Alvarez's Essay Imagining Motherhood

Enrique’s mother’s decision of leaving couldn’t have been any worse, “She walks away. Donde esta mi mami? Enrique cries, over and over. Where is my mom? His mother never returns, and that decides Enrique’s fate” (Nazario 5). His mother leaving without saying a word to him was heartbreaking because he had no idea she was leaving forever. Enrique became unhappy and had to grow up with this feeling inside him which later caused him to make poor decisions. Being left by his mother, Enrique had to stay with his grandma and “every year on Mother’s day, he [made] a heart shaped card at school and [pressed] it into her hand. “I love you very much grandma”… but she is not his mother” (Nazario 12). The growing love for his grandma caused him to consider her as his mother. Since Enrique was young and didn’t understand why his mother had left him, he blamed her for not being there for him. Nazario hopes to persuade readers to feel like they need to dwell on the topic of immigration and notice that it is still happening

Social concern and the prejudice of the society, as seen through the eyes of children, is another major theme which runs like a leitmotif in Matute’s tales, underling the poverty, the hierarchy based on relations of strength, the every day pain and agony provoked by lack of communication, indifference, loneliness-a portrait of a hard life described by Matute using her own experiences as a child while she was staying with her grandparents. The childrens’ world is divided in her stories in normal children and the others, ’de otras tierras,…que vivían en la parte vieja del pueblo’ y ‘que hablaban un idioma entrecortado, desconocido’. The society treats them like outsiders and this attitude of superiority is often embraced by children, (because they were told by the adults that the others are different), illustrating ‘the shock which the adult hypocrisy gives to youthful minds’. The acute consciousness of poverty and social division is remarkably portrayed by Mature through the images of the ‘other’ children who are rejected by the society because of their background and human condition. They are described as ‘chicos como al diablo, con los ojos oscuros y brillantes como cabezas de

At the start of “La Llorona Loca: The Other Side,” Palacios describes growing up when her mother would tell her scary stories about Llorona Loca. In the first paragraph we see a common theme or image found in the Latinx cannon: the image of motherhood and tradition. Palacios mother’s retelling follows the traditional narrative of La Llorona Loca retelling in which a woman, traditionally a mother, drowns her children and then feels remorse. Although many authors would choose to further develop on this image, Palacios through her reflection on her up brining demonstrates opposing views to the dominant ideology, in the way in which she critiques these societal expectations of women. As the story continues, Palacios articulates a critique of gender roles and expectations demonstrated through the following lines of her mothers La Llorona retelling:

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.

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

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

Currently Sandra Cisneros resides in San Antonio in a purple house and she describes herself as “nobody’s mother” and “nobody’s wife.” Both Frida Kahlo’s and Cynthia Y. Hernandez’s works convey the idea of having one’s culture limit one’s freedom and individuality. Cisneros and Esperanza are both victims of this idea and realize that the only way to live one’s life freely is to defy the roles and limitations created by one’s culture.

One thing all human beings have in common is the struggle for self identity. Children are raised by parents or guardians who have struggled and fought for their own identities. In many cases, parents are still trying to figure it out, while raising their own children. Such is the case with the characters in Junot Diaz’s, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. The theme of identity is conveyed through the characters’ Dominican culture, social standing, and in finding love. Oscar, Lola, and Yunior are three central characters in Oscar Wao, who’s Dominican cultural and familial expectations were major obstacles as they struggled to establish their identity.

One thing all human beings, have in common is the struggle for self identity. Children are raised by parents or guardians who have struggled and fought for their own identities. In many cases, parents are still trying to figure it out, while raising their own children. Such is the case with the characters in Junot Diaz’s, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. The theme of identity is conveyed through the characters’ Dominican culture, social standing, and in finding love. Oscar, Lola, and Yunior are three central characters in Oscar Wao, who’s Dominican cultural and family expectations were major obstacles as they struggled to establish their identity.

As the saying goes, “a woman’s work is never done,” but today’s women live a far different life than their predecessors. The women of the revolution were courageous and brave-hearted. The obstacles of their time were far more difficult to overcome than those faced by women in this day and age. Whether it was slavery, war, or racial prejudice, these women kept their heads held high and worked to break down these barriers and create change for the future. On top of having to deal with these hardships, the women of the revolution had families to take care of, mouths to feed, houses to clean, and wounds to heal. For many women of the revolution it was all about taking a stand for their rights and being

Thesis statement: Esperanza has a variety of female role models in her life. Many are trapped in abusive relationships, waiting for others to change their lives. Some are actively trying to change things on their own. Through these women and Esperanza’s reactions to them, Cisneros’ shows not only the hardships women face, but also explores their power to overcome them.

In a world in which abortion is considered either a woman's right or a sin against God, the poem "The Mother" by Gwendolyn Brooks gives a voice to a mother lamenting her aborted children through three stanzas in which a warning is given to mothers, an admission of guilt is made, and an apology to the dead is given. The poet-speaker, the mother, as part of her memory addresses the children that she "got that [she] did not get" (2). The shift in voice from stanza to stanza allows Brooks to capture the grief associated with an abortion by not condemning her actions, nor excusing them; she merely grieves for what might have been. The narrator's longing and regret over the children she will never have is highlighted by the change in tone

"The Mother," by Gwendolyn Brooks, is a sorrowful, distressing poem about a mother who has experienced numerous abortions. While reading the poem, you can feel the pain, heartache, distress and grief she is feeling. She is both remorseful and regretful; nevertheless, she explains that she had no other alternative. It is a sentimental and heart wrenching poem where she talks about not being able to experience or do things with the children that she aborted -- things that people who have children often take for granted. Perhaps this poem is a reflection of what many women in society are feeling.

There is only one person in our lives who loved and protected us from the moment that we born, our mothers. Thinking about that important person, Willie Perdomo wrote the poem “Unemployed Mami” in 2002 as part of the book “Postcards of El Barrio” (Poetry Foundation 2015). In “Unemployed Mami” and “Postcard of El Barrio” the author explores the culture, traditions and even the patriarchy that characterizes Puerto Ricans. Moreover, Perdomo shares the life of a son and the life of his beloved unemployed mother, in a time where women stayed at home without having a job, living from what their husbands earn. In order to enjoy and appreciate the content of this poem is important to discuss what it means, where it takes place and what it tells about

Baby suggs and Sethe are both the Mother figues in beloved and despite their suffering from slavery they both cared for their children greatly. Baby Suggs and Sethe connected through Motherhood to develop a close bond. They shared the love for their children a bond that all mothers can relate with. Sethe has four children that she loves very much but she could not deal with her past of sweet home. Sethe could not bare for that to happen to her children so she had to save them from the schoolteacher and slavery by trying to kill them. She kills one child whom is referred to as beloved for what is written on her tomb stone, but fails to kill howard buglar, and Denver. Sethe motherly natural instincts caused her