Labyrinth Of Solitude

In A Place Where the Sea Remembers, Sandra Benitez invites us into a mesmerizing world filled with love, anger, tragedy and hope. This rich and bewitching story is a bittersweet portrait of the people in Santiago, a Mexican village by the sea. Each character faces a conflict that affects the course of his or her life. The characters in this conflict are Remedios, la curandera of the small town who listens to people’s stories and gives them advice, Marta, a 16 year old teenage girl, who was raped and became pregnant. Chayo is Marta’s big sister and Calendario is Chayo’s husband. Justo Flores, his conflict is person vs. self. One of the most important conflicts in this story is person vs. person, then person vs. supernatural followed by

Aura by Carlos Fuentes explores the ideas of fantasy and imagination against the backdrop of Mexico City in the 1960s, coinciding with the Latin American Boom. This was a time of literary experimentation as the Latin American novel gained increasing popularity amongst wider audiences. As such, Fuentes uses Aura to redefine narrative norms by incorporating genuine historical events into fantastical situations and through the use of symbolism to heighten the feelings of the uncanny and the unknown which linger throughout the novel.

In A Mexican Self-Portrait, written by many authors, this article focused on the different lifestyles of the poor and rich woman in Mexico. The representations of women in Mexico for both high and lower classes in Latin America were very different. For lower class they were considered “tortilleras’’, however, one of the most well known was referred to as “La China”. La China was one of the most notable types portrayed in the “Mexican Self Portrait”. She was considered to be an unnamed independent woman of the popular class.

“His nation chewed him up and spat him out like a pinon shell, and when he emerged from an airplane one late afternoon, I knew I would one day make love with him” (Martinez, 3). And so it starts, the story of a nineteen year old Mexican- American girl named Mary (Maria; as he only chooses to call her), who helps out and eventually falls in love with Jose Luis Alegria, a Salvadoran refugee. Martínez's story of María is told against the backdrop of the 12-year civil war in El Salvador. Maria and Jose Luis develop a friendship that slowly turns into a typical novella love affair. Through their relationship, both characters are forced to confront the violence of their

Based on Cisneros’ works of literature, gender roles in a Hispanic culture revolves around patriarchal rule. The repercussions of a patriarchal rule includes the limitations of female liberation and development. Cleofilas’ abusive situation exemplifies the limitations of her independence and development as she can not make her own decisions and has to solely depend on her husband. This situation is illustrated when Cleofilas explains that the towns are “built so that you have to depend on husbands... You can drive only if you’re rich enough to own and drive an own car. There is no place to go” (Cisneros 628). Cleofilas reveals that men are the dominant gender and have more authority, and that women are compelled to depend on them in her society. It is an exceptionally rare case that a woman can afford her own car, for the men usually control the finances in a household. Additionally, Cleofilas has nowhere to seek refuge from her husband. Although she yearns to return to her father’s home, she decides not to due to the social standards imposed on her. In her society, the act of returning home after marriage is socially unacceptable. She understands that her family will be viewed in a negative light if she were to return home, as seen when Cleofilas refers to her town as a “town of gossips” (627). Similar to other men in the society, Juan Pedro’s authority is shown through his abuse. Cleofilas recalls, “He slapped her once, and then again, and again; until the lip split and bled an orchid of blood” (626).

“Beautiful and Cruel” marks the beginning of Esperanza’s “own quiet war” against machismo (Hispanic culture powered by men). She refuses to neither tame herself nor wait for a husband, and this rebellion is reflected in her leaving the “table like a man, without putting back the chair or picking up the plate (Cisneros 89).” Cisneros gives Esperanza a self-empowered voice and a desire for personal possessions, thing that she can call her own: Esperanza’s “power is her own (Cisneros 89).” Cisneros discusses two important themes: maintaining one’s own power and challenging the cultural and social expectations one is supposed to fulfill. Esperanza’s mission to create her own identity is manifest by her decision to not “lay (her) neck on the threshold waiting for the ball and chain (Cisneros 88).” Cisneros’ rough language and violent images of self-bondage reveal the contempt with which Esperanza views many of her peers whose only goal is to become a wife. To learn how to guard her power

Lazarillo de Tormes is a famous work of Spanish literature published anonymously. The novel is written in the first person. Lazarillo de Tormes is known as a picaresque novel in that the novel is written about a character of the lower-class instead of a hero or upper-class character. The novel has several themes, but the theme that is constant throughout the novel is appearance versus reality. The author utilizes several rhetorical devices in the novel which add emphasis to the story. The novel, which was banned by the Spanish Crown during the time of the Spanish inquisition, is the story of the birth and life Lazarillo de Tormes as he serves various masters and his struggle for survival. His struggles are real. Many of the rhetorical devices serve to add humor to the novel as well.

The story illustrates the overlapping influences of women’s status and roles in Mexican culture, and the social institutions of family, religion, economics, education, and politics. In addition, issues of physical and mental/emotional health, social deviance and crime, and social and personal identity are

. . one can’t help but wonder what form the author/protagonist’s life will take in the aftermath of his exorcism” (261). In this quote, Gonzales-Berry asserts that Miguel Chico’s has been exonerated of his repression through the art of writing. As stated by Marquez, serving as an inner historian has provided Miguel Chico a different perspective on life. Moreover, Gonzales-Berry’s curiosity is insightful because now that Miguel Chico has released his repression, he can now enjoy what he was encouraged to repress—his body. Lastly, in the article, “Sinners Among Angels, or Family History and the Ethnic Narrator in Arturo Islas’s The Rain God” written by David Rice, adheres to the idea of repression as he writes, “Through his vision of Felix’s return, Miguel Chico realizes that the family can only be saved if it is reconnected to the past which it represses and denies” (184). In this quote, Rice claims that the Angel family suffers from repression. His viewpoint is coming from the inner historian—Miguel Chico—as Marquez refers in his article. He refers to the salvation of the Angel family because the burden of their past is preventing the family from living their lives, hence not function as a family. In order to proceed, Rice suggests that the Angel family must acknowledge the past and learn to accept it.

Although prostitution may be one of the world’s oldest professions to this day it is seen as a degrading and disrespectful career especially when regarding female prostitutes. In Chronicle of a Death Foretold, the town is very critical and strict about chastity and premarital sex. Maria Alejandrina Cervantes is the town madam which by society’s standards makes her to most marginalized, but ironically she is not brought down by her society’s rules. Gabriel Garcia Marquez uses characterization and irony to demonstrate Maria Alejandrina Cervantes’s contradictory role and to develop the theme of going against society in Chronicle of a Death Foretold.

Miguel Cervantes’ Don Quixote is a masterpiece in many senses of the word: at the time of its conception, it was hailed as a revolutionary work of literature that defined a genre, in later centuries regarded as an acerbic social commentary, a slightly misshapen romantic tragedy, and even as a synthesis of existentialist and post-modernist features. At the centre of this Spanish satirical chronicle is the perplexing character Don Quixote. Don Quixote’s personality and perspective is rapidly established fromsince the beginning of the novel, revealing unabashedly to readers that he is mad. The source of his madness lies in the extent to which Don Quixote acts on his delusions and projections unto reality as he saunters through Cervantes’ Andalusia. Don Quixote’s delusions have two primary functions in the novel: demonstrating the reality and tragedy of Cervantes’ manifestation of idyllic themes of love and chivalry, and revealing certain characteristics about narration.

In Mexico, men and women are equal in the eyes of the law. However, the man is head of the family. Mexicans use two types of cultural representations to separate the male and female gender roles. The male role is defined by machismo, which is described as violence, power, aggressiveness, and assertive behaviors in sexual situations. For the female role, Mexicans use the Virgin of Guadalupe as an icon. This virgin represents the suffering and sacrifice that women have to make daily for their families. She also represents the submissive, but virtuous woman that Mexican women strive to be. While some still follows these gender roles, the cultural is transforming with urbanization and the roles are shifting (“Mexico”, n.d.)

“‘I would walk into town to see what the uproar was about, and this is what I would see: just what we’re seing now. Nothing. No one. The streets as empty as they are now” (41). The streets are always empty in Comala. It has been left completely to ruin and is now inhabited only by the spirits of those who once lived here. But even spirits must have a reason for staying and not going on to heaven? In following with the Catholic faith, the people of Comala must wait in purgatory, the “‘Refuge of Sinners’” until they have repaid the sins they have committed (16). The town is a hotbed of sinning, the very “image of damnation”, it is said “‘That town sits on the coals of the earth, at the very mouth of hell. They say that when people from there die and go to hell, they come back for a blanket’” (52, 6). The instances in which people are actually able to get out are few and far between, as seen by the quote “‘they’ve gone so far that it’s easier not to come back. He’s been trying and trying to leave, and I think this is the time’” (56). This is owing to the abject poverty of the town, leaving people unable to pay their tithes in order to make it to heaven. These poor soulds are not even kept in remembrance, so they may never reach heaven. As their descendants remark “‘we don’t even make the effort to pray for them anymore, to help them out of their purgatory’” (52).

The critical nature of Santiago’s relationship with Victoria Guzmán allows Márquez to satirize the servant-master and patriarchal complexes present in his portrayed culture. The sexual relationship between Ibrahim Nasar and Victoria Guzmán, parallels that of the relationship between Santiago Nasar and Divina Flor and highlights the social constructs and environment, which reduced Victoria Guzmán into servitude through the juxtaposition of the aforementioned combative personalities of Victoria Guzmán and Santiago. Márquez is successful in the sense that he can create a social commentary on the portrayed Arabic and Columbian cultures while still maintaining false objectivity by inserting variation into separate accounts. Márquez’s uses periphrasis, syntax, and chronological divisions between chapters to subdue overt comparison between the portrayed values of Columbian culture and its societal norms with the conflicting relationship of Victoria Guzmán and Santiago Nasar, effectively shrouding his commentary.

Far in the distance, the faint chewing sound of people taking their first bites into their carne asada tacos, the loud, sharp clinks of tequila glasses, and the hoarse bangs of a piñata being beaten all come hand in hand, representing a Mexican celebration in La-La Land or also known as the city of Los Angeles. The city has been nicknamed “La-La Land” due to its recognition of being a place full of fun and out of touch with reality. For the past several decades, the city of Los Angeles has increasingly become a Latino city as they hosted countless festivals to celebrate the Mexican cultural holidays such as Cinco de Mayo, El Dia de Los Muertos and etc. In the book, The Labyrinth of Solitude, Octavio Paz discusses the generalization of Mexicans and emphasizes the idea of them preferring to be placed in solitude due to their fear of intimacy. The book even discusses the roles of a Mexican fiesta and cultural aspects of the Latino culture. By having Mexican holidays celebrated in Los Angeles, the city has become more invested into the Latino culture with the adoption of its cultural belief of death and celebrations techniques, which include excessively drinking, usage of guitars, letting off fireworks and celebratory gunshots.