Essay Rigoberta Menchu's Book

In her youth, Clemencia struggles with not knowing which social and economic class she belongs to or her place in the community. As she recalls her family history and the culture of her parents, the gap between her father and her mother as well as how each of them grew up explains the disappointment in her mother’s marriage as neither parent meets the expectations and traditions they established and witnessed in youth. One statement the mother uses to describe the father is “Calidad. Quality” and even as her mother advises against marrying a Mexican, Clemencia manages to become involved with a man with an ego much like her father and she even speaks of his house and wardrobe just like her mother, as “Calidad. Quality” (Cisneros 81). Like her mother during her marriage to her

Living in Mexico throughout her teen years was very rough. Unlike other teenagers where their parents constantly provide for their children, Marisela’s life was a lot different than the usual parent- child relationship. She lived with her Abuela ( Grandma) Lupe, along with her 3 brothers and sister. She constantly had to take care of her brothers and sister at such a young age, that she became the mother-like figure of the

In this essay, female oppression in La Casa de Bernarda Alba will be discussed and analyzed. However, in order to be able to understand the importance of this theme and the impact it has had on the play, one must first understand the role of female oppression in the Spanish society in the 1930s.

Sandra Cisneros has been criticized by many for her depiction of Mexican Americans in her novel The House on Mango Street. Critics claim that Cisneros portrayal of Mexican Americans sustains an image of negative stereotypes. Those negative stereotypes being men who are dominating over women and women who are submissive. Throughout Cisneros’ story we meet many characters who are portrayed as the critics claim – in a way that suggests the dominance men have over the home and the family. Despite this, I believe this representation is not ment to enhance those negative stereotypes, but to better heighten the feelings of oppression, otherness, and helplessness Esperanza has. One of the most prominent examples of the negative stereotypes being displayed

In “The House on Mango Street”, the young daughter desires to leave her neighborhood as a way to escape her Mexican-American culture. One of the cultures which are most powerful in this story is the Hispanic culture that Esperanza and all of her neighbors emerge from. Her Hispanic culture has such a powerful influence on her

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).

The chief character of the story is Clemencia. Clementia is a US born Mexican-American woman. As opined by Clemencia herself, she is “vindictive and cruel, and…capable of anything” (Cisneros 68). At the same time Clemencia is a victim of racial bias. Involved in an unhappy marriage, her mother exhorted, “Never marry a Mexican” (Cisneros 68) and at the end of the affair with her beloved Drew, he confesses he could “never marry a Mexican” (80). Thus, Clemencia is a perpetrator of racial bias towards men of a Hispanic descent, “I never saw them. My mother did this to me” (69), while being a victim of racial bias herself. Although middle-class, she flees the comforts of a middle class life to live in a lower-class Latino neighborhood and sells her art among the upper-class. Hence, she also feels like she is, “Amphibious…a person who doesn’t belong to any class” (71). Clemencia is also a betrayer of women. Feeling betrayed and abandoned by her mother for marrying an Anglo man and betrayed by her ex-lover for ending the affair, Clemencia seeks gratification through her affairs with married men. The overall theme of Never Marry a Mexican is overcoming racial stigmas and finding the beauty in humanity.

“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

In the Foreword, she brings the reader to a day in 1997, when her cleaning woman Carmen reveals that she has four children in Guatemala, whom she has not seen in twelve years. Nazario is stunned. She cannot understand how a mother could so walk away from her young children, but Carmen then presents a reality the author will soon investigate and know to be ordinary. Since the 1960s, untold numbers of Central American mothers, often abandoned by their husbands, come to America to take any work available (Nazario xiii). In the late 20th century, then, and as American women were entering the workforce more and more, supply met demand and the illegal immigrant mothers found work as house cleaners and nannies. As Carmen expresses, nonetheless, the distance is almost unbearable and these mothers intensely feel the distance from their children. As the novel also reinforces, the children similarly experience the pain of separation, which goes to another form of “immigration”; basically, and often at very young ages, they risk their lives to join their mothers. Most importantly, then, and as Nazario is further moved by the true tale of Carmen's son Minor, Enrique's Journey actually documents an ongoing situation based on inequality and injustice. The novel is then completely based on the realities researched by the

Some people don’t know the great and amazing place called Manchu Picchu, which is an old Inca building that many architects admire. Those people don’t know that thousands of tourists and visitors come to look at it, wonder about its past, and to reflect off of it. In source two, the author states that “A world heritage is a place that is amazing. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization support that Machu Picchu is a world heritage.” This shows the reader how important and stunning Machu Picchu was. In this essay we are going to talk about what was so amazing about Machu Picchu, how it affected the environment and how it inspired architects, and how and who made it.

These first moments exemplify the overwhelming cultural process by which Mexican Americans were supposed to reject their cultural origins and embrace "American" norms. Ms. Jimenez embodies the "Mexican de adentro" (class notes) image because she has become acculturated to the definition of an "American" while ignoring her Mexican roots. Though she claims not to speak Spanish, she turns to respond to Mr. Sancho when he says Oiga! which may suggest her suppression of the language but her true knowledge of it. "Spanish speaking citizens consider themselves socially superior to the immigrants and rather pride themselves on being Americans." (Vargas p.206) She is a symbol of a Mexican American "…[who] looks upon themselves as a real American and [who] cordially resents any accusation of lack of patriotism." (Vargas p.239) Unlike Emma Tenayuca, a courageous Chicana who struggled for the voices of her people to be heard and whose fights for the rights of pecan shellers were long and arduous, Ms. Jimenez embodies the opposite. She has no connections with her roots therefore she

The first theme of the book is the life of Carmen, “My mom was born in a place called Piedras Negras…a small town in Aguascalientes, Mexico…. I understand that my grandparents were very wealthy and had disowned her when she married my grandfather because of the class issue”(Romero 17). In this quote,

Rigoberta sees the manipulative ways that the rich capitalize on the poor. If not through sheer force and violence it’s through the overcharging of legal fees, underpay at the finca, and using the language barrier to their advantage. All these exploitive measures light the fire of hate in Rigobertas’ heart. She’s too disgusted to fear anymore and is no longer in acceptance of her passive role. All these new realizations and thoughts start cultivating a mind set of activism which is new to Rigoberta and is most definitely outside the box from which she was brought up to think inside.

Machu Picchu is a physical symbol of the culture that created it. It is located in the Andes Mountains in Peru, South America, high above the Urubamba River Canyon Cloud Forest. The Incan capital, Cuzco, the closest major city, is forty three miles northwest of this landmark. Machu Picchu is five square miles and eighteen square kilometers in size. This ancient civilization has an altitude of eight thousand feet and is surrounded by towering green mountains. Although covered in dense bush, it had many agricultural terraces that were sufficient enough to feed the population. Due to water from the natural springs as well as the agricultural terraces, it had the ability to be self-contained. Machu Picchu was created by the Inca culture for

enemies would be left to rot, but in his own reality, he is doing the only