Conclusion!

I really enjoyed almost all the text we had to read for this class. Some of them were very quick to read, like No se lo tragó la tierra, women hollering creek, and and a body to remember with, each chapter in those books had so much to say and was so artistically and well written. I really have to say reading Cisneros' book has inspired me to write. I had started one 2 years ago but was always stopped because i didn't like the chronological order or I was just blocked in a spot and couldn't continue. I really like how authors like Cisneros, Carmen Rodriquez and Rivera play with the order and sometimes you don't know if the same protagonist follows in all chapters or when exactly something happened. 

I connected with the latino literature as much as with the chicano literature and in some cases their stories were so similar to mine. I have to say that I even connected and have similar feelings as Martí does even though José Marti wrote Escenas norteamericanas in the 1880s. I think we didn't spend enough time on Martí and I think the majority of  my classmates didn't enjoy or value his works because it was in Spanish. 

We had a pretty good selection of books to read for this class, and like I have mentioned some of them were really inspiring for me, and touching.

And a Body to remember with

Wow Wow! I'm really enjoying Rodriguez' book even though  the stories are very painful. Its a very quick read, but with in an hour, Rodriguez takes us through 4 different emotional roller coasters. It's like having all your body waxed in 5 min. Before you have the time to think how much waxing your right leg hurt, someone else is waxing your bikini or something! It's like ouch.... ouch... ouch! Each story in this book is precious and amazing, and even though the book is pretty small and quick to read, it reveals soooo much. The stories touch upon, exile, immigration, race, family, gender, class, identity, nationality, geography, torture and gendered torture, public and private sphere... we could spend a class or two talking about each chapter. 

Some of the main symbolic things that stand out in this book are body and  communication. 

I think the body represents the home country, feeling of pain and suffering, and finding one's identity.  

From the beginning of the book we see how Estela uses, letters and the phone to communicate with her loved ones back in Chile...then there are times that she can not communicate what she feels, and just cries, because no one would understand her. In other chaptersthe protagonists communicate with comadre, or Abuelita Flor, who have passed away... lost friends...  by placing them in their heart or mind and talking to them, because they're the ones who would understand them, but are not present. 

One of my favorite examples of failure of communication is on page 83, in the chapter "trespass", where the protagonist is telling her dream to Luis (the cute guy)

"I was in a place where there were dozens of phones all over the place,  on the walls, the tables, the floor, everywhere. I went from one telephone to the next saying hello, hello, but all the phones were either dead, didn't have a tone, or had their cables cut."

I think this represents how there is no possibility of a dialogue, to talk about their lives, or communicate with people, because of fear and distrust that the dictatorship has created. They do not have  a voice and have to mute their personal opinion. 

and a body to remember

I'm absolutely loving Carmen Rodriguez' book. I feel as if she's telling my story. I want to give this to my mom after i'm finished reading it, because Estela is so much like my mom. I felt like reading or finding a deleted file in my hard drive, or memory card. I call the first few years after immigration the dark ages, and I had completely erased those years from my history. So reading this book was like finding old baby pictures or recordings in a box hidden in the basement. What's cool about it is that it's not just any kind of immigration. It's immigration to Vancouver, Canada in August the same month that I arrived, the same age as Estela's older daughter. We both fled out country because of political issues back at home. It was so funny to read how Estela imagined Canada looking at National Geographic pictures. I used to know that Canada has greezly bears and that the  Niagara falls, the biggest fall in the world is in Canada through a board game i had, so the image of the fall and bears kept coming in my head. 

My mother found work first and had a higher salary than my dad which was very weird at first.  My parent's relationship has changed ever since then, and my mother has a lot more to say when it comes to family decision making. One thing I've noticed about immigrant women who used to be oppressed in their home company, is that they become superwomen when they move to countries with more freedom and opportunities, because they really appreciate all the freedom they get. They study and work really hard. I could really relate to the little girls, because I felt very odd having black hair in junior high, in west vancouver. It might've been different if I had gone to high school in another neighborhood. It made me laugh how the family found certain things strange when they moved here, like electrical stoves, the smell of french fries and hamburger everywhere... 

It took me years to get used to the taste of food here, everything was so tasteless, the fruits tasted like water, and the meat and the rice was so strange. I used to think that the food was tasteless because it was made on an electrical stove! I hated Canada so much. As I turned 16 my life changed a lot and I found myself and my identity, and now I don't think that Canada is the best country one could live in. Thank you Jon for familiarizing us with cool books :)

How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accent

I'm enjoying Julia Alvarez's book. I can relate to it a lot. One thing that stands out to me in this book is "el juego de las palabras". This is enhance in chapters specially dedicated to Yolanda/Joe/ Yo since she's a poet/writer/not. I like he play with the Slash thing as well. I thing this is significant when you she says maybe "I should get rid of the slashes between mind, heart/soul, and just right Yo" looking at the body as a whole, as an interlinked system. Mind, heart, body all make Yo. It's also interesting how one person can have different nicknames, ones that they like and ones that they dislike and ones that one wishes to be called but is never called, in Yolanda's case "sky".

I was filled with rage when the grandpa paid more attention to the little born baby boy and no attention to his grand daughter. I can so relate to that, because I know a lot of traditional conservative family friends that wish all the best careers for the little boys and a good husband (with money) for the girls. I have feel Sofia’s pain and I get so mad a the father, even though I don’t dislike him, cause it’s not his fault that he’s is the way he is. It has to do with the way he has been brought up and the principles they were thought as a young boy. I admire Sofia for leaving the house and not obeying his father’s rules. Sofia didn’t try to change her father and she accepts him as the way he is, and understands why he was made at her. She still respects him and loves him and tries to regain his love. However the father doesn’t try to rebuild his relationship with his daughter and has not accepted her as she is.

Cisneros

I really enjoyed reading Woman Hollering Creek. I had become so engaged in the stories and i felt like one of the characters in the book specially  In the childhood stories and  even though I'm not chicana, I felt the pain that the women had felt in the different stories.   There were times that Cisnero's language broke me laughing aloud in the bus or the library feeling awkward, and there were times that It hurt so much that I had to take a break and breath. I'm not too good when it comes to stories of violation, rape or betraying women. 

What amazed me the most was how Cisnero could put herself in the skin of all these characters. Their prespective, language and emotions seemed so real. The language she uses in the chapter Eleven is exactly how an eleven year old school girl would talk. 

There were times that her tone, or language sounded like north american "O My God!" type of girls, who use a lot of "like...like.... o my god!"....and I felt like I was stuck in the bus listening to one of these "o my god conversations, and i just wish I could fast forward it or put on my Ipod and not listen.  This is an amazing skill, to be able to write in so many different ways. 

The best example of language style would be chapter Little Miracles, Kept Promises. Cisneros uses a different language and humor in each letter. 

ie. 

Dear San Lazaro,

My mother's comadre DEmetria said if I prayed to you that like maybe you could help me because you were raised from the dead and did a lot of miracles and maybe if I lit a candle every night for seven days and prayed, you might maybe could help me with my face breaking out with so many pimples. Thank you. 

Rubén Ledesma

Hebbronville, Texas (p121)

What I find very interesting is when she uses a semi dialogue in some parts where there is a woman having a conversation, explaining a story to someone, but the reader can not see the other character in this dialogue, or it's not obvious who she's talking to. So the reader has to guess. And most importantly is that the author does not give a voice to the other person in this dialogue. sO I guess it's not a dialogue!

I think p126-127 are very important. Some quotes that stood out for me were:

" Do boys think, and girls daydream? Do only girls have to come out and greet the relatives and smile and be nice and quedar bien?"( p126)

just below that the family friends ask the girl about what she wants to study and when she's going to get married.... and It's so painful to read that paragraph

"she's gona be a painter.

A painter! Tell her I got five rooms that need painting.

When you become a mother...." p 126

As if it's been written on girls fourhead since they're born, MUST MARRY, BECOME A MOTHER, HAVE CHILDREN. 

Being anything other than that is unacceptable in the societies that Cisneros describes.  

Then she follows:

"I wouldn't mind being a father. at least a father could still be artist, could love something instead of someone, and no one would call that selfish." p 127

Of course! if women want to pursue their own dreams, they're selfish, and they represent failure of the family and the society. If a woman starts doing anything other than what she's told to or expected of, she's a Malinchista, Hocicona..  Malinche, or la chingada, is seen as the traitor, who let down all mexicans Of course it had to be a woman. It's blamed on the women instead of seeing the whole picture. the narrator expresses a great pain being called Malinche. 

I could go on for so much longer, but i have to rap it up. i enjoyed very much reading Cisneros' book, some parts were really poetic and it really touched me, ie. Chapeter There was a man .There was a woman. Even though this chapter is only two pages it's really powerful and beautifully written. 

Women Hollering Creek

EL libro de Woman Hollering Creek contiene cuentitos de diferentes mujers que nos da una imagen de la vida de las mujeres de diferentes edades. Se ve la vida de una niña hasta la vida de abuelitas. En el capítulo My Lucy Friend Who Smells Like Corn, casí puedo oler el "corn". Cisnero uas muchas metaforas y su lenguaje es muy dulce y poetcia, y pinta una imagen muy real.  Me recordaba de mi juentud, cuando juagaba con mis amigas, con las muñecas, haciendo tonterias en el público, una locura de energia. Nos encantaba los chucherias, chupachups, colores. 

Me encanta el libro porque todo me parece muy real, y sé exactamento lo que Cisnero pretenda  decir. La historia de Rachel en el capítulo Eleven, casí me hizo llorar. Me sentía la verguenza que la niña senía totalmente. Una metáfora que me encantó en este capítulo es, " I want today to be a far away already, far away like a runaway balloon, like a tiny o in the sky, so tiny-tiny you have to close your eyes to see it" (p9).

Creo que el capítulo Mericans es muy importante porque trata de temas como relegion y género y identidad. Quiza muestra como la generación mayor, como los abuelitos son más religiosos que los jovenes. Al la auela de pena qe ss niños y nietos no asistan la masa y reza por ellos. de manera que el niño narra este capítulo me daba risa," I count the awful grandmother's mustache hairs while she prays for Uncle Old"  (p19) y luego

 " The awful grandmother knits the names of the dead and the living into one long prayer fringed with the grandchildren born in that barbaric country with its barabarian ways" (p 19) Me recuerda mucho. También es importante reconocer como la abuela ve el " Barbaric land" 

En el mismo capítulo, explica como los niños usan "Girl" como insulto entre ellos. Yo como una niña habîa experimentado esto muchas veces, y siempre me llenaba de rabia. Cisnero cuenta temas muy delicadas para las mujeres, el tema de la mujer siendo inferior, perder la verginidad.... y veo desde donde ella hierve. 

El tema de identidad sale cuando se preguntan a los ninós si son americanos y los niños contestan "yeah", "we're Mericans". Pues los se identifican como Americanos.

En el capítulo One holy Night  vemos la relación con lo indigena y la raza. "I remember next is how the moon, the pale moon with its yellow eye, the moon of Tikal, and Tulum, and Chichén, stared through the pink plastic curtains. Hay mucha referencia a los dioses indigenas Mayas en este capítulo que de vuelta eleva el teme de identidad y pertenecer a la raza pura....

Me guesto esta cita, cuando la chica va hacia su caso después acostarse con el "Chaq", y se pregunta "Did Ia look different? Could they tell?" (p 30) esto es muy real y creo que todas las chicas se preocupan de esto, o muchas chicas experimentan esta experiencia.

El tema de reputación es muy importante en el mundo Chicano,  se mueven a otras ciudades para salvar su buena reputación. Vemos esto en el caso de las mujeres que se embarazaban de joven, y se tenían que mover, por guardad la reputación de la familia.

Se debe prestar atención a estas citas, como cuando la chica se embaraza, dice " I don't think they understand how it is to be a girl"

, "already I can feel the animal inside me stirring in his own uneven sleep".  Aquí llama al niño un animal. Que disgusto! La chica no quiere el niño.

La chica quiere nombrar el niño Alegre porque " life will always be hard", que bonito, pero a la vez m da pena. 

Me estoy divertiendo leyendo el libro. Está muy bien narrado. 

The movie compared to the book

Algo que destacó en la película era el caso de las mujeres. el libre no nos describe tanto la vida de mujeres en la vida chicana. Desde que yo recuerdo, una vez la madre va al centro para comprar regalos, y le tratan mal y vuele a casa mareada de miedo y terror, y su esposo le consuela deciendo que le acompañara al centro o que no hace falta que ella vaya de compras sola! Esa era la solución, y la madre me parecío poco sólido, o incapaz. 

Pero creo que la Pali hace un buen trabajo mostrando un poco la vida de las mujeres chicanas. Las cosas que se tienen que encarar, la sanidad, sin tubería, tadas las noches solas mientras su esposo esta en el bar o reunion con los otros trabajadores... No pueden alimentar los niños porque los hombres hacen huelga. 

Sobretodo, el hecho que ellas no tienes voz. Sus preocupaciones y sufrimientos no importa. Ellas quieren apoyar los hombres y tener parte o solidaridad con los problemas, pero en el principio vemos que obviamente, los hombres no dejan a las mujeres participar.

El tratamiento del padre con la madre sobre el radio y huelga demustra la actitud de los hombres hacia las mujeres: que ellas no saben nada de la vida dura y real, y ni lo pueden entender.

La pelí mustra la doble opressión de la mujeres chicanas. No solo son chicanos, pero además MUJERES! DOBLE OPRESIÓN!