Lieutenant Nun: Memoir of a Basque Transvestite in the New World is a memoir by Catalina de Erauso detailing her experiences during the early 1600’s in South America and Spain. She was born in 1585 into a well off Basque family and her parents were native-born residents of San Sebastian Spain. This book is one of the earliest known autobiographies by a woman and details the events that took places when Catalina escaped a Basque convent dressed as a man. During this time she served as soldier in the Spanish army, traveling to Peru and Chile, and even becoming a gambler. Being that my major falls under sociology, I will be looking at themes surrounding the constraints of females in Spanish society in the 1600’s and how this affects Catalina.
When her sisters go and visit her, the girls think that she looks like “the after person in one of those before-after makeovers in magazines” (117). Sofia essentially changed everything about her after just a few months in the Dominican Republic. She goes from someone that smokes weed and has wild stories about boys to a girl who is in touch with her Dominican roots. However, in Sofia’s case, parts of her identity are rooted in her innate characteristics. Even though some things have changed about her, there are still things that are the same about her.
Throughout the development of this book, many themes and ideas about the book develop to help explain the characters and why they made the decisions they made. It is clear that one’s identity back in those days was connected to one’s gender and so I argue that even though the relationships between opposite genders seem more positive in the book, the same gender relationships are more stable even in their different degrees of tension. We first see this through an observation of the relationship between Lola and her mother Belicia.
Alvarez and her family have a lot of trauma considering there lives in the dominican republic and living under the dictator,through it all alvarez's parents raised a daughter who would share their story in a fashionable matter that told the story how it was.
In Julia Alvarez’s novel, In the Time of the Butterflies, a young, naïve girl transforms into a prominent figure in the revolution against Leonidas Trujillo as we read page after page of her most private thoughts. This character is Maria Teresa (Mate), the youngest of the Mirabal sisters. Alvarez weaves Maria Teresa’s story as a coming of age story under a dictatorship, and slowly, but thoroughly, shows us how it corrupts childhood innocence and forms revolutionaries. Mate’s chapters in the novel are solely journal entries. In Julia Alvarez’s words, “Techniques are just tools on the wall to help you get at what best reflects the stories in your heart to tell.
“The Glorious Revolution”, by Guillermo Pricto, describes the state of Mexico under Santa Anna and the revolution that drove him out of power. In this piece Pricto attempts to depict the rule of Santa Anna as immoral and the revolution as a glorious act supported by the people. He first attempts to demonstrate the immorality of the court of Santa Anna by describing the Easter festivities that Santa Anna held in San Augustine de las Cuevos. After attempting to demonstrate the immorality of Santa Anna Pricto attempts to glorify the revolution by discussing the reception of the revolution among the people. In these two ways Guillermo Pricto attempts to legitimize and celebrate the revolution by cutting at the previous administration and building
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.
(a) the first major criticism that is addressed in the first source is that Eva Peron “imprisoned upper-class women and adolescents for opposing against the government” also stating that these prisons were shared with drug addicts and prostitutes. She did this in an effort to inflict greater cruelty to the woman due to their social status. Secondly, it is mentioned that in some cases that Eva would interfere with the funerals of older women of the aristocracy, this would prevent their families from burying their deceased relatives with illustrious forebears, it is also noted Eva would not interfere in the funerals however if she was invited to tea by the women, stating that she promised not to get involved directly with their funerals. (b)
In this paper I will explain what life was like from Martha Summerhayes’ point of view as well as Olga Beatriz Torres in her document, “Memorias de Mi Viaje/ Recollections of
As a woman, her voice was not very loudly heard, but that didn’t stop her. Even after her death in October of 1818, her legacy continued through her countless writings about the issues of
In her essay, The Legacy of Eleanor Roosevelt, author Betty Houchin Winfield argues that because of her journalistic career and the precedent she had on the role of the first lady, Eleanor Roosevelt was one of the most influential women in American history. Winfield, unlike many other authors who write on the topic, does not spend an extensive amount of time focusing on Eleanor’s works in organizations and charities. However, Winfield chooses to support her argument by supplying ample information concerning the precedent Eleanor left not only on the role of the first lady, but also on the role of the American woman. Although only briefly mentioning her active involvement in several organizations, The Legacy of Eleanor Roosevelt is effective in demonstrating how by
Emma Tenayuca was a Mexican-American Activist born and raised in San Antonio, Texas, who played an important role in the organization of labor strikes and union in the area of San Antonio during the 1930’s. Emma developed an understanding of the injustices of the Hispanic working class at an early age, as she was raised by her grandparents who took her to the plaza. While a student at Brackenridge High School in Depression-era San Antonio, she joined a group that read the works of Karl Marx and Leo Tolstoy and discussed the vulnerabilities of the free-enterprise system. Her first example of her taking part in the fight for labor justice was at the Finck cigar, in which she went to jail for joining the picket line and disrupting peace, according to the book Major problems in Mexican American History, it says “ I landed in jail and realized how difficult it would be to make this a union town”( Emma Tenayuca Reminisces about labor organizing in San Antonio Texas 1936-1938, #282). Emma although being thrown into jail, she kept fighting for what she believed in and continued to pursue her goals which were a fairer work environment for the Hispanic people.
Lola takes advantage of her deteriorating mother whose illness represents the declining hold of the norms over Lola. Since her mom “will have trouble lifting her arms over her head for the rest of her life,” Lola is no longer afraid of the “hitting” and grabbing “by the throat” (415,419). As a child of a “Old World Dominican Mother” Lola must be surrounded by traditional values and beliefs that she does not want to claim, so “as soon as she became sick” Lola says, “I saw my chance and I’m not going to pretend or apologize; I saw my chance and I eventually took it” (416). When taking the opportunity to distinguish herself from the typical “Dominican daughter” or ‘Dominican slave,” she takes a cultural norm like long hair and decides to impulsively change it (416). Lola enjoyed the “feeling in [her] blood, the rattle” that she got when she told Karen to “cut my hair” (418).
She rose above her wretched lifestyle and became a woman who created her own reality, striving for grandiose living. Peron strategically identified men who could assist in her in her endeavors and infiltrated their circle using her allure and femininity. As a result, she became a radio actress and consequently, the highest paid performer in Buenos Aires despite her mediocre talent. It is no coincidence that she married Colonel Juan Peron, a potential presidential candidate at the time, who eventually made her the First Lady of Argentina a year after their marriage. As a result, Eva Peron worked for Juan Peron’s cause, Peronism, and became the direct line between the Argentinians and her husband.
Isabel Allende’s, My Invented Country: A Nostalgic Journey Through Chile, is her memoir about her native country, yet also sheds light to other important societal roles in Chile. As she passionately writes about her experiences, Allende makes it evidently clear that she loves her homeland, regardless of what troubles the country encounters. Nonetheless, it should be noted that her memoir is solely based upon her memories, and incorporates a sense of fiction to better help tell her story through vivid descriptions of the natural landscape and/or the people she interacted with. Her book was compelling to me as her passion for her country was expressed through her usage of language and descriptive experiences that portrayed her emotions during
