Throughout much of the twentieth century, an uneasy relationship existed between issues of sexuality and the working-class politics of the Mexican Communist Party and other left-wing organizations. Rather than attributing this tension solely to ideological conservatism, Revolution in the Sheets reinterprets the sexual politics of the Mexican Left by foregrounding toleration as its governing political strategy. Tracing debates in party archives, propaganda, oral histories, and correspondence, Robert Franco demonstrates how leftist parties dismissed issues of sexuality when politically necessary in order to negotiate authority, discipline dissent, or project a moral public image. However, militants also privately practiced interpersonal forms of toleration that, as the social and political winds changed, were later adopted by party leaders as a pragmatic compromise to expand the Left's electoral appeal without upsetting established norms. The embrace of toleration, Franco argues, functioned as a substitute for publicly addressing gender inequality and sexual repression, ultimately circumscribing the revolutionary potential of Mexican leftist politics.
Format: Hardback
CONTRIBUTORS: Robert Franco
EAN: 9780520434615
COUNTRY: United States
PAGES: 272
WEIGHT:
HEIGHT: 229 mm
PUBLISHED BY: University of California Press
DATE PUBLISHED: 2026-12-08
CITY:
GENRE: HISTORY / Latin America / Mexico, POLITICAL SCIENCE / Political Ideologies / Communism, Post-Communism & Socialism, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Gender Studies, SOCIAL SCIENCE / LGBTQ+ Studies / General
WIDTH: 152 mm
SPINE:
Book Themes:
Mexico, Gender studies, gender groups, Political ideologies and movements, Human rights, civil rights, History of the Americas
Robert Franco is Assistant Professor of Latin American History at Kenyon College.