Women Hollering Creek Woman

Common stereotypes about women in the Mexican-American culture include that women are uneducated, good housewives, and very fertile. Many parents still believe it’s the woman’s job to stay home and be the homemaker. The concept of gender, which is socially constructed, is reinforced since birth. (Sociology Lecture 08/24/2015) Ana was caught in the middle of gender politics. Her mother oppressed her daughter so she can become a grandmother. The film “Real Women Have Curves” deals with gender stereotypes and struggles of poor women living in East LA. Carmen was trying to have Ana chained to the notion of women being inferior to men. Carmen believed men to be superior, whereas Ana thought differently. However Ana strived to liberate herself from traditional cultural norms by pursuing her college education. Her mother’s negative influence only caused Ana to rebel.

Women in a typical Hispanic culture usually desire an image they want or expect based on the media. For example, when it comes to relationships the media portrays the ideal image of a marriage and then women have an expectation, as in the short story “Woman Hollering Creek” , by Sandra Cisneros. Cleofilas, the Protagonist, moves from her known household in Mexico to Seguin, Texas to get married to Juan Pedro. Her hometown in Mexico is very similar to where she is now in Seguin. Cleofilas meet two people in the neighborhood, Dolores and Soledad, who depended on their husbands for everything so when they lost their husbands it had a major impact on them. On the other hand, Cleofilas also meet two other women that are completely different from Dolores and Soledad because Felice and Graciela do not have to depend on men for anything. In addition, Felice and Graciela have a huge impact in Cleofilas’ life because they are able to help her escape her miserable marriage. Cleofilas bases her whole life on a Mexican romantic telenovela, but instead her whole marriage is a catastrophe because her husband abuses her. In Cleofilas new town there is a creek called “Woman Hollering Creek” that runs from her new hometown to the city. The creek has a symbolic meaning for all the women that she meet throughout her journey of realisation because her whole life is based on it being like a telenovela, but at the end it all changes. Cleofilas realises her life would not be like a telenovela and

In the story "Woman Hollering Creek" Sandra Cisneros discusses the issues of living life as a married woman through a character named Cleofilas; a character who is married to a man who abuses her physically and mentally .Cisneros reveals the way the culture puts a difference between a male and a female, men above women. Cisneros has been famous about writing stories about the latino culture and how women are treated; she explain what they go through as a child, teen and when they are married; always dominated by men because of how the culture has been adapted. "Woman Hollering Creek" is one of the best examples. A character who grows up without a mother and who has no one to guid and give her advise about life.

Social standards may confine individuals from pursuing their own personal interests. Through the relationship between societal standards and individual interests, Sandra Cisneros’ short story, “Woman Hollering Creek,” introduces the roles of men and women in a Hispanic culture. The protagonist, Cleofilas Hernandez, is trapped in an abusive relationship with her newly-wed husband, Juan Pedro. However, Cleofilas tolerates the toxic relationship due to the social norms of her society, which reveals that the Hispanic culture revolves around a patriarchal society and that women have to be submissive to their husbands. As the story progresses, Cleofilas abandons the gender norm to lead an independent lifestyle.

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

Women themselves perpetuate their inferiority; the author recounts a moment in her life when her emotional connection with her mother was interrupted abruptly by a telephone call from her brother. In this instance, the mother chose to speak with her son, the Chicano, over her daughter, the Chicana.

The book Woman Hollering Creek, by Sandra Cisneros highlights many examples of “everyday verbal mythology” in the Hispanic culture, literacy and language as sites of conflict build up. The violence in lack of translation, interpretation by translators, culture betrayal and existence of encoded language only familiar to insiders are some of the issues that seems not to appeal to the translators.

A Marriage and Culture with Abuse. Cisneros’ story in “Woman Hollering Creek” illustrates the following themes: marriage, culture, and abuse. Marriage and culture are something that cannot ignore from society. Most marriages and cultures in the world deal with abuse as the story described. The abusive behavior of Juan Pedro to Cleofilas in their marriage and culture lead to their separation in marriage and Cleofilas's freedom.

In the story “Woman Hollering Creek” Sandra Cisneros explains the journey Cleofilas takes to escape her abusive husband, physically and emotionally. At the beginning of the story Cleofilas thought life was about finding your true love and living happily ever after. Then when she moved away, and her husband started beating her she realized life was more than living like this. The theme of the story is the feeling of disaffection or self-displacement. Cisneros uses the character Cleofilas to heighten the theme of the story. Cleofilas struggles to leave her husband, Juan because she feels that her father wouldn’t allow her to come back. At the end of the story she gets tired of the abuse and plans to

Cisneros’ family bounced back and forth between Mexico and the United States for most of her youth, which led to firsthand experience in the difficulties of growing up as a multicultural person (Doyle. 54-55). As an adult, she settled in San Antonio, Texas, but that feeling of not belonging to either culture never left her. She drew on this feeling as inspiration for many works, including “Woman Hollering Creek,” a short story about a Mexican woman, named Cleofilas, brought to live in the United States by her new husband. She is excited to leave her lazy brothers and old-fashioned father behind, and dreams of the endless possibilities that

The story “Woman Hollering Creek" by Sandra Cisneros describes the lives of Mexicans in a Chicago neighborhood. She depicts the life that women endure as Latino wives through her portrayal of the protagonist, Cleofilas. For Cisneros being a Mexican-American has given her a chance to see life from two different cultures. In addition, Cisneros has written the story from a woman’s perspective, illustrating the types of conflicts many women face as Latino wives. This unique paradigm allows the reader to examine the events and characters using a feminist critical perspective.

Stereotypes are dangerous weapons in our society. “The Myth of the Latin Woman: I Just Met a Girl Named Maria” is a short essay in which the award winning poet and professor of English, Judith Ortiz Cofer, wishes to inform and persuade the audience that labels and stereotypes can be humiliating and hurtful. The author targets the general public, anyone that doesn’t understand that putting someone in a box because of a stereotype is wrong. Cofer starts out the essay by telling the reader a story with a drunk man who re-enacted “Maria” from the West Side Story, and how angry that made her feel. She continues by explaining how she grew up in the United States being a Puerto Rican girl trying to fit in, but always being labeled as an island girl. Cofer carries on by explaining why Latin people get dressed and act a certain way. Then she recalls some more stereotypical incidents.

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.

The narrative, “Only daughter”, by Sandra Cisneros, describes the hurdles that she needed to overcome in-order to be acknowledged by her family and peers. Within the Mexican culture, girls are considered second class and have

“Woman Hollering Creek,” a short story by Sandra Cisneros, tells of Cleófilas, a Mexican woman, brought to the U.S. as a young bride. During her brief marriage to Juan Pedro, Cleófilas must confront her changing beliefs about marriage and love. Cleófilas fantasizes about marriage as a passionate love affair, but instead finds her own marriage to be mundane, restrictive, and at times violent, finally discovering her strength to escape and return to Mexico.