However, she, too, understood the way women’s lives was expected to look like. Sofia was of a bold personality. “He had never called her by her family pet name, Fifi, even when she lived at home. He had always had problems with his maverick youngest, and her running off hadn't helped.” (Alvarez, 51) Sofia had always been independent-minded and now that she was in the United States, she felt much more freedom to do whatever she wanted, even if her Doninican roots appeared to be jeopardized or if her parents disagreed of her doings.
This story in its universality usually negates the women’s experience, Pérez argues that through the deconstruction of the historiography at play, history can be posed through a feminist lense, which includes rather than negates the perspectives, views, and adversities of women throughout history. Within her argument she also poses several sub arguments aimed at forcing the reader to think outside of the basic lines that surround Chicano/a history. She argues that the use of binaries can no longer be used as modes to determine whether or not someone is a friend or an enemy. She also argues that society has yet to reach a post colonial era based on the simple fact that in order to become a post colonial society, there was be a decolonization of the object, in this case women, to become the decolonial subject. This Pérez states will finally allow society to enter
Social groups are composed of roles known as insiders. Outsiders are people who do seem to fit in those groups. An individual is not tied down to one of these roles, because there are different kinds of social groups. Although a person may not fit in with one group, the person can be an insider of another group. In the article, “Life as the Maid’s Daughter,” Mary Romero illustrates the events that took place in Teresa's early life.
It also has different ideas how machismo impacts gay Latinos in the U.S. According to Albert Serna,” Being a queer man, it was a very big struggle to balance my queer identity with this standard of masculinity that was placed on me since birth,” and he believes that a lot of other queer Latino men experience it as well. So he believes it is difficult to come out as gay when people think you are machismo. In the short story, “Only Daughter,” Cisneros is suppressing any signs of femininity when coming to finding a husband. He wanted her to be looked as a possession.
The Story of the Vargas Family “Rosa Vargas’ kids are too many and too much. It’s not her fault, you know, except she is their mother and only one against so many” (Cisneros 29). In the novel The House on Mango Street, the author, Sandra Cisneros, touches on the many negative consequences of a single, impoverished mother raising an overwhelming amount of children. Poverty, discrimination, parental and neighborly responsibility, and respect are all issues and social forces that act upon the family; their presence or lack thereof cause several grisly occurrences to take place. Poverty was almost like a curse given to Rosa Vargas by her husband, who “left without even leaving a dollar for bologna or a note explaining how come” (29).
In her ethnography account Women without Class, Julie Bettie explores the relationship that class along with race and gender work to shape the experiences of both Mexican American girls and white working class students. In her work, Bettie finds that class cannot only intersect to impact the school experiences of both working class and middle class girls, but also their transition to adulthood and their future outcomes. Thus, Bettie explores how working class girls are able to deal with their class differences by performing symbolic boundaries on their styles, rejecting the school peer hierarchy and by performing whiteness to be upwardly mobile. In women without class, Bettie describes the symbolic boundaries that both las chicas and the preps
There are many aspects of life which we desire such as materialistic desires and happiness. Among the things that we desire, freedom is the most abstract and indispensable one. In The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros, Esperanza, the main character, struggles trying to escape from poverty and getting restricted by men. From Esperanza trying to get out of Mango Street by education, to Esperanza’s mom giving up education, to Sally escaping from her dad by marrying a man, Cisneros suggests that only independence can offer a better life and freedom. Alicia and Esperanza are the only characters in the book who hope to find freedom through writing.
Many girls desire a female role model from a young age. The way these women are treated, and deal with this treatment can heavily impact the way young girls view themselves, and their future as well. Sandra Cisneros’ The House on Mango Street brings attention to issues of sexism and gender roles. This is done through a series of vignettes about the main character Esperanza navigating life by the example of her many role models. Each role model impacts Esperanza in a special way, Sally who is married at 13, Marin who is waiting to be rescued by a man, and Alicia who is balancing school and home responsibilities.
Growing up as a young female teen came be hard due to the stress and peer pressure of appearance. For teenage girls from immigrant families, it came be very challenging to fit in with the “American way”. Esperanza struggles throughout the book with finding her place in society. She looks to other female role models in her community for guidance, where she finds different results. Most of Esperanza’s female role models on Mango Street have unique stories to tell of their experiences with men on Mango Street.
Because of this, she also believes there is a lack of respect for Hispanic culture. It is also unfair that Spanish is taught with little respect, yet English is usually a “pretentious” subject. She majored in English in college to show her teachers that she was capable of learning about the language, but still has her Hispanic identity. On top of being Hispanic alone, there are even more stereotypes about Hispanic women that both authors talk about.
Sandra Cisneros, the author of the book The House on the Mango Street, conveys that girls or women do not have as much freedom as guys do, the girls or women are always ruled or controlled by someone mostly male, and they always have to be the one to follow the rules. As Esperanza grows up she observes many girls who are in the conditions that they are not supposed to be in. The girls have no freedom and they are always supposed to listen to the guy in the family. One observation Esperanza observes is that girls are controlled by men all the time and because of listening to men those girls are locked inside. For example as Esperanza says, “And then Rafaela, who is still young but getting old from leaning out the window so much, gets locked indoors because her husband is afraid Rafaela will run away since she is too beautiful to look at” ( Cisneros # 79 ).
A Homage to Feminism Feminism revolves around the notion that men and women are equal, an idea that is seldom accepted or embraced at the end of the twentieth century in Latin America. In the autobiographical novel, The House of the Spirits, Isabel Allende weaves a story about the lives of women through four generations during the revolution of 1970. The idea of male dominance is prominent throughout both the political and social arenas of Latino communities. However, Allende uses members of the Del Valle family to portray the theme of feminism evolving during this time. Isabel Allende’s The House of the Spirits, highlights the intertwined lives of two Latin American women, Clara and Alba, to parallel the feminist attitudes that associate with
In Mexican American society , women are deemed inferior to men, evident in traditional family roles, the male is the head of the family who provides for the family , while the woman stays at home to look after the children she is expected to provide for her husband . In the third vignette of ‘The House on Mango Street’ titled ‘Boys and Girls’ the reader is informed of the division between men and women when Esperanza refers to herself and her sister Nenny , and her brothers, “They’ve got plenty to say to me and Nenny inside the house. But outside they can’t be seen talking to girls”. The male dominance begins at a very young age.
Cisneros also goes into detail about how her father viewed her when she says,” Being a only daughter for my father meant my destiny would lead me to become someone’s wife.” Cisneros highlights how her father felt about her as a
Literature is frequently comprehended by most people as a mass of writings. In particular, it refers to those reckoned to have the aptitude of being inventive and rational, or which deploy languages which departed from the common usage. Global literature, on the other hand, has two different definitions where the first one explains it as the summation of all literatures of the world, including personal and nationalized work. The second definition is, global literature consists of the world’s classics, or the most sought after works that are read across time, ethnic and language borders in which they were produced and become the intercontinental patrimony of civilization. (Gafrik, 2009, p. 28)
