Contra la guerra contra las madres: una revisión feminista de la figura de la madre en las obras de Gabriela Wiener, Marta Dillon y las “Madres de Soacha”

Author

• Fatima Velez, CUNY Graduate CenterFollow

Date of Degree

6-2026

Document Type

Doctoral Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Program

Latin American, Iberian and Latino Cultures

Advisor

Angeles Donoso Macaya

Advisor

Fernando Degiovanni

Committee Members

Silvia Dapia

Camilla Stevens

Subject Categories

Arts and Humanities | Film and Media Studies | Latin American Languages and Societies | Latin American Literature | Spanish and Portuguese Language and Literature | Visual Studies

Keywords

Feminism, Human rights, Latin American cultural studies

Abstract

This dissertation critically examines how the figure of the mother appears across a set of contemporary Latin American cultural productions. Through the analysis of the work of Peruvian writer and performer Gabriela Wiener; the literary, journalistic, and cinematic production of Argentine writer and activist Marta Dillon; and the collective work of the Colombian human rights group known as the Mothers of Soacha—particularly the participation of three of its members in the play Antígonas, tribunal de mujeres—this study proposes the concept of a “war against mothers.” In dialogue with the term coined by Rita Segato (2016), “war against women,” this concept names a historical network of violences that, from the colonial period to contemporary neoliberalism, has been systematically waged against women’s bodies in their condition as mothers or potential mothers.

This research analyzes a set of literary, audiovisual, and performative works as sites of feminist theoretical and epistemological production. In these works, the figure of the mother is displaced from the role of sacrificial heroine and reimagined as a form of collective political imagination. This reconfiguration exceeds both the framework of the heteronormative nuclear family and the state’s criminal and punitive logics. In a context marked by the intensification of death-driven policies and the normalization of cruelty, this dissertation argues that these cultural productions denounce governmental violence, expose the limits of the modern state, and contribute to imagining alternative ways of organizing life.

Recommended Citation

Velez, Fatima, "Contra la guerra contra las madres: una revisión feminista de la figura de la madre en las obras de Gabriela Wiener, Marta Dillon y las “Madres de Soacha”" (2026). CUNY Academic Works.
https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/6655