Themes in Rain of Gold, by Victor Villasenor Essay

There were simply three great loves in Celia’s life: Pedro Knight, music and of course, Cuba. Celia’s love life has been a secret well kept by those close to her. Hectór Ramírez Bedoya revealed in his Historia de la Sonora Mantancera y sus estrellas (History of the Sonora Mantancera and its Stars, 1996); Celia was engaged for a while to Alfredo León, a young bass player and the son of Bienvenido León, member of the noted

In any Hispanic family, a few certain core values and traditions are kept up from generation to generation. A few of these values include being hospitable and showing respect, but there was always one value that was never explicitly stated that I could never really wrap my head around. That value was that women are to dedicate themselves to their husbands and assure that their husband is happy. In my mind, it partially made sense that in a marriage one is essentially “dedicating” themselves to their significant other

You can see how Maria’s El Salvador is empty of people, full only of romantic ideas. Jose Luis’s image of El Salvador, in contrast, totally invokes manufactured weapons; violence. Maria’s “self-projection elides Jose Luis’s difference” and illustrates “how easy it is for the North American characters, including the big-hearted María, to consume a sensationalized, romanticized, or demonized version of the Salvadoran or Chicana in their midst” (Lomas 2006, 361). Marta Caminero-Santangelo writes: “The main thrust of the narrative of Mother Tongue ... continually ... destabilize[s] the grounds for ... a fantasy of connectedness by emphasizing the ways in which [Maria’s] experience as a Mexican American and José Luis’s experiences as a Salvadoran have created fundamentally different subjects” (Caminero-Santangelo 2001, 198). Similarly, Dalia Kandiyoti points out how Maria’s interactions with José Luis present her false assumptions concerning the supposed “seamlessness of the Latino-Latin American connection” (Kandiyoti 2004, 422). So the continual misinterpretations of José Luis and who he really is and has been through on Maria’s part really show how very far away her experiences as a middle-class, U.S.-born Chicana are from those of her Salvadoran lover. This tension and resistance continues throughout their relationship.

Cleofilas feels that she could not do much, but becomes hopeful about her situation. For instance, Cleofilas has to remind herself why she loves her husband when she is changing the baby’s Pampers, or when she is mopping the bathroom floor, etc. (Cisneros,1991, p.249). Cisneros emphasizes that many women who are controlled and abused often feel that they need to remind themselves why they married their husbands. Cisneros points out that when you love someone you should not have to ask yourself why, or worry so much about getting hurt.

Clo grew up in a time when the gender roles for Mexican women were more traditional and her father really only expected her to get married and not much else. Her father actually arranged for her to be married to a wealthy man that was her father’s age. All Clo wanted to do was go to art school in Paris but her father ignored her pleas. On the day of the wedding, Clo came down the stairs naked and embarrassed her father so much so that he sent her away to the art school in Paris with money to help keep her away.

Lupe feels that she needs a baby to giver her lover and attention and she thinks this will make her life complete. Lupe says “I should make a baby of my own. Maybe that’s the answer… And she would love me better than anybody. Because I was her mother”(36). This quote shows how much Lupe believes that a baby would show her the love that she wants. Towards the end of the novel, Lupe has totally turned around the way she thinks about her future. Lupe says, “Mr. Ward says if I keep pulling up all my other grades they way I’ve pulled up my grade in English, I should be able to get into a decent college when I graduate that’s what I’m planning on”(147). After all this happened Lupe finally realized she does not need a baby to feel loved. She needs a job and a good career to move forward with her

What is a family? How are families shaped and what effect do they have on society? In the United States a family consists of both parents, one’s self, siblings (biological or adoptive) and extended family members; however, this is not the case around the world. The concept of family and who is family changes in each culture, but is mostly centered around who is kin and who a person marries. Family, kin, and marriage are established through how society decides their lineage, which establishes cultural rituals within the society.

Family is what you make of it. It is who you are close to, who you have a connection to, even if you are not blood related. Family is people who you trust, people you can tell personal things to, or cry on their shoulder. I think everyone has an honorary family member(s). They are people who are always with you or someone you know very 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

The Mexican Revolution was a pivotal time in the country for government change; however, it was not just a governmental change during this time, but also societal. Women began to change their role in society. The story Like Water for Chocolate focuses on the youngest daughter of the De la Garza family, Tita, who by tradition is bound to take care of her mother till the day she dies, and because of this tradition she cannot marry. At the time this idea of self-sacrifice was the social norm and an obligation for Mexican women. “In the face of tradition, she is expected to sacrifice her own happiness and well-being for others” ("Like Water for Chocolate").

A family is seen as a group of people who are biologically or psychologically related. They connect on historical, emotional

According to the Dictionary of Contemporary English, a family is a group of people affiliated by consanguinity, formed by a father, a mother and children. On the other

In Patricia Elise Nelson’s thesis of 2008, “Rewriting Myth,” the writer beautifully explains her different perspectives on three types of Mexican myths: La Malinche, La Llorona, and La Virgen de Guadalupe. Mainly addressing her professors and other academics, she writes about myth, history, and culture. Although she speaks urgently about her opinions, her kairos is timeless because the myths still influence Latino culture today. She depicts the female archetype and how Mexican Americans are “categorized” by these roles as women. Using Gloria Anzaldúa’s La Frontera, she describes the three roles in Chicana literature: La Malinche is the mother who has been abandoned, La Llorona is the mother who looks for her children —a combination of La Malinche and La Virgen— and La Virgen is the virginal, holy mother of all who has not left her people. However, the specific paragraph I chose details the sexualization of La Malinche. As a historical figure, she is known as the Mayan translator for Hernán Cortés, a Spanish conquistador. She was also the love interest of the conquistador and mother of the first mestizo child. Mythically, people view her as a traitor to her native race. The author uses historical evidence, poetic devices, influential testimonials, and word choice to enhance her logos, ethos, and then a combination of both, convincing her audience about how the myth of La Malinche focuses on her relationship with Cortés.

A family can be defined in many ways, but the common denominator in all is the love and fulfillment one gets by being surrounded by family members. Families can sometimes be at odds with each other, but the strain of this type of relationship usually creates an upsetting feeling to the people involved. People want others to rely on, talk to, do things with, share, love, embrace, and be part of. No matter what the family dynamic is the qualities the word family has will remain the same, as time goes by, and life evolves once again for every person living their

According to Swartz and Scott (2009), family is defined as a group of people related to each other by blood, marriage, adoption or being sexually open in a relationship. The