Reading assignment for Friday, February 15. Reading Assignment: Your reply (under Comments) is due before class. Remember, you don’t need to answer all or even any of the questions, but your response should demonstrate you’ve done and thought about the readings. Be sure to check and make sure your response posts.
- Helena María Viramontes, “The Moths” (from The Moths and Other Stories, 27-32)
- Cherríe Moraga, “Looking for the Insatiable Woman” (From Loving in the War Years, 142-150)
Both Moraga and Viramontes are writing with and against mythologies. What myths do you see in these texts? How does each address the issues of generations?
What sort of mothers do you see in Viramontes and Moraga? How does Moraga connect motherhood with sexuality? Do you see similar issues in Viramontes?
One of the myths that is used in the readings was the legend of La Llorona and how that relates to feminism and the place of women in Mexican society. I had heard the story of La Llorona before but I did not think of La Llorona as a sister; she was never someone I would have aspired to grow up to be. Moraga claims that La Llorona shatters the patriarchal mold of what a woman should do; that by killing her babies, she is breaking the chains that a Mexican mother figure is supposed to have. According to tradition, the mother is supposed to be the most caring and nurturing person to their children, so to kill them would be an appalling deed and it goes against what the primarily patriarchal society wants, so in a sense, the act of killing her babies is the most feminist thing she could possibly do. Moraga does have a better connection to La Llorona though because she is also a disobedient Mexican daughter because she is a lesbian, something very few Mexican families agree with according to their long standing traditions that a woman should get married and have babies and so forth. I believe the myths shown in the Viramontes piece have to do with the medicinal treatments she gets and gives her grandmother. In the Latino culture, remedies come from traditional beliefs because they do not have much scientific support. The issues of generations in the Viramontes essay have to do with the fact that for generations medicinal treatments had been practiced and that even as newer technologies arise it is much easier and more comforting to stick with what traditionally has been working a long time. In the Moraga piece, the generational difference can be seen in the defense of La Llorona as a feminist. Generations ago, that thought process would not had gone through any woman’s mind, but it certainly crossed Moraga’s mind.
The issues of generations are themes that run throughout both texts. Viramontes reveals three generations of women through the story of a family, specifically the women of the family and their relationship to one another. The issues presented in The Moths are those of the new generation who has a hard time relating to the older ones, including her older sisters. She sees herself as different and at times alone. Moraga describes how the generations of stories and different types of women coming from different ages, have all been combined for the current ideas of women placed by others. But she’s turned it into a cultural matter. In other words, not only is it the common generational issue involving families as seen in many of our readings, but she refers back to the mythology of the culture, and how lost it has become through generations.
Viramontes depicts a Chicana mother, but one who is heavily devoted to her parents than most. It is the type of mother that I have known before who still, even at an adult/motherhood age, respects her parents and will listen to their instructions on raising children. Moraga presents mythical and modern mothers who seem to have things in common. For example, the dike lady she describes, is later compared to La Llorona for what she herself did to her own children.
In both stories we see mothers that are influence by the will of men. In Viramontes story, the mother seems to be in a harmful relationship with the father, as the narrator’s sisters mention that if she doesn’t go to church right away the mother will get the brunt of the anger. But at the same time the mother sends the narrator to the grandmother’s house as a way to avoid yelling and beatings. In Moraga’s story we see a mother that drowns her children, Moraga argues that she kills part of herself along with the children, as they never really part from their children after birth. The grandmother in the “moth” story seems so similar to my own grandmother. I still love going to her place on the weekends and finding that she already prepared some of my favorite foods. I never had a problem or forced to go and help her, rather I was always glad to spend time with her and help her anyway I can.
An interesting point that I found while reading was that women are being punished because as the mother states in Moraga’s story “eres mujeres”. It doesn’t make sense that an entire group of people should be treated unfairly for actions of a few from their history as a collective.
This story reminds me of a girl with little confidence and the drive to want to have the approval of her grandmother. She begins by thinking she’s not good enough, her hands are too small and she isn’t as pretty. She gets in trouble to gain attention she said he is used to the beatings. This to me reminds me of a typical young Chicana girl has her destiny planned out and a family there for her but she hardly knows it. The stereotype is embellished of the Chicana woman but her grandmother is there for her through it all, through the sickness. Overall I liked this story because it reminds me of my relationship with my Abuelita and how she is always there for me.
In Viramontes’, “The Moths,” the mythology of home remedies is very evident throughout the story. Many Mexican families believe that grandma knows best and she can cure many illnesses just like the Abuelita cured the little girl of scarlet fever by placing potato slices on her temples. It is interesting to see that, even though, we are now medically advanced people still believe that these home remedies work. In part, I think is has to do with cultural beliefs and going up thinking that these remedies actually work. In Moraga’s, “Looking for the Insatiable,” she talks about the myth of the la llorona. I really enjoyed this piece because Moraga’s thought is extraordinaire, she saw something in this classic story that one had ever seen. She describes la llorana as the ultimate feminist, who has been seen throughout history in different versions of the story. La llorona is our sister because she challenged her oppression and went against patriarchal rules by killing her own children. Therefore, she is not searching for her children, but instead hungers for a non patriarchal world, which reflects was chicana feminists deeply desire.
Reading both pieces I felt like I couldn’t find a connection in between. In Viramontes’s piece we read about the duties, as daughters, or in her specific case as granddaughters, we carry. Being a women, means one thing and being a Latina means something else. The character has to deal with the comparison of her to her sisters, whether she is the one critizing or the world, because at the end of the day someone is always comparing and noting the differences. She might not be dainty and do the lady like things, but with her grandma’s help she is a different kind of women, and I think that it is through this relationship where she flourishes as a Latina, even if she never kissed her grandma.
As for Moronga’s story, I feel we learn about the “true stories [that] empower” us, and the “the lies that disempower” us(page 149). We go into the myth of La Llorona and discover more than just a weeping mother for her children but instead find a Latina searching for her lost self, her lost sexuality, her lost spirituality, her lost sabiduría, (page 147). Through this search we are empowered and fin the true Latinas we are meant to be.
Just like in the case of Viramontes’s charater, whose spirituality is seen through her actions and her care for her grandma, her sabiduría in the way she cares for her and in knowing that she has to give back for all her grandma has done for her.
So I guess in a sense they do connect.
When Cherrie Moraga described how every time “the model prisoner” would get out the announcement ran “lesbian child-killer to go free.” The word “lesbian” describes the child-killer as a psychopath engaging in the preconceptions people continue to have of anyone who is not “heterosexual.” Our society keeps reinforcing the dominant narrative by considering/naming anything that is not heterosexual as something else. Would this really be written as “straight child-killer to go free”? No it wouldn’t be necessary, why? Because we are embedded in the dominant perspective.
Moraga states, “I grow impatient with Chicano and Chicana literature that is purposely colloquial, the tourist literature, written for audiences who are strangers to the cultural and political geography of our symbols, images and history” (Moraga, 148). I completely understand where she is coming from–a chicana who is hungry for nourishment, que tiene hambre (in her reference to la llorona) from deeply engaging with her consciousness she is able to understand the situation we find ourselves in. It is like a process of healing from the wounds, and at the same time becoming empowered by them.