Final post for Ihum260

In my Latin American Humanities class this semester we studied many texts that were really interesting to me. I enjoyed a lot of them, but there were others that were less interesting to me. However, all of these texts contributed to my understanding of Latin America and its peoples and cultures. One of my favorite texts that we read was The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros.

            In the short novel Cisneros explores the Latin community and experiences in Chicago through a young protagonist named Esperanza. I enjoyed reading about Esperanza’s experiences because I felt like I could compare the similarities and differences of her childhood and my own. There were many things that Cisneros wrote about that I felt I could relate to. Some of Esparanza’s experiences mimicked my own experiences in elementary school. However, some of her other experiences were much more intense and mature than things that I experienced during my childhood. Through reading about these events in Esperanza’s life I better understood and appreciated the shelter and comfort of my own childhood lifestyle.

            Another element of Cisneros’ novel that I really enjoyed is her writing style. She narrates in a fun, poetic way. The novel is divided up into short chapters, ranging from one paragraph to about five pages long. Each of these chapters reads like its own short story, but strung together they all contribute to the plot which centers around the growth into adolescence of the protagonist, Esperanza. This writing style made the reading go by really quickly. It also made it seem more fun, and it brought a childish light to the narration.

            Ultimately, Cisneros was able to create a story that could be interpreted differently by each individual reader depending on their age and experiences. The book is probably appropriate for junior high aged students, but is also intellectually enlarging at the collegiate level. 

Redemption via attachment

In the arts, it is common for producers, artists, and authors to create a character who redeems another character, or possibly an entire society. These Christ figures are willing to give up their own lives by taking someone else’s punishment upon them. They are willing to suffer because of the attachment they have created with the other character who they sacrifice themselves for. Out of love and compassion they would rather suffer themselves than see their loved one suffering. This is the ultimate level of attachment.

In Patricia Riggen’s  film, Bajo La Misma Luna, Enrique saves Carlitos by throwing his coffee at the police. Although this ensures Enrique’s capture, it gives Carlitos the opportunity to run away and ultimately find his mother. Enrique knows that one of them will be captured, tortured, interrogated, and deported, but he does not want it to be Carlitos.

Similarly, in the Hunger Games, Katniss is willing to take her sister Prim’s place as the District 12’s tribute because she loves Prim and desires to protect her. When Prim’s name is chosen Katniss immediately declares, “I volunteer as tribute!” (Collins, The Hunger Games). Katniss knows that she will probably die, but is willing to offer her own life in exchange for Prim’s.

Although both of these characters suffer immensely from the sacrifice they make, they offer redemption and protection to the other characters that they love, Prim and Carlitos. Without the sacrifice of Enrique Carlitos would have been deported to Mexico, and if Katniss had not volunteered Prim would have been forced to participate in the Hunger Games and surely would have been killed.

When these characters give up their lives on behalf of their loved one’s they become the heroes of these films. Perhaps many authors and screenwriters choose to include a character who offers redemption to another in their works to illustrate the power of a secure attachment. Humans rely on attachment; they need to be loved nurtured and cared for. When their attachment with another person is completely secure they are willing to do anything for them—even give their own life.

Brotherly envy

"I am an ugly daughter. I am the one nobody comes for. Nenny says she won't wait her whole life for a husband to come and get her, that Minerva's sister left her mother's house by having a baby, but she doesn't want to go that way either. She wants things al on her own, to pick and choose. Nenny has pretty eyes and it's easy to talk that way if you are pretty" (Cisneros, 88).

Esperanza, the protagonist in The House on Mango Street, expresses envy over her sister’s beauty and attitude in this passage. Esperanza is described as “skinny” and homely looking through out the novel, and she feels her mother prefers her younger sister. Esperanza believes “it’s easy to talk that way when you’re pretty”. She thinks that her younger sister will be able to achieve more in life because she is more beautiful. Future accomplishments are perceived by beauty rather than skill. One other example of  the envy between siblings is found in a simple written by Shel Silverstein, “Wastebasket Brother”:

Someone put their baby brother
Under this basket– –
The question is exactly why,
But I’m not going to ask it.
But someone, I ain’t sayin’ who,
Has got a guilty face,
Ashamed for lettin’ such a lovely brother
Go to waste.

It's clear to the reader that this poem’s speaker has tortured their younger brother by placing him under a wastebasket. Ironically, the speaker refers to his brother as “lovely”, suggesting that he is likely jealous of the way his parents admire their younger child. Although both the speaker and his brother are innocent children, this relationship may be a contributing factor in leading these characters  away from the innocence of childhood.

Each of these authors uses the frustrations caused by younger siblings to connect to the reader’s own childhood experiences. Although Esperanza experiences a lifestyle very different from the “typical” American child, Cisneros illustrates that there are some experiences that are experienced universally in childhood. Older siblings often feel outshined by their younger brothers and sisters. It is not an experience unique to one culture, language, or country. The House on Mango Street also shows that the transition from adolescence to experience is marked with other experiences that are globally essential to growing up. Esperanza experiences for the first time death, envy, learning, temptation, feeling alone, frustration, heartache, being misunderstood, and setting goals like any other adolescent. Although each individual transitions from child to adult through unique and personal circumstances, authors describe circumstances which resonate with the reader’s own memories.  

Healing brought about by combining cultures

“I knew I had witnesses a miraculous thing, the appearance of a Pagan god, a thing as miraculous as the curing of my Uncle Lucas. And I though, the power of God failed where Ultima’s worked; and then a sudden illumination of beauty and understanding flashed through my mind. This is what I had expected God to do at my first holy communion! If God was witness to my beholding of the golden carp then I had sinned!” (Anaya, 119).

In the novel, Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya, the protagonist, Antonio, is torn between two cultures. His mother and father each want something different for him, and they each have a separate set of beliefs. Antonio’s mother is a devout Catholic, but his father believes in the Pagan God, Cico, the golden carp. Antonio is gifted, spiritually sensitive, and can see the good in both of these belief systems. However, he has not yet decided which one to associate more closely with.

The Golden Carp

Antonio’s struggle with deciding which identity is best for him reminded me of a short story I read for a course called Coming to America last year. One of the texts I studied as part of that class was a short story called “Gussuk” by Mei Mei Evans. In the story the protagonist, Lucy, leaves her home to spend the summer working as a nurse in a secluded Eskimo community in Alaska called Kigiak. The story is about whether Lucy can break free of her identity as a Gussuk (Eskimo slang for a white person) and become something else. Her realm is in the middle of the traditional American society that she grew up in and the Eskimo world she has thrust herself into. Unfortunately, at the end of the story it is evident that Lucy does not seem to fit in in either community yet the community suffers more than she does when she is forced to leave.

a photo of a rural Alaska town perhaps like Kigiak

Both Evans and Anaya use the pains of not belonging to either one of two cultures to demonstrate the development of their protagonists. Yet, each of these protagonists brings redemption and development to their society. Lucy is a nurse who cares for the ill in Kigiak, and Antonio saves his uncle through suffering. So there is an inherent danger in casting either of them out because it will bring death. They, through their mixed cultural experiences offer valuable physical healing to each of these communities. 

Carnivalesque Construction

“…Negro was the chef, with an ermine tail on his cap, who was receiving a deer borne on the shoulders of several villagers led by the master huntsman; those hussars curvetting about the riding ring were Negroes; that high steward, with a silver chain around his neck, watching, in the company of the royal falconer, the rehearsals of Negro actors in an outdoor theater, was a Negro; those footmen in white wigs, whose buttons were being inspected by a butler in green livery, were Negroes, and, finally, Negro, good and Negro, was that Immaculate Conception standing above the high altar of the chapel, smiling sweetly upon the Negro musicians who were practicing a Salve” (Alejo Carpentier, Kingdom of This World”, pg. 108-109).

In this passage Alejo Carpentier describes a role reversal between blacks and whites. Black people appear to have taken on the roles of the elite whites in Haiti. They are completely reversed. Yet, there is something about the description which seems surreal.  Even the Savior is depicted as having black skin in the painting described in the scene. The setting is even described just like the streets of Europe, even though everyone knows it is really in Haiti.

Another example of the “Carnivalesque Structure” is found in the popular movie “She’s the Man”. The concepts of carnival are evident throughout the movie, but they are most prominent in the actual carnival scene (unfortunately I could not find a clip of this scene online so I included the trailer instead). The protagonist, Viola Hastings is pretending to be her brother, Sebastian Hastings. Just like when Carpentier describes black people in white people’s roles it is obvious to the reader (audience) that Viola is not actually a boy. Yet, for the characters in the movie it is a completely believable scenario. Both Sebastian and Viola are supposed to attend the charity event for their mom’s organization, which happens to be a carnival. Throughout the scene Viola is forced to change back and forth between her actual identity and her disguise as Sebastian over and over again. She changes outfits in a few interesting places, which further develop the carnival concepts, they include a spinning ride and a children’s bouncy house. Ultimately Viola’s changing identities lead to a fistfight between her ex-boyfriend and roommate and cause a disaster at the carnival, which causes major chaos.

Perhaps this author and director choose to include recurring “carnivalesque structures” in their works to reveal something about the societies that they feature. They may be trying to prove that when one steps out of their status quo role in society, they will inevitably bring chaos to their world. When one tries to be something they are not, even if it is for a good reason, tumult follows, but order is always restored.