“BAD” girl!

In Mario Vargas Llosa’s book, The Bad Girl, the force of man’s love for a extremely free-spirited woman never expires. Lily in their home country Peru captivated the main character Ricardo. Ricardo always remembers Lily for being an awesome dancer, and an intriguing person. He knew that it was not just her simple beauty but also something about chasing her, made him love her more and more.

Since the beginning of the book, the character of Lily was not innocent. Lily lied to him by saying she was from Chile, she was ashamed of being a poor girl in Peru. Well years later pass, and Ricardo was working as translator in Paris. To his surprise and happiness, he encounters Lily in Paris. But Lily had changed her name. They were able to have a short-lived relationship that was halted by her work. Ricardo advised her to put her work first and he will wait for her return to Paris. Some years later pass by, and this time she is back. Now the Peruvian girl is back as a married woman. She married a rich European guy that provides her money and therefore she stopped working.

Even though, there was a repetitive cycle, the book was not easy to put down. I had to keep reading to know what Ricardo will do every time the ‘Bad girl’ would come back to him. She for sure made clear that she was after money; love was not something she was looking for. Ricardo tried to prove her wrong, and all time she failed him by tossing him aside.

In class, we discussed the title and the meaning that it sends to people. True, Llosa did put this title to classify some women. What kind of women? For sure, the girl was not a submissive, simple, or a traditional kind of woman. She was doing whatever she wanted with her life. She was going to be independent when she wanted or she was going to get married to whomever she wanted. The flaw she had was that she did not want to love. Since she did not want to be emotional, she was “bad” and -well she had to suffer at some point in her life.

-RA

La Nueva Mestiza en los U.S. of A

Just a few thoughts on the writing of Gloria Anzaldua’s Borderlands, la Frontera- the New Mestiza:

When first reading, I could sense the strength and passion of the writer. There was one repetative image that struck me, and I learned about was el Cuatlicue, a goddess; lady of the serpent. She explains the meaning of the goddess is the creator, the mother of the earth, responsible for fertility and the beautiful days. The goddess helps her identify the importance of knowing ones culture, and the beginnings of her blood, her family. By reading the book With her machete in her hand by Catriona Rueda Esquibel, I learned that Gloria was a Chicana lesbian writer. Just knowing some more detail information about Anzaldua, it made think even more about being a woman in the U.S. Gloria does not only live in a world where being brown is looked down on, but being a woman and a lesbian that just adds more prejudices.

She had to look into her history and herself to find that strong individual. Her history begins many centuries ago, miles and miles away, but nonetheless it is her history as well as of other Chicana women that are living in the U.S. today. By one not denying who they are, one can be complete- instead of becoming what the white man has tried to conditioned most people to be according to their race. We have to gain knowledge, find value, and become whole and strong. The languages are important, because she had to know English and Spanish well. In reality accents matter to everyone in either language. Being raised speaking Spanish and learning English can be confusing to most. People will criticize, meaning that one has to be perfect in either language.

Dealing with different cultures is a constant living for most mestizos in the U.S. Knowing how to balance each world, or each culture, or just simply represent yourself no matter where you are at then well that is accepting and teaching the world at the same time. This is where most Chicanos loose themselves; loose their history, their culture. Choosing the white culture, and not the mestizo or the Mexican culture well then you just lost you.

-RA

Madres e hijas latinas!

 

In today’s views of relationships, by now seems that we all know they take effort. A specific relationship that I am referring to is the mother-daughter in the Latino culture. From personal experience, my mother has shaped some or maybe even most of my views of life. It does not always happen that the mother shapes any of the ways of their daughter’s life. When I talked to my professor about the writing for the Latino Sexuality project, our conversation went over some issues that Latina women can face living in the U.S.

There are special bonds in life, and one that I can truly relate is the bond that I have with my mother. From the conversation we discussed how a mother can be matriarch of the house for better or for worse of the family. We talked about one situation of a family where the mother was single with two girls. The two girls grew up to be completely different. One daughter very conservative and reserved covered up with her clothing and the other very flirty and well she became a stripper. How different the two young women from the same house, the one that became the stripper was closer to her mother, the other that was very reserve was not. The single mother did bring different guys to her house. So one conservative girl seemed that she had be what her mother was not.

A lot of the writing that I will do, could be in comparison to my own experience and learning to what is perceive about Latina women when it comes to dealing with control over their daughters. There in the end I have narrowed my project to exploring the saying or thoughts that happen in Latino homes, ‘if you’re not home you’re having sex.’ This thoughts or sayings go back to a young Latina living at home with her parents, and what issues can arise if she is not at home. Being at home to most parents deals with control and knowing how she is doing. In this project, I can explore the influence of the bond of the mother-daughter relationship and how the daughter will react to the control from her home.

 

-RA