Gender and Poch[o]tec@

Decolonial Imaginary for the potential of future

In Nahuas After the Conquest, James Lockhart makes mention of female merchants in the squares where the pochteca traded. Still, Lockhart makes the point that there were no hints, besides these pictures of women in the market, that women were of the pochteca class of merchant. For my work, this is not helpful because the "@" symbolizes the inclusivity of gender that the "a/o" binary previously noted.

However, I am not daunted by reading this because I rely on Emma Perez's notion of the decolonial imaginary that reconstructs historical narrative for their potential, instead of uncritically going along with colonized historical narratives. I could only speculate whether Lockhart had any agenda with regard to dismissing the potential of women as pochteca, but I would add that it's the many Chicanas with whom I've worked with and studied under who have inspired me with their networks and negotiation of ideologies that I do not face because of male privilege that I have done nothing to earn and benefit from, many times when I am unaware.
 

After all, if we don't disconnect the pocho from deficiency rhetoric, what will be left with?