public university system in the U.S. Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. It is a government-owned corporation with 11 campuses and approximately 58,000 students and 5,3 ...
, but did not complete a degree at either school.
[ She married Manual Paniagua, from whom she would later become divorced, and they had two children.][ Stevens spent the 1940s and 1950s working primarily as a journalist and civil servant in a variety of institutions.][ Her workplaces during this time included the , the ]National Labor Relations Board
The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is an independent agency of the federal government of the United States with responsibilities for enforcing U.S. labor law in relation to collective bargaining and unfair labor practices. Under the Natio ...
, the Office of the Governor of Puerto Rico
The Office of the Governor of Puerto Rico —commonly called ''La Fortaleza'' (English: ''The Fortress'')— consists of the immediate staff of the Governor of Puerto Rico, as well as multiple levels of support staff reporting to the Go ...
, and ''The San Juan Star
''The San Juan Star'' is an English-language daily newspaper based in San Juan, Puerto Rico. The Pulitzer Prize-winning newspaper was originally published by Star Media Network, a subdivision of San Juan Star, Inc.
History
The newspaper was f ...
''.[ In the late 1950s, Stevens matriculated at the ]University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...
, where she obtained an A.B. degree, an A.M. degree, and a PhD.[ Her PhD dissertation, defended on March 31, 1969, was entitled ''Information and decision-making in Mexico''.
After obtaining her PhD, Stevens held faculty appointments at the ]University of Akron
The University of Akron is a public research university in Akron, Ohio. It is part of the University System of Ohio. As a STEM-focused institution, it focuses on industries such as polymers, advanced materials, and engineering. It is classified ...
and then Loyola University Chicago
Loyola University Chicago (Loyola or LUC) is a private Jesuit research university in Chicago, Illinois. Founded in 1870 by the Society of Jesus, Loyola is one of the largest Catholic
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Cathol ...
, before joining the Latin American Studies Center at the University of California, Berkeley.[ She also married the ]Case Western Reserve University
Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) is a private research university in Cleveland, Ohio. Case Western Reserve was established in 1967, when Western Reserve University, founded in 1826 and named for its location in the Connecticut Western Reser ...
Professor George Sayers.[ In the 1976–1977 academic year, Stevens was the President of the Latin American Studies Association, which is the largest Latin American studies association.][ She was the first woman to be president of this organization.][
Steven's work in Latin American studies was particularly concerned with women's issues. She also published case studies of particular regional or historical events; for example, in 1963 she published the book ''Puerto Rico's "Peaceful Revolution"'', and in 1974 she published ''Protest and Response in Mexico''.] Stevens has been credited with introducing the idea of ''marianismo'' to the academic literature (re-defining a pre-existing word that had referred the exaltation of the Mary, mother of Jesus
Mary; arc, ܡܪܝܡ, translit=Mariam; ar, مريم, translit=Maryam; grc, Μαρία, translit=María; la, Maria; cop, Ⲙⲁⲣⲓⲁ, translit=Maria was a first-century Jews, Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Saint Joseph, Jose ...
) in her 1973 work, ''Marianismo: The Other Face of Machismo'', though it has been argued that others described the idea of ''marianismo'' earlier. Defining ''marianismo'' as "the cult of female spiritual superiority which teaches that women are semi-divine, morally superior to and spiritually stronger than men", Stevens argued that ''marianismo'' was a widespread phenomenon across Latin America which counterbalanced the cultural idea of ''machismo''. The concept proved to be highly influential over the following decades, but it attracted substantial controversy as scholars debated whether it really existed across Latin America as Stevens argued,[ or whether ''marianismo'' was an idea that had been inaccurately read into Latin American cultures by a North American researcher.][ Although the claim that ''marianismo'' exists and is widespread across Latin America came under sustained critique in the following decades, the idea proved influential and has continued to be commonly used in cultural analyses.]
Stevens died on March 19, 1996, in Alameda, California
Alameda ( ; ; Spanish for "Avenue (landscape), tree-lined path") is a city in Alameda County, California, located in the East Bay (San Francisco Bay Area), East Bay region of the Bay Area. The city is primarily located on Alameda (island), Alam ...
.[
]
Selected works
*''Puerto Rico's "peaceful Revolution"'' (1963)
*"Marianismo: The Other Face of Machismo" (1973)[
*''Protest and Response in Mexico'' (1974)][
]
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Stevens, Evelyn Paniagua
1919 births
1996 deaths
Latin Americanists
Historians of Puerto Rico
Historians of Mexico
20th-century American women writers
Academics from Chicago
University of California, Berkeley alumni
University of Akron faculty
Loyola University Chicago faculty
American women academics