The resulting work is historical fiction, a recreation of the lives of three Dominican sisters—Patria, Minerva, and Maria Teresa Mirabal— who were murdered for their attempts to overthrow Trujillo the same year Alvarez's family fled to the United States. The Maribal sisters are heroic women known by their revolutionary name Las Mariposas (The Butterflies). The core of the book is made up of chronological reminiscences by the murdered sisters from childhood to the time of their brutal demise. “The Mirabals are a traditional provincial Dominican family, portrayed in clichéd fashion—a middle¬class rural clan anchored by the inevitably philandering but supportive patriarch and the warm, caring and wise mother”
Maria Amparo Ruiz De Burton work entitled the “The Squatter and the Don” captures the essence of Michel Foucault’s proposition on discourse and power by drawing from the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo in 1848. She illustrates the racism and deprived rights the Mexican-American faced after being falsely promised to be given citizenship. The discourse of Burton’s work is the written laws that any citizen living within the state is supposed to abide by. Don Mariano is a man of the Alamar family who resided in San Deigo with his wife Dona Josefa and their children.
Situated near the U.S.-Mexico border during the early twentieth century is the fictional setting of Fort Jones, the outskirts of which is where Americo Paredes’ short story “Macaria’s Daughter” takes place. Emblematic of the disappropriation of Mexican land, as well as the increased marginalization of the Mexican people, the overbearing presence of Fort Jones reveals the struggle for preservation that characterizes the Mexican-American community of the story. “Macaria’s Daughter” is the tragic account of what happens in a small community when the upholding of Mexican values and institutions, and opposition to Anglo-American culture, become more important than a young woman’s life. In this essay, I will argue that “Macaria’s Daughter” is a text
She poses more questions and introduces more concepts which leave the reader with this bittersweet feeling of nostalgia. In part three she touches on the subjects of genealogy as it pertains to desire. She extrapolates form the ideas of Sigmund Freud’s theory of the Psyche to argue how the Oedipus complex has left its imprint on Chicano/a cultures. She juxtaposes four “cultural bodies”, Selena, La Malinche, Delgadina, and Silent Tongue, which if read from a third space feminist interpretation shifts the perspective to unveil women’s desires through their own agency. She analyses the Oedipus complex and introduce the Oedipal conquest triangle.
Jonathan Gottschall talks about how the fiction genre affects the community in the essay, “Why Fiction Is Good for You.” He takes us through the highs and lows of the genre, and talks about how different groups of people view fiction books. Gottschall uses professional opinions, and factual evidence to explain how fiction builds morality of individuals and society. In his essay, Gottschall tells us how the different genres affect us.
Overall, this article helped me reflect on the novel’s theme and gain understanding of the author’s
Christopher Castaneda 3/2/2023 2nd period Multicultural Literature Dan-el Padilla was born in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. He came to the U.S when he was only 4 years old legally but unfortunately his visa expired while in the U.S which meant he had become undocumented. Padilla shows us throughout his memoir Undocumented how being undocumented challenges your life. Padilla argues what is succes and how you can attain it and how your social status does not define who you are. My own view on Padilla’s interrelated themes is that success can be whatever you’d like it to be because people have different successes and goals in life.
Within each book, it questions the message of “culture and gender” (Louelí, “An Interpretive Assessment of Chicano Literature and Criticism”). Clearly, positive figures influenced how the Chicano community acted then and now. Rudolfo Anaya and other Chicano writers
Octavio Paz, a Mexican poet and essayist, is one of the many philosophers with a written piece regarding his understanding of Lo Mexicano. Paz’s “Sons of La Malinche” was first published in the Labyrinth of Solitude in 1950 and is a rather grim interpretation of the Mexican character, however, it captures the crisis of identity that Mexico was burdened with after the conquest. Paz uses the Spanish term “chingar,” (when literally translated means “to screw, to violate”) and its associated phrases to understand the conquest and the effect
Throughout “The Mexican in Fact, Fiction, and Folkore” examines the term “Mexican” as it is applied in Southwest literature and argues the Anglo society has made a conscious effort to misrepresent Mexicans (Rios 60). He states the people of Mexican descent are viewed as un-American because they are perceived as filthy, lazy, and dumb. Ricatelli adds to the conversation of Mexican stereotypes by examining the literary expressions of Chicanas and Mexicanas in the literature of both the United States and Mexico. In “The Sexual Stereotypes of The Chicana in Literature” Ricatelli explains how in Yankee literature, the Chicana is referred to as the “fat breeder, who is a baby factory” meanwhile the Mexican is described as an “amoral, lusty hot tamale” (Ricatelli 51). He makes note of these stereotypes in order to highlight the ethnocentric and nativist points of view that dominated Anglo literature.
Cofer addresses the cultural barriers and challenges that Latinos experience through emotional appeal, anecdotal imagery, parallelism and the use of effective periodic sentences. In her article, Cofer assesses the difficult cultural hurdles of Latin Americans with emotional appeal. She provides insight on her cultural barriers by first conveying the way she had to dress and her struggle, as it shows in this piece of text, “That morning I had organized… which to base my decision” (Cofer 5). This poignancy works to stress an agonizing feeling of uncertainty and restraint towards the author.
This novel was written based on the Mexican revolution, which was an important event in history for the people of Mexico. The author of this novel, Juan Rulfo portrays the characters as being lost in purgatory to show how the people of Mexico felt during the time of Porfirio Diaz. Juan Rulfo used his experiences and suffering during the revolution and turned it into literature. During the Mexican revolution, there were situations in which men were more powerful and played a more important role in society than women. The use of descriptive language and imagery in the novel allows readers to understand how horrific the time period was and how the people felt.
Works of post-modern literature raise questions about life and the human condition. The questions raised by the author not always answered in the text. Juniot Diaz’s novel, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao is an example of this. In the novel the motif of love and violence raises the question, “How closely aligned is love or the lack of it to violence or madness?” The author provides no clear answer to this question and the questions helps to emphasize the meaning of the work as a whole.
Written by Gabriel Garcia Márquez in 1958 as part of Los Funerales de la Mamá Grande, Un Día de Éstos is a short story addressing a vast theme; that of power and how it is balanced. By constructing the narrative primarily around the two characters of Don Aurelio Escovar, an unqualified dentist, and the mayor who is suffering of toothache, Márquez uses their reactions towards each other to guide the reader into understanding how easy it is to become vulnerable, notwithstanding their social class. CHARACTERISATION The theme of power is explored through the characterisations of the two men in the story and it could be said that this done primarily through continuous contrasts between them. To start with, the vocabulary that surrounds Escovar
All cultures have historical figures that it’s people look up to. For Hispanic American people the connection to their past is very important so remembering figures such as Ché is a way to keep roots with their culture. The last portion of traditions explored in this narrative is the inclusion of the phrase “para la libertad” which translates to for freedom and/or for liberty (17). Given the nature of this poem, it is interesting to note that the use of “la” denotes that libertad is feminine. The ways in which the poem explores traditions of Hispanic American culture is subtle, but definitely a theme
