The Hungry Woman: The Importance of Corn

One of elements that I found intriguing about this play was how the presence of corn was interwoven in the fabric of the story.  We see it right away in the first scene of the play when Luna and Chac-Mool appear in Medea’s memory.  Luna questions why there is no corn in the garden and Chac-Mool responds that the garden is for growing herbs for medicine.  Luna then replies “Plant corn.  A single corn plant can produce enough grain to feed person for a day” (Moraga 13).  While the corn may seem insignificant in this interaction, I found it to hold a lot of symbolism.  One gothic element that we have discussed this semester is the tension between the good and evil.  The corn represents the good.  It serves as a source of nourishment and connection for the characters throughout the play.  The herbs however represent the potential for evil in play as they are eventually used by Medea to kill her son Chac-Mool.

 

The corn serves as a connection between Chac-Mool and Luna.  In scene four of act one Luna shows Chac-Mool the proper ways to plant and harvest the corn.  Luna says, “After the first rains the planting begins.  You burn incense at the four corners of the field.  Smoke the seed to be planted with copal candles.  You fast” (Moranga 25).  Luna describes planting the corn in a very spiritual and ritualistic way.  By doing this she presents the corn as something somewhat holy and sacred.  By teaching Chac-Mool the ways of growing corn Luna is giving him a piece of independence and his manhood.  Mama Sal says to him later in the play, “If you can grow corn and you know how to light a fire, you’ll never be hungry Chac-Mool.  Never” (Moranga 30).   This statement just reinforces how important skills like growing corn are Chac-Mool’s maturity.

 

The corn is also present towards the end of the play when Medea poisons Chac-Mool.  The mother and son spend their last moments together in an embrace overlooking the cornfields.  When Chac-Mool apologizes about his negligence in collecting the harvest Medea says, “No te apures.  In Aztlàn, there’s plenty corn to harvest” (Moranga 90).  This statement reminds the audience that corn is universal and will act as a link of the past with the present.  Chac-Mool never gets to experience the corn in Aztlàn because after this his mother poisons him.  Once she does this she drags his body out to the corn field and makes an altar for his body.  This reinforces the idea that the corn is sacred and a source of the good.  The juxtaposition of her evil action with the good of the corn ties back to the gothic element of good versus evil.  There is also the presence of the super natural with the Cihuatateo, who are the ghost of Aztec warrior women.  The corn represents natural abundance and growth, whereas the Cihuatateo represent death and loss.  This connects to another gothic theme of the natural, with the corn, versus the supernatural, with the Cihuatateo.  Corn was a staple food for many Native American tribes, including the Aztecs.  The presence of corn in this play not only has a lot of symbolism but incorporates the Native American influence as well.  Native culture has greatly influenced and shaped Mexican and then Chicana/o culture.  For that reason its presence in the play through the corn speaks to the importance of recognizing and appreciating its presence in the culture.

Works Cited:

Moraga, Cherrie L. The Hungry Woman.  New York: Theater Communications Group, 2000. Print.

Comments

The Hungry Woman: The Importance of Corn — 3 Comments

  1. I’m glad someone else also noticed the importance of corn in this play. I agree that corn is almost seen as something sacred. This reminded me of how sacred corn was to the Aztecs since this was one of the most important foods for them. It also reminded me of the Mayan creation myth in the Popol Vuh. According to this legend, the gods attempted to make human beings out of different materials such as mud and wood. They failed at making the perfect human being out of these materials. The legend says that man and women are made of corn. I especially thought about this legend when Medea murders her son and he is taken to the corn fields. I found it intriguing that to people such as Aztecs and Mayans saw corn as a source of life yet Chac-Mool is taken to the corn field when he is dead.

  2. I also noticed an ample amount of references to the significance of corn in the play, The Hungry Woman. The motif of corn can represent a lot when put into context of the story Cherrie L. Moragara tells. The main character of the play is Medea, an ex Revolutionary and lesbian who has been exiled to a futuristic Phoenix as a Dystopian form of banishment. She lives with her lover Luna, her son Chac-Mool and her grandmother

    Medea represents gray area where she is torn between expectations and desires, neither of which really fulfills her perpetual and insatiable hunger for life. She is in a custody battle with her estranged husband Jason over their son and in an unhealthy and dysfunctional relationship with her lover Luna. This hopeless situation leads her to spiral into a mental hospital where she resides. One of the first scenes of the play introduces this institution and Medea being fed a meal of oatmeal. She instantly thinks about her son in his infantry. She then gets sidetracked and gazes at her reflection in the mirror: “I wish I had a mouth of corn, sweet baby corn” (Moraga 11). It was interesting she mentions corn and in the earlier stages of growth. Corn can be seen as literally a natural food grown from the earth but it can also be seen as a representation of her son, wrapped in potentiality to evolve and as a sustainable resource for her “hunger”. I found it interesting that our first reference to her son is connected to that of corn.
    Later Medea thinks about a memory of her lover luna teaching her son how to plant which further connects the motif to Chac-Mool: “You should plant corn” states Luna, explaining that a garden needs corn because “a single corn plant can produce enough grain to feed a person for a day” (Moraga 13). In this scene, corn represents longevity, the need to take care of yourself as a form of nurture. It’s intriguing to think of this concept of nurture because the natural association is a Mother to its child. Ironically, Medea lacks this sort of nurture and her son looks to Mother Nature, for the love that only a mom can provide.
    Finally, after Medea poisons her son to keep her away from her former husband Jason, she takes him to the garden to admire the corn. In a sense, this is Medea perpetuating the affinity her son shares with Mother Nature, the one she couldn’t provide for him. Medea even states: “There’s plenty of corn to harvest” (Moraga 90). Corn, the landscape and Mother Nature are rooted in her connection with her heritage, one she was rejected from during the Chicano Movement. In essence, she lost that connection in her banishment.

    Works Cited:
    Moraga, Cherrie L. The Hungry Woman. New York: Theater Communications Group, 2000. Print.

  3. As you mentioned, Chicano culture and nationalism is very much influenced by Native American roots. In the Afterword, Irma Mayorga writes, “Chicano nationalist ideology depends upon the element of Indianness as a crucial component for inspiring resistant collective action” (158). Claiming the Indianness emphasizes the history within the United States, specifically the Southwest. It reminds others of Chicanos “right” to be in the United States. As Medea in “Hungry Woman,” she yearns for Aztlan, yet she is denied this right to her ancestral homeland. The use of corn represents life,and while it was a historical significance, it also has contemporary importance.