http://everydayfeminism.com/2015/11/how-challenge-machismo/

I came across this wonderful article, and would love to share with you all. As I read this article it reminded me of this week’s reading by Pablo Martinez, “Masculinity Reconfigured: Shaking up Gender in Latino/a Literature.  This article is titled 5 Ways Latinas Can Challenge Machismo in our Families and Communities. Martinez wrote about how machismo was being challenges in the United States, because women seem to hold more power that back home. In this article Jennifer Loubriel teaches Latina women how to challenge machismo in five steps. Loubriel believes that machismo is dangerous, because it teaches that the only way you can be a leader is if you are a man, but not just any men. A leader is a strong, demanding, strict and dominant. So how do we challenge machismo? First we must start engaging with our families, stop expecting your mother to baby you, stop expecting everyone else to defer to you, start speaking up to other Latinas, and be willing to maintain conversations with the folks in your life- even when they don’t immediately get it.