In this weeks reading article Masculinity Reconfigured: Shaking up Gender in Chicano/Latino Literature by Pablo E. Martiínez analyze the books Poncho by Jose Antonio Villarreal and How the Garcia Girls Lost their Accents by Julia Álavarez show the path that was established for Chicano “voices in literature.” Martínez focuses on the male figures and how they transitioned their position in the family from the head of household to being dependent on his female counterpart. He lost his sense of “machismo” and the transformation “from archetypical macho patriarch” arose from the “process of emasculation at the hands of their wives and children.” It was done by their families resisting their authority and often times challenging the “traditional masculine norms” with the infusion of nationalism, transnationalism, feminism, and modernity.

It usually began as the daughters and wives saw that education for women was available in the United States and they took the opportunity to gain a higher education. Whereas, in Mexico or the Dominican Republic there commercial industry was based on agriculture and those in charge of the industry were males. When the men began their lives in the United States they had a hard time transitioning into their environment of new laws, language, and social norms. Contrary to the women who embraced the changes and were able to maneuver around the social pyramid. By the end of the novels, the father’s position was opposite, as “mother and children as breadwinners, and father as a dependent.” Thus the Chicano household gains a sense of balance between patriarchal and matriarchal viewpoints.

Have you experienced a similar transition in your household?

Why would you think it would be harder for the men to let go of his authoritative role and assimilate into the new norms?