Negative and Positive machismo?

Machismo is a word that was made by Anglo men to describe Latino men, but machismo can have both a negative and positive meaning to it. According to Rosalie Flores in Chicana Feminist Thought, she desribes machismo as “an elusive Mexican value, inbred and fostered by parental anxiety for the males in the family to show manliness, virility, honor, and courage…”. A Chicano man can act machismo in a positive light, like refusing to take days off of work because he puts the pressures of  paying the bills, putting food on the table, and his families well being, on his back with pride. Such machismo actions can encourage males and females of the family to have the same great work ethic in life, as well as the same selfless values.

However, the machismo mindset can be negative for a Chicano if it is used to oppress women. ow their “machismo”. The “negative” machismo mindset that some men had towards the Chicana Feminist movement  has affected the Chicana feminist movement negatively. Majority of these Chicano men who exercised the “negative” machismo believed during the Chicana Feminist movement that it was the womens duty to  cook, clean, and take care of the children, and not have a voice in the Chicano movement. Some men felt women could only have secretarial jobs during the movement, and this lead to some men greatly opposing the Chicana Feminist movement.  When some of the Chicano men start seeing their wives go against the customs that have been embedded in their minds of women just being in the background, their first instinct was to “correct” such behaviors. Some Chicano men saw women and their wives overriding  their disapproval to join the Chicana feminist movements as truly wrong.  The way some Chicano men stopped the voice of their wives was to stop them from joining  the Chicana Feminist movement because of their negative “machismo” mindset and actions.

According to Machismo-Bibliography. “A person isn’t born macho”, it is taught, which means acting machismo is taught.  Chicano..The Chicano male who is acts machismo in the wrong way is stunting the growth of Chicano people as a whole in a way. The potential great acts and ideas by Chicana women can be suppressed forever if their voice isn’t heard. The great idea or act of a Chicana women can have for the empowerment of her people could encourage other Chicano’s, male or female, to expand on her work. A perfect example is the success that the Chicana Feminist movement had on the Chicano community as a whole. Their are groups such as the brown Berets that currently allow women to have a voice in their organization and the women have successfully helped provide food, counseling, and guidance for the Chicano community. If such women were silenced by men negatively using “machismo” then their Chicano community as a whole wouldn’t have been able to positively benefit from the ideas of these Chicana women.


References:

  • Garcia, Alma M., ed. 1997. Chicana Feminist Thought: The Basic Historical Writings. Vol. 1. New York , NY : Routledge. 21-24.
  •   Garcia. 48-50.
  •    Garcia. 119.
  • Garcia. 93.
  • Garcia. 113-116
  • Mirandé, Alfredo, and Enríquez, Evangelina. 1979. La Chicana. Chicago , IL : University of Chicago Press. 12-13
  • Mirandé. 242.
  • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicana_feminism