The search for identity and development: The role of women in Santa Cruz society according to El Cosmopolita Ilustrado

Abstract

This article is the result of an analytical and reflective study on the text of El Cosmopolita Ilustrado, from which it will be possible to understand the cultural, social, political, and historical variables around which the city of Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia, has and continues to develop. The objective of the article is to reflect on these roles, to debate the need for a transformation of the Ethos of Santa Cruz women in the 21st Century. The study is focused on the role of women in this society – it is a document of sociological and philological character, and therefore of historical and political value – to understand the internal dynamics that underlie the Ethos of Santa Cruz society, regarding the role of women in the 19th Century. It also shows the identity and roles that have persisted in some forms of behaviour and thought in relation to women during the 20th and the beginning of the 21st Centuries.