Role of Women

       Literature can have a big impact on how readers interpret various character roles represented in a text.  In our North American society, the way that different individuals are constructed in literature may also play a role in formulating the assumed identities of people who read the literature.  This can also be said for the way that different groups in society are portrayed through media.  According to the book The SAGE Handbook of Gender and Communication, by Brooks and Hebert, “how individuals construct their social identities, how they understand what it means to be male, female…is shaped by commidified texts produced by media…” (297).  In other words, media and other forms of communication that consumers will revel in play a big role in how specific groups are looked at in society.  In this way, then, authors play a big part in portraying social constructs, such as gender, in whatever way seems fitting to them. 

            The roles that women play in the literature of a specific culture is very important for determining the functions in society that women undertake.  Women who read about themselves portrayed as weak and subservient may reinforce that stereotype by actually living in this manner.  Women in literature who are given strong and independent roles, though, may encourage women readers to stand up for themselves.  The women present in the novels required for this Latino Literature class are given various occupations and family positions, ranging from upper level government jobs to traditional domestic vocations.  Despite these various positions, Latino women in these novels, whatever their role, must learn to adjust to the prevalence of machismo displayed by men.

             Because many of the stories in Latino literature deal with families adjusting to the displaced feeling of living in the United States from another country, the male characters feel as if they need to exert their control over women because they feel disempowered by the Anglos in the United States culture.  According to the article “Times of Conflict: Bless Me, Ultima as a Novel of Acculturation,” by Debra B. Black, men who feel this way will exert their power over women because it is the one thing left in their life over which they have control (147).  This idea is especially prominent in the novels Bless Me, Ultima, by Rudolfo Anaya, Bodega Dreams, by Ernesto Quiñonez, and Dreaming in Cuban, by Cristina Garcia, even though they are placed in different settings and life situations.  However, what ties these novels all together is the emphasis women place on going against this machismo, by asserting their independence in following their personal dreams and striving to keep their family units together through the difficult process of acculturation.

            The novel Bless Me, Ultima, fits perfectly into this categorization because it has the strong female character of Ultima.  Ultima is a traditional curandera who comes to live with the Marez family when Antonio, the protagonist, is only seven years old.  She immediately has a strong impact on Antonio, and begins to teach him some of her curing techniques.  However, the strongest influence Ultima has on Antonio is giving him strength to make his own decision about his destiny.  In fact, Ultima’s influence feels almost unnatural to Antonio: “I felt Ultima’s hand on my head and at the same time I felt a great force, like a whirlwind, swirl around me.  I looked up in fright, thinking the wind would knock me off my knees.  Ultima’s bright eyes held me still” (Anaya 58).  Ultima’s power may be bizarre, but it is very effective, as she is able to vanquish evil curses, and does so with Antonio’s uncle Lucas and the Tellez family (Anaya 95, 240).  However, her healing methods do not agree with everyone, especially the town drunk, Tenorio, whose daughters are known to be witches who put the curses on both Lucas and the Tellez family.  Tenorio, a male, feels threatened by Ultima’s powers and the fact that she may is trying to destroy his daughters, and decides to kill her.  Despite Ultima’s healing powers, then, she is still looked at as a threat by some of the males in the novel. 

            One of the reasons Ultima feels this tension from some of the males is because she is using her powers to “break out of traditional cultural roles assigned to women” (Black 159).  Even though the curandera position is traditional in Chicano culture, because the characters in this novel are experiencing a time of crises with their acculturation, the special powers of women like Ultima could feel threatening to patriarchal order (Black 159).  Before Ultima came to live with the Marez family, she was free to as she pleased, staying within the guidelines of a traditional curandera.  However, with the new order in Bless Me, Ultima, Ultima finds herself contained by the head of the Marez family, Gabriel, and to a certain extent, Antonio, who accompanies her on all her assignments.  Essentially, as Ultima passes her knowledge to Antonio, she loses her own past and power by giving it to him, a sign of giving up her independence to a male (Black 160). 

            Even though Ultima does give in to the machismo of Latino culture, one could say that she does it to keep the Marez family together.  She makes an independent decision to give Antonio guidance for deciding his own fate so as to ease the tension between his mother and father.  This also shows that she does not have males completely controlling her life, but instead is acting for the family.  Ultima, on her deathbed, tells Antonio that she realizes her independence has cost her life: “You must understand that when anybody…curandera….or sinner, tampers with the fate of a man that sometimes a chain of events is set into motion over which no one will have ultimate control.” (Anaya 80) Ultima, then, goes against the stream of machismo sentiment in order to aid her adopted family.

            Bodega Dreams is a Puerto Rican novel that takes place in a completely different timeframe and setting than Bless Me, Ultima, but still contains the same themes of women having to adjust to the accentuated machismo resulting from acculturation.  However, as with the strong character of Ultima in Bless Me, Ultima, Blanca of Bodega Dreams holds onto her independent dreams and works hard to keep her family together, despite being pregnant.  Bodega Dreams takes place in New York City’s Spanish Harlem, traditionally a lower income part of the city.  Many outsiders of this area look at the citizens as being delinquents or drug dealers, which penetrates to the mindset of the people who actually live there.  The narrator of this novel, Chino, (Blanca’s husband) recalls his school days in Spanish Harlem, remembering that he and his classmates “were almost convinced that our race [Puerto Rican] had no culture, no smart people…” (Quiñonez 6).  Because of this inherent mindset, many Puerto Rican youngsters have trouble getting out of the cycle of poverty. 

            Blanca, however, does not share this attitude, and she and Chino are able to get into Hunter College in order complete their degrees and get out of poverty.  In Blanca’s opinion, getting a college education will allow her and Chino to get good jobs and buy a nicer house where they can raise their children in a respectful, acculturated manner.  Blanca also thinks like a feminist in that she wants to make decisions about the family with Chino and not just go along with what he says.  However, this ideal begins to become threatened when Chino lines himself up with Willie Bodega and his dream for rebuilding the neighborhood. 

            When Chino meets Willie Bodega through his old ‘pana’ Sapo, he realizes that he may have discovered a way to achieve upward mobility without the difficulties of attaining a college education.  According to the article “On Bodega Dreams,” by Nicole P. Marwell, Bodega’s assistance appeals to Chino because it is a quick solution to his problem of getting out of Spanish Harlem (463).  However, it could also be because Chino wants to show Blanca that he has control over their situation, thus revealing his masculine role in the family.  Blanca, however, does not like Chino associating with Sapo and Bodega, and eventually confronts Chino after he purchases a new apartment from Bodega without telling her (Quiñonez 60).

            Despite these difficulties with their marriage, Blanca continues to attend all her classes at Hunter and remains very involved in her Pentecostal church, thus retaining independence from Chino’s machismo assertions.  However, Chino continues to keep secrets from Blanca about his involvement with Bodega, so Blanca decides to leave him.  By doing this, she physically defies Chino’s machismo and does what she thinks is best for their unborn child. 

            The novel Dreaming in Cuban portrays yet another group of Latinos than the previously discussed texts, and also takes place in a different timeframe and setting.  This novel revolves around three generations of women in the same family, showing their struggles and joys in trying to acculturate to the political conflict between Cuba and the United States.  Because of the Cuban Revolution, the new Communist government creates conflict between Cubans who support the new regime and those who want democracy.  This, then, is the conflict of the del Pino family, as about half of its members support the revolution, and the other half are against it. 

            Celia del Pino, the matriarch of the family, is the first to be introduced in the novel as an elderly woman who is grieving the death of her husband on a beach of Cuba.  Celia is said to “grieve for her husband, not for his death…but for his mixed up allegiances” (Garcia 6).  Celia and her husband Jorge had a difficult start to their marriage as Celia was madly in love with Gustavo, a Spaniard who she courted for about a summer before he returned to Spain.  When Gustavo left, Celia became inconsolable and seriously sick for over half a year.  However, during this time Jorge, an American businessman, came to court her, and they got married.  Jorge’s business trips took him to the United States often, and so he sent Celia to live with his mother and sister, who scorned her, in order to punish her for still being in love with Gustavo (Garcia 41).  Celia cannot put up with her in-laws, though, and ends up going insane because of their treatment.  Upon having their first child, Celia pronounces “I will not remember her name” (Garcia 43). 

            The treatment Celia receives from her husband was a result of the machismo inherent in Cuban culture.  This machismo ruins her relationship with her daughter Lourdes, and therefore causes a divide in the family.  Despite the problems Celia has with the controlling man in her life, she retains an independent spirit, and decides to support the Cuban Revolution, which her husband is against because the United States is against the dictatorship.  As she grows older, she also continues to keep her family together, worrying about her poor relationship with her daughter Lourdes and the decision Felicia, her second daughter, has made to leave school (Garcia 164). 

            For Celia, then, the relationships she has with her daughters is very important to how she views herself her independence as a woman.  According to the article “From Alienation to Reconciliation in Garcia’s Novels,” by Katherine B. Payant, because Celia gets her destiny decided for her by the men in her life, the relationships with her daughters become part of a shared history of the oppression of women, and assist her in finding self-acceptance (170).  Toward the end of the novel, after Jorge has died, both Lourdes and her daughter Pilar go to visit Celia in Cuba, after they have not been there for many years (Garcia 203).  Through this act, the family is again able to reunite, if only for a short time.  When Lourdes and Pilar leave, though, with Celia’s only remaining Cuban family, Ivanito, she loses the purpose in her life and commits suicide in the ocean (Garcia 243).  Even though Celia’s suicide is a dissonant ending to Dreaming in Cuban, it shows an ultimate assertion of independence.  Celia did, in effect, also bring her family back together in having them come back to Cuba for a final time.  Because of this, Celia’s goals are achieved full circle. 

            All in all, the strong women in these novels show command of the machismo they face by asserting their independence while also working to keep their families together.  Even though Mexican, Puerto Rican, and Cuban cultures vary extensively, the authors of these texts have portrayed the women in a positive manner, giving them will power and purpose.  Female readers of these three Latino texts should be able to take heart in the women characters and find strength to emanate their purpose.     

Works Cited

Anaya, Rudolfo. Bless Me, Ultima. New York City: Warner, 1972. Print.

Black, Debra B. "Times of Conflict: Bless Me, Ultima as a Novel of Acculturation." Bilingual Review 25.2 (2000): 146-61. Academic Search Premier. Web. 8 Apr. 2012.

Brooks, Dwight E., and Lisa P. Hebert. Gender, Race, and Media Representation. The SAGE Handbook of Gender and Communication. By Bonnie J. Dow and Julia T. Wood. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, 2006. 297-317. Wisecampus.com. 11 June 2006. Web. 11 Apr. 2012.

Davis, Rocio G. "Back To The Future: Mothers, Languages, And Homes In Cristina Garcia's `Dreaming In Cuban'." World Literature Today 74.1 (2000): 60. Academic Search Premier. Web. 8 Apr. 2012.  

Dwyer, June. "When Willie Met Gatsby: The Critical Implications of Ernesto Quinonez's Bodega Dreams." LIT: Literature Interpretation Theory 14.2 (2003): 165-79.Academic Search Premier. Web. 8 Apr. 2012. 

Garcia, Cristina. Dreaming in Cuban. New York City: Ballantine, 1992. Print.

Marwell, Nicole P. "On Bodega Dreams." Sociological Forum 24.2 (2009): 461-64.Academic Search Premier. Web. 8 Apr. 2012.  
Payant, Katherine B. "From Alienation to Reconciliation in the Novels of Cristina Garcia." Rev. of Dreaming in Cuban & The Aguero Sisters. MELUS 26.3 (2001): 163-83.Academic Search Premier. Web. 8 Apr. 2012. 

Marwell, Nicole P. "On Bodega Dreams." Sociological Forum 24.2 (2009): 461-64.Academic Search Premier. Web. 8 Apr. 2012.  

Quinonez, Ernesto. Bodega Dreams. New York City: Vintage, 2000. Print.

Men and Women: Conflicting Love

           Because the theme of my integration essay revolves around the roles women play in each of the novels we have read for this class, it was interesting for me to look at the part both Beli and her daughter Lola had in the plot of this novel which, according to the title, revolves around a male character: Oscar Wao.  Beli is obviously a very strong woman, as she went through a lot of struggles growing up without a family.  These struggles continue to form as she grows up, moving from conflicts with La Inca to trouble with her boyfriend relationships: Jack Pujols, the gangster, and later, her husband.  Lola, too, is a strong woman who attains a college education in the United States and is popular with many friends.  Despite this, though, she also has conflict with her mother growing up and also with many of the men she encounters.  

Courtesy of: http://utterpiffle.blogspot.com/2012_02_01_archive.html

            What’s interesting about Dominican culture, as portrayed in this book, is that it not only encourages men to get girls, but it also supports women in hooking up with guys.  Just as in American culture, Beli dreamed about falling madly in love with some guy who would sweep her off her feet (87).  This desire had no hope of coming true, though, until Beli hit the adolescent “biochemical jackpot” and quickly became a very good looking girl.  Her transformation made her shy at first, until she realized it could help her attain the coveted goal she was looking for.  However, in the end she falls for the wrong men, and ends up being hurt by them.  Like Beli, Lola also uses her femininity to her advantage to get with Aldo, a boy who lives on the jersey shore (62).  Lola runs away with him in direct defiance to her mother, as Beli is always so controlling.  A few months after this lifestyle, though, Lola realizes that she doesn’t like her situation and calls Oscar, who brings Beli along to take Lola home.  After her disappointing first relationship, though, Lola continues to keep dating different guys that continue to fail her.  It seems to be a never ending cycle for women in this book. 

            The portrayal of women in this novel, then, kind of fits in with how Dominican men are expected to act, but in an opposite way.  Men feel a lot of pressure to get with many girls, and being with more than one is kind of expected or encouraged.  Women, however, dream of having just one true love that will eventually work out as a “happily ever after” story.  These conflicting ideas of love, then, are the essence of the conflict that is so inherent in this novel

Women in the Island Literature

Courtesy of hsrabdreams.blogspot.com

            The role of women in Latino culture has been a key aspect of each of the novels covered in this class.  In this genre of literature, women are portrayed as being independent, although still face struggles in attempting to overcome the cultural effects of machismo in Latino culture.  Bodega Dreams and Dreaming in Cuban are no exception to this representation, as both of these novels contain strong women who are attempting to follow their “dreams.”  However, the dreams in each novel vary because of the cultural and masculine influences that each woman faces. 

            Bodega Dreams takes place in Spanish Harlem of New York City.  Even though many of the people living in this area have ancestors from Puerto Rico, most of them are second or third generation citizens.  Spanish Harlem, then, is in the process of developing a unique culture, combining both Puerto Rican and American qualities.  Blanca, the main female character in this book, is attempting to get out of the poverty of Spanish Harlem by attaining a college education.  Chino, her husband, also holds this same goal, but doesn’t seem to be as committed to it, especially when he becomes more closely involved with his ‘pana’ Sapo and Willie Bodega.  Chino, however, connects with Sapo and Bodega so that he can have the means to get his family out of poverty, and even attains a new apartment without telling Blanca (60).  This makes Blanca mad as she wants to be in on family decisions.  She doesn’t believe in the old machismo ways of the past (130).  In Blanca’s case, then, following and attaining her dreams means not only completing her education but having the opportunity to play an integral role in supporting her family.

Courtesy of cristinagarcia.com

            Dreaming in Cuban takes place in both Cuba and the New York City, varying slightly from Bodega Dreams.  The women in this book play the main role in telling the story, as a large majority of all the narrators are women from different generations of the del Piño family.  Another difference from Bodega Dreams is that some of the female characters have, in effect, accomplished their life dreams of success.  Celia has participated in the Cuban revolution, playing an important part as the People’s judge (111).  Lourdes, her daughter, has moved to the United States in order to open her own bakery business, because she is not able to in Cuba due to the Communist government (17).  The other main character, Pilar, is attempting to figure out what her dream is so she can accomplish it, while Felicia, the final female character, cannot fully realize her dream because of her mental depression.  However, more than these physical dreams, the del Piño family dreams are linked to the politics and machismo of Cuban culture. 

               The men in the novel influence the political stances of the females, thus inserting their masculine opinion into the novel.  Celia’s husband, Jorge, worked closely with a company in the United States and left her to live with his disagreeable mother and sister in Cuba.  After this experience, Celia gets depression, and disowns Lourdes, her first child.  Because of this relationship with Jorge, then, it makes sense that Celia doesn’t like the United States!  On the other hand, Lourdes forms a close relationship with her father from youth, as she thinks her mother doesn’t love her.  Lourdes, too, experiences trauma in Cuba as she is raped by revolutionary soldiers (71).  Lourdes’ allegiance to the United States also fits with these past experiences. 

            All in all, women do play important roles in both Bodega Dreams and Dreaming in Cuban, but are influenced by the different cultural, masculine influences the have in their lives.  So even though the women in both Bodega Dreams and Dreaming in Cuban are portrayed as being independent, they still must deal with the issues of machismo present in many Latin American countries, a theme, which has pervaded the literature covered in this course.    

Political Influence

            In reading the book Dreaming in Cuban, it’s remarkable to see how politics, especially relations with the United States, play such a big role in the plot of the book and the lives of the different characters. In my view, politics are something that a person doesn’t have much control over.  I’m not saying that a person shouldn’t suggest how they believe a country should be run, but have come to realize, through taking various classes and learning about political systems, that the people in charge of politics are the ones who have grown up having the power and have certain connections with those currently in charge.  We citizens of the United States may think our decisions to elect politicians really influence who’s going to be in charge, but in reality, do we have much choice to choose who we want?  I did not think that George W. Bush was the best person to be elected as the last president, and yet I had to learn to live events I didn’t necessarily have control over.  Dreaming in Cuban is a novel that explores these questions of control and power, especially in looking at how different characters support either the U.S. or Cuban governments.

Cuban Sugar Cane Field (Courtesy of Reuters.com)

            In the novel, Celia is a devout supporter of the Revolution in Cuba and is a big fan of El Líder, Fidel Castro.  Her ardor leads her to become greatly involved in the revolution as she cuts field sugarcane for Cuba and serves as the judge for the People’s Court, where she is elected by the people (pages 111-112).  Not only is Celia engaged with doing her duty as a member of the Revolution, she also has a certain affinity for El Líder.  She is drawn by his power, and many times thinks of him as a kind of lover (110).  For Celia, then, power is important as she likes being involved specifically in the role of her country.

            Lourdes, in contrast to Celia, dislikes everything about the Revolution.  In coming to the United States, she has embraced the new heritage she has found, including the possibility of using an “adopted language” and losing all part of Cuba (page 73).  She likes having her own business and relishes the chance to continue expanding, as she opens another Yankee Doodle Bakery (page 138).  Lourdes is also a little obsessed with other “American” traditions, such as barbecuing everything and participating in various holiday customs like the annual Thanksgiving DayParade (page 137).  Lourdes, then, is drawn in with the chance she has to control her own life.

            Despite the power both Celia and Lourdes plug into, though, their political dreams and preferences interfere with the happiness of the extended family.  Celia has a tough time coming to terms with her husband Jorge’s death, and suffers various mental breakdowns, such as when Lourdes and Pilar find her sitting motionless on her porch upon their arrival in Cuba (page 217).  Lourdes, too, never seems to be happy with her family since coming to the United States, as Pilar is a rebellious child and Rufino spends his time working on various inventions (page 20).  In this way, then, the unhappy circumstances that both of these women find themselves in relate to something they don’t really have control over, or the different political establishments in both nations and the long-range effects they have on various citizens.    

Identity Search

            The book Bodega Dreams by Ernesto Quiñonez takes place in El Barrio, the section of New York City where many Puerto Ricans live.  Even though Chino, the main character, has experiences much different from those in the Mexican texts we’ve read in this class so far, it’s interesting to see how the search for self-identity is a theme that is carried on through most of our readings.  In the Mexican literature, defining self had much to do with finding a place in white American society while also learning to retain Mexican heritage and values.  This is also a problem Chino faces in Bodega Dreams, although he has to cross different borders than the physical and familial ones addressed by Bless Me, Ultima, The Guardians, and The Devil’s Highway.  Chino, instead, must learn how to deal with keeping up appearances with his old ‘pana’ Sapo and his boss Willie Bodega, along with his pregnant wife, Blanca.  Even though Chino becomes involved with Bodega in order to help Blanca and his family, it ends up backfiring on him after Blanca can’t stand being left in the dark whenever Chino makes a family decision.  Chino, then, ends up having identity conflict between how he wants to appear to his friends and his wife. 

Aurora Levins Morales

            A similar identity search can be seen in Aurora Levins Morales, one of the Puerto Rican poets whose poem “Child of the Americas” we read for class.  In this poem, she reveals her search for sense of self as both a Puerto Rican and an American, even though she isn’t fully part of either culture. In the same way, she not only looks at herself as a writer, but also sees herself as an “activist, a healer, a revolutionary.”  Despite having these dreams, she has a chronic disability that keeps her from traveling extensively.  Because of this, she cannot pursue all of these self-ideals, but instead has to learn to live with the recurring theme of a split identity.  

My Mirror's Reflection

              I stare intently at myself in the mirror.  Dark brown eyes stare back at me.  The eyes of both my mother and father, framed by a mass of wavy, shoulder-length, chestnut hair.  My nose and lips are petite, and my right ear is slightly larger than my left.  My skin is pale, made that way by the dim, winter sun.  In the summer, it will regain its tan hue.  My reflection is a mixture of many different traits that define me: White-German Mennonite, Farm Girl, and Midwesterner.  All of these traits mixed together make me North American.

My family at Zion National Park, Utah

              I continue to stare, fascinated, into the mirror.  I see my cluttered desk, covered with textbooks, pens, and the weekly letter sent to my entire family by my Grandma Kempf.  Looking more closely, I see the pictures of my friends and family, tacked up on the bulletin board behind my binders.  There is one of my family standing in front of a waterfall in Zion National Park, Utah, with our exchange student from Germany, Milena.  Another shows the backyard of my childhood, complete with a homemade swing set and a jumbo trampoline with a mini-basketball hoop attached to the protective net surrounding the black mat.  A final picture portrays my roommate and I standing in front of a cow at the Kansas State Fair.  With it comes a poignant reminder of my past two years on the plains at Hesston College; two years where time did not stand still, but raced ahead, mocking me to try and catch it.  Two years that taught me to embrace my past, while also diving head-first into an uncertain and laborious future.

Kansas State Fair

            My mirror reflects things treasured by the unique American in me.  It reveals rich Mennonite traditions, sweltering summers on the farm, and the excitement caused by the perfect Husker volleyball set-up that wins the game for the national championship.  I see my mom and dad helping out in the confined kitchen at my country church, Salem Mennonite.  The tables are set up in the narrow basement along one wall, and as I finish putting chairs around each one, the plethora of crock pot dishes, hidden in the nearest classroom, begin to appear on the main table.  I see the haze of a summer morning disappear as the sun breaks the plane of the sky, revealing the endless blue above a fluttering corn field, drenched in the thick dew of the night.  With the field comes the smell of unspoiled dirt, beginning to thicken to mud as the life-giving water flows down each row from the dusty aluminum pipes.  My mirror catches a glimpse of me watching a Husker volleyball game on TV as a fifth grader, enthralled by the perfect execution of the most difficult plays.  Five years later, I am in the Qwest Center arena in Omaha, Nebraska, caught up in the exhilaration of the record breaking crowd of 17,000 fans as the Huskers win the final point and are crowned NCAA National Champions. 

                 I see downtown Shickley, bustling at 12:00 noon on a Saturday.  Workers are coming into town for their lunch breaks, their pick-ups parking in front of either the green awning of Dawg’s Café or the black and white striped of Cubbie’s Market.  Looking further, I see the local swimming pool teeming with kids, as the one hundred degree temperatures soar.  I see my grandpa driving his red pick-up with the white stripe out to the farm office to pay bills.  Oh, I can see so many treasured things!

            Then, as I look deeper into the mirror, geographical boundaries melt away.  Times and places blend.  I incredulously see the rhythmic flow of both the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans for the first time through the eyes of my former self, amazed by their magnificence.  My mind runs back through various family vacations of exploring North American wonders: Bryce Canyon, Yellowstone National Park, the sequoias, Mount Rushmore, Pike’s Peak, the Cascades, the San Antonio Riverwalk , Washington D.C.  I see my North American legacy showing itself in all different shapes and forms, ranging from the diversity of the subways in New York City to the unique sloping of endless sandhills in sparsely populated western Nebraska.

My view of the Limmat in Zurich

            I see the legacy of my Mennonite Heritage: the monument to Menno Simons hidden in the tiny village of Witmarsum, Holland; the plaque remembering the execution of Felix Manz in the Limmat River of Zurich, Switzerland; the pictures of my grandpa’s twenty-year-old self building a dam in South Dakota for civilian public service during World War 2. 

            I look even further.  I see the influences of John Howard Yoder and his non-violent views in The Politics of Jesus.  I see the depiction of immigrants settling eastern Nebraska in My Antonia, written by Nebraska native Willa Cather.  I see the impact that music has had on my life, ranging from the a cappella hymns of my childhood to the endless country played on many Midwestern radio stations.  I hear the local stories of my past.  I hear about my mom as a child, scrubbing out turkey barns with her bare hands.  I hear about my grandpa walking two miles through fields on his way to school every morning.  I listen to the excitement of my older cousins reliving the time they backed Sylvia, the 1980 Chevy, propane-powered pick-up out of the irrigation lane at forty miles per hour. 

            I look into the mirror and capture more than my reflection.  I see that I am more than pale skin, brown hair, and brown eyes.  The mirror shows me a beautiful, rich, and unique heritage that is a part of me, my essence.  In fact, I see that I am, in reality, a reflection of this heritage.  Wherever I go, I can do so with pride, knowing what I am and where I have come from.  I carry the stories of my past and they reflect and intermingle with my aspirations for the future.  Indeed, I know that the changing self reflected in the mirror, will always proudly reflect the essence of myself.    

Eduardo C. Corral

                Eduardo C. Corral was born and raised in Casa Grande, Arizona, and, surprisingly, grew up outside the influence of easy access to literature.  After attending Arizona State University, though, he discovered his love of writing poetry and eventually received his master’s degree from Iowa Writer’s Workshop.  While reading Corral’s poetry, it was very interesting to compare his overarching themes to ones that have been explored so far in Latino Literature class.  Besides including traditional themes, Corral’s work presents explorations into the question of identifying sexuality, as he is openly gay but grew up in a machismo community where this was ridiculed.  These poems by Corral in the anthology The Wind Shifts, then, can be appreciated by readers who want a glimpse of Latino lifestyle and history in both traditional and new ways because the poems explore borders, self-identity, and family values, mixed in with sexuality.

                 Borders are a prominent theme in Latino Literature, whether they are the psychological alienation experienced by those who must live within a society who doesn’t recognize them as equals, or the physical walls that exist on the U.S.-Mexican border.  In Corral’s poem To a Mojado Who Died Crossing the Desert, the tragedies that take place along the physical border in between the United States and Mexico are addressed.  This is an ode to a crosser who has died in the desert wilderness.  When reading this poem, though, the reader gets an eerie sensation that feels like forgotten death, or the desert calling out for more sacrifices: “the sand calls out for more footprints” (line 84).  The repetitive use of the word “hush” (lines 5, 12) and abstract similes like “a mouse can be torn open like an orange” (lines 10-11) contribute to this sensation of forlornness. 

            The title of this poem also reflects the border theme, as a “mojado,” the equivalent to “wetback according to Merriam-Webster’s online dictionary, is a person who crosses a border through a body of water.  It is interesting to look at whether this poem is celebrating or disapproving of what the desert is doing to the travelers who are dying on their way to the U.S.  Because of this ambiguity of meaning, it is difficult for the reader to determine what impression of borders the author is trying to create through this poem.  Is a border a natural part of life that should not be reckoned with? This poem poses the elusiveness of this idea. 

            A second overarching theme in Latino Literature is that of the search for self-identity.  The poem called Poem After Frida Kahlo’s Painting “TheBroken Column” reveals the process of Kahlo’s search for her own identity through painting self-portraits.  The poem is divided into twelve chapters of differing lengths: the longest is a full paragraph and the shortest is three words.  In a way, the chapters create separate borders in the poem itself!  This poem is also very abstract, and the images, again, give the reader a mysterious feeling when they read it.  The Broken Column, on which this poem is based, is a self-portrait done by Frida Kahlo.  Kahlo was the wife of Diego Rivera, a renowned Latino artist, but also faced much suffering throughout her life, beginning with the time when as a teenager she was involved in a car accident that cracked her spinal column in several places.  Her suffering from this accident can be seen in The Broken Column, which portrays her half-naked in a desert setting, her bare skin pierced with nails.  Corral’s usage of the color red throughout this poem gives the impression of these piercing nails, by using images like “a ruby ring on her finger,” (line seven) “I want to find the perfect shade of red,” (line twenty) and “an hourglass of blood” (line fifty-four). 

            Through writing this poem about Kahlo searching for self-identity, Corral is also suggesting his own search for self-identity.  Growing up as a Chicano in the United States and a gay man in a machismo culture has been especially difficult, as he said in an interview with the Web del Sol website.  With this knowledge, it is interesting to see if Corral’s poem about The Broken Column suggests an individual who has found an identity or who is still searching.  The final line “a mirror remembering water” (line 59) can be taken either way.

            A final literary theme that has been found throughout this class is that of the value of family and relationships, which, in Corral’s case, also relates to finding sexual identity.  The poem Ditat Deus is written in two chapters: the first in prose form and the second with poetic stanzas.  The second chapter discusses how his father taught him to love a man when he was a boy.  This is very interesting because it seems as if the father in the poem is only allowing his son to do activities that any son would do with his father, such as helping him shave in the morning and unlacing his work boots in the evening. 

            The first chapter looks at how the narrator must also learn to form relationships with the rest of society, namely the work world.  The narrator is working as a bag boy at a shopping center and is told by his boss to follow around Mexicans and Native Americans to make sure they don’t shoplift.  This is ironic as the title of the poem Ditat Deus is the state motto of Arizona, meaning “God enriches.”  Questioning trust in the narrator’s own ethnic identity, then, is another factor that plays into the search for how he forms relationships with both his family and the rest of society.         

            All in all, the poems of Eduardo C. Corral explore both traditional and new aspects of Latino culture.  Through looking at borders, self-identity, and family values mixed in with a search for sexuality, Corral’s poems are very rich for any reader who wants to experience a new type of American literature.  

Why Study Literature?

            In one of my classes during the first week of school, we discussed the importance of studying literature, especially that of a specific group of people.  Our class eventually decided that literature describes the history of a people through giving them a voice to tell it in their own manner.  Because history from textbooks and articles about current events tend to be written from just one perspective, it is important to read accounts of a culture written by people from the culture itself that give it a more accurate and greater dimension.  Novels and other forms of realistic fiction or non-fiction, such as the books Bless Me, Ultima, The Guardians, and The Devil’s Highway show the themes from Chicano literature through the eyes of people who have actually encountered border issues, etc.  Journalism is not able to convey to the reader what it feels like to experience the stages of heat exhaustion, as Urrea did in The Devil’s Highway, or to have such different life expectations from mother and father, as Antonio did in Bless Me, Ultima.  In short, then, literature gives more life to a group of people than journalism ever can through relaying real-life experiences in a way that the reader can personally connect. 

           

            Through taking this class, I have learned a lot about Mexican/Latino culture and how it relates to American culture.  When we talked about our different identities in class, it was interesting to see how many people came to the United States because of displacement, or to build a better life for family.  In a way, then, each person could write a different story of their own experiences or culture.  Everyone’s story is important, whatever culture, and the best way to convey experiences is through a writing style that brings the original story to life again.    

Becoming a Person

            One of the lines that struck me the most from the novel The Guardians was a quote by Regina, the protagonist, who is talking about the dreams undocumented persons have when coming to the United States: “We [Regina and her mother] had to get our papers in order. That’s all every immigrant in the world wants, to get her papers in order.  To officially become a person” (116).  For me, it is very hard to put my head around the idea that my social security card or my passport officially makes me a person.  In this story, though, that is the conflict of Gabo, whose life is established in the United States even though he is not an official citizen because he does not have papers.  His father, Rafa, is also facing this dilemma, though he does not want to permanently live in the States, but earn enough money working to build a “casita back home” for his family (116).  Regina was lucky to attain her papers through her marriage to a U.S. soldier, or maybe she was just doing what she had to do to survive. 

            The little piece of paper that gives permission for a person to legally work or reside in the United States is also a recurring issue in the book The Devil’s Highway, namely because all 26 of the men attempting to come into the country do no have this piece of paper.  Because they believe that working in the United States will bring them wealth like their neighbors, (46) they are persuaded to follow the coyote in taking the supposedly easy trek through the mountains and desert, which they think will be “a walk in the park” (58).  This walk, however, turns out to be much more dangerous than described, as shown by the results of their mission:  death or near death. 

            What if these men had attempted to apply for a work visa to legally enter and work in the U.S.?  Even for workers who are looking for a non-permanent job, the process of legally entering is still a lengthy process.  According to the Work Permit Website, for a foreign worker who is not the executive of a company or who does not have a school degree of some sort, getting chosen to work abroad is unlikely.  An employer in the U.S. must first of all demonstrate that there is a lack of U.S. citizens to fill the jobs that are vacant in his/her company.  After the need is established, it can take from two to six months for a candidate to get transferred to the U.S. using a non-immigrant visa.  From there, they can eventually apply for a green card when they have begun their job.  But what if you are not chosen for the job?  What is the next step?  For many, such as the men from Veracruz, it is putting trust in a system (the coyote system) that is not picky in choosing only “skilled workers” to come to the United States.    

Misinformed?

          While watching this movie, I, like many other students in our Latino Literature class, was astonished to see how many residents of Prince William County made their decisions to support the ‘Probable Cause’ mandate based on so few facts.  When citizens used arguments such as “illegals don’t speak English” and “9/11 was caused by illegals,” they forgot to notice that the crime rate in the area had gone down since Latinos had come to the area and that many businesses were also doing very well.  I wonder, though, if knowing these facts before enacting the law would have made any difference to those in support.  Because Letiecq, one person, had so much influence over how citizens viewed this new mandate through his blog, many people were only getting their information through one, biased source.

            It seems as if Arizona’s new law, 1070, is one almost exactly like the mandate of Prince William County, Virginia.  The section that allowed police officers to check immigration status based on ‘probable cause’ was repealed because it was thought to be a form of racial profiling, such as we saw in 9500 Liberty.  Despite the elimination of this section, though, the bill will give out harsher penalties for those found harboring illegal immigrants, etc.  (See link above).  Even though critics say that 26,000 illegals have already been deported from Arizona since 2007 without the law, 1070 is still in effect right now.  This article also says that around the rest of the United States, a majority supports the law.  How is this overwhelming support even possible with the deportation of so many illegal immigrants already?

            I believe that one of the reasons we U.S. citizens appear misinformed is because of how daily news information is attained.  I learned from John Sharp, my history professor at Hesston College, that reading through different newspapers and news websites in order to pick up more than one angle of any news story is one of the only ways to pick up important information in the least biased manner.  Even though I am sometimes guilty of quickly skimming through one source to get news, I believe that exposing myself to both points of view allows me to make a more informed decision.  Listening to people, too, who have actually experienced some of the effects of harsh immigration laws is also important, for they are the best ones from which to receive a version of real-life events that is consistent with reality. 

            It is very important to be informed before making a decision.  What would have happened if the United States had known what they were getting themselves into before they entered Iraq?  Were they trying to find the terrorists responsible for 9/11 or were they trying to get rid of Saddam Hussein, who they had supported during the Iran-Iraq War in the 1980s?  Because U.S. citizens can have such a big influence on who runs the government and what decisions the U.S. makes concerning domestic and foreign policy, knowing all the facts if vital.  This can be said for any other organization as well.  As a member of Mennonite Church USA, I struggle to comprehend what will happen to the church body after deciding to hold the 2013 National Convention in Phoenix.  Did the board not research the potential calamities that could result from this decision?  Hopefully, the outcomes won’t be too disastrous.

Names-Part 2

One revealing aspect of the movie A Day Without a Mexican that came as a surprise to me was how agriculture is California’s number one industry.  When I think of California, the first images that come to my mind are places I have traveled to in the state:  Hollywood, in and around Los Angeles, the Pacific Ocean, national parks such as Yosemite and the Sequoias, and touristy areas such as Chinatown in San Francisco.  None of these stereotypes have anything to do with farming and how much California’s economy revolves around the labor of undocumented workers, labeled as “Mexicans.”  Because of this, A Day Without a Mexican was very eye-opening for me in how it overturned many stereotypes about a place that I have experienced differently from the people who actually live there, although I have some experience with the stereotypical term.

I lived in a small town of about 360 people in rural Nebraska for the first 18 years of my life.  Despite its lack of population, Shickley, Nebraska population consists of relatively rich farmers who make a good living off the profit that comes from raising corn and soybeans on thousands of acres of rich, Nebraska soil.  My peers growing up, then, reflected relatively very little diversity, except for the Latino family that moved to town when I was in fourth grade.  José was in my brother’s class and he became one of my brother’s best friends as they grew up together.  Even though José’s family was from California, he and his brothers and sisters were still labeled the “Mexicans” of Shickley, even though he and his younger siblings couldn’t really speak Spanish and had never been to Mexico. 

How does racial stereotyping of people and places happen so instantaneously, especially in a town the size of Shickley?  I believe it all goes back to the significance that a “name” or a “label” has in our society today.  A Day Without a Mexican was a good representation of this idea (even though it was a little below the benchmark of a high quality film) and showed how we citizens of the United States do not realize where we would be without the undocumented population. 

What’s in a name?  We all responded to the meaning our names have to us in our initial blog posts, addressing those given to us at birth.  But what about our cultural names?  I am citizen of the United States or an American, but Americans populate Central and South America as well.  Why do we citizens of the United States use such a lax term to label ourselves?  Even the Spanish word Estadounidense is more precise than our own word for us!  In using the term American, then, we already (though unknowingly?) use the definition of the word to include those from the south who we also mark as undocumented.   

Finding an Identity

            I thought it was interesting that Rudolfo Anaya, in his book Bless Me, Ultima, decided to write from the perspective of a seven-year-old.  Children this young are very impressionable, but are also at the age where they can begin to think for themselves and form their own opinions.  It seems to me, though, that Antonio grew up considerably within the first two chapters of the book after he witnessed the death of Lupito.  He is exposed to a group of men caught in the trap of a mob:  one that is looking for blood from a murderer who has acted wrongly because he has PTSD.  When Antonio is unable to give Lupito the official Act of Contrition before he dies, he questions his mother’s wish for him to become a priest.  Would God listen to his prayer for Lupito even though he had never been to catechism?  Would this one ‘almost’ act haunt him for the rest of his life?

            After this death, Antonio begins to question his Christian faith.  Even though Lupito’s death plays a role in this, the differing beliefs of his mother, father, Ultima, and, to some extent, his brothers, have the greatest effect on Antonio’s misgivings.  Antonio’s father is not as religious as his mother, and also comes from a different way of life; that of the vaquero.  Ultima, too, is not as staunch of a Catholic as his mother, but is very well connected to the Earth and always asks the plants’ permission before she uses them for her remedies.  Antonio’s changed perception of his older brothers also contributes to this questioning, especially when he finds out that Andrew is spending time with the girls who work at Rosie’s place. 

            Beyond these contrasts in his life, Antonio comes into contact with the Golden Carp, a fish he views almost as an alternate god.  The fulfillment he gets from being around the Golden Carp differs from what he experiences when he takes the Eucharist.  He has high expectations for the traditional Catholic ritual, but never fully feels the presence of God when he eats the body of Christ.  At the end of the story the reader does not find out what paths Antonio decides to follow.  His search for identity, in a way, becomes universal, or one to which most people can compare themselves. 

            Searching for religious and self identity is an aspect of Bless Me, Ultima that acted as a mirror for me.  When I began college, I struggled to understand my professed religion and to find what goals I should set for my life.  Like Antonio, however, I found out that there are sometimes questions that don’t have answers.  Investigating purpose and destiny, then, is a life-long task.    

New Windows

   After reading the excerpt from “Borderlands/La Frontera” and watching “I the Worst of All” about Sor Juana Inés de La Cruz, I realized how foreign some aspects of Latino/a culture are to me.  The first cultural aspect of Latino/a culture that I couldn’t really relate to was Gloria Anzaldúa’s discussion of the different types of Spanish spoken across the United States.  She talked about various dialects like Tex-Mex and Chicano Spanish that are meant to be used in different contexts.  For example, she said that she will speak Chicano-Texas Spanish with her mother and other close Spanish relatives, but will speak the North Mexican dialect with people from that area of Mexico.  In my daily interactions with people here at Goshen College, I believe I only ever speak Standard English.  The grammatical correctness of my usage may vary with context, (classroom vs. friends) but I don’t ever speak a whole new dialect.  When I interact with people from Indiana and Nebraska, where I grew up, I still speak the same English. 

   Because I don’t ever come into contact with diversity in the English language in the United States, I automatically assume it is the same way with any other language, like Spanish.  This assumption, however, is incorrect, and is an aspect of culture of which I need to be more aware. 

   Understanding Sor Juana’s role as a Catholic nun was also very hard for me to comprehend.  I have never devoutly faced sexism anywhere I have lived, and therefore could not understand how difficult it would have been to live in Mexico during the colonial era.  Juana’s poems are very well written and display radical ideas about women in a male dominant society.  The end of the film, then, surprised me as I didn’t know how Juana could give up her life’s work of advancement.  I know that she was not really fulfilling the role of a nun because she had many possessions and spent much time writing, but what else could she have done to fulfill her passion?  Was she not glorifying God through her advancement of women, who were held in an unjust part of society?  Learning about the different views of Catholicism, then, was a window for me in this movie.  

My Name

I have never before reflected on what my name means to me.  In fact, I have never really thought about my name at all except for one memory I have from kindergarten.  It was my first week of school and I loved the new experience.  When we started to learn letters, however, we also were given the task of mastering the spelling of our own names.  My name had 28 letters in it:  Stephanie Elena Swartzendruber, or the nightmare of any beginning speller.  My kindergarten teacher later told my mom and dad at parent-teacher conferences that the first time she handed me the card with my name on it, I didn’t say anything, but clearly communicated my horror with the expression on my face.

One Christmas I received a “name card” in my stocking from the Faith and Life Bookstore in Hastings, Nebraska.  According to this card, my name means “Crowned One.”  I’m not sure how I feel about this as I don’t think the name Stephanie is found in any religious texts.  My parents named me Stephanie because they liked the way it sounded.  If I had been a boy, I would’ve been named Seth, which is similar.  My middle and last names have more significance because they come from family members.  Elena comes from my mom’s sister Ellen, as she knew my parents both pretty well before they even met each other.  Swartzendruber is my Dad’s last name and originally comes from Germany.  It was intriguing two summers ago when I went on a choir trip to Southern Germany and we stayed in a town that was full of people whose last names were some form of Swartzendruber.  It made me feel like a part of something bigger than the 360 people who make up Shickley, Nebraska.

My grandpa is the only person I know who calls me Stephanie.  The rest of my family and friends calls me Steph, and that is how I usually introduce myself to people.  When I was little my dad called my “Edith” or “A.” (My younger brother was “B” and my younger sister was “C”).  Growing up, my friends have called me various forms of my name, the most recent stemming from the word “Peff.”  Variations of this name include “Peffelant,” “Puffer Fish,” ice cold “Pefsky,” and “Peffermint Pie.” 

What is a name?  I sometimes wonder if my life would be different if I had been named “Nancy” or “Evelyn.”  Would I have a different perception of myself?  Would it have mattered at all?  In the book Anne of Green Gables, Anne Shirley hates her plain name and wishes she would have been named Cordelia, a romantic and captivating name.  I, however, am quite content with my ordinary, un-romantic name.  

Introduction

I am very excited to read the texts for this class and participate in good discussion  with you all about the meanings of race and culture.  I am not very familiar with Latino Literature, but realize that it is an important genre that needs to be recognized .  I enjoy immersing myself in new perspectives and hope that this class will also strengthen my empathy.  Most of all, though, I hope that it is fun!