The Role of Women in Latin American Cultures

When reading Dutiful Hijas: Dependency, Power, and Guilt By Erica Gonzalez Martinez, I immediately connected themes present in this work to the novel Chronicle of a Death Foretold by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.  In this novel Marquez conveys traditional Latin American cultural and social values through the character of Angela Vicario. Angela Vicario appears in the novel as a symbol for everything a woman should be in Latin American culture and society. In order to convey the values of honor, a woman’s role in society and in her family, and the importance placed on a woman’s virginity, Marquez uses the story of a baffling murder that tells the tale of how one woman’s virginity cost a man his life. The representation and the characterization of Angela Vicario in Chronicle of a Death Foretold provides an understanding of ways in which women were meant to act in Latin American culture, and how society treated them under an unequal gender system. Marquez’s characterization of Angela Vicario not only reflects the extent of women’s exploitation under this unequal gender system, but also reveals women’s subversions and resistances to this oppressive subjection. This completely parallels  the themes present in Dutiful Hijas: Dependency, Power, and Guilt as this work also focuses on traditional Latin American cultural and social values that focuses on the role of women in an inequal gender system, mentioning concepts such as marianismo, and using a family narrative to get a sense of what being a women in Latin American culture entailed.

Martinez introduces traditional cultural concepts such as marianismo to allow her readers to get a sense of what your life as a women in Latin American culture would be succumbed to. "Marianismo is the crux of our existence ... Using the Virgin Mary as a point of reference marianismo defines women as obedient servants who "happily" sacrifice themselves for everyone else's good. ... "Do not forget a women's place, do not be single and self-supporting or independent minded. Do not put your own needs first. Do not wish for more in life than being a housewife."" (Martinez, 145) With this quote Martinez describes aspects of her culture that have been imprinted in her since birth, and that she has been raised to accept as a woman: the ideal women that one had to become being raised a girl in a traditional Latin American family. Reading this particular quote automatically made me think of a certain quote from Chronicle of a Death Foretold, "The brothers were brought up to be men. The girls had been reared to get married. They knew how to screen embroidery, sew by machine, weave bone lace, wash and iron, make artificial flowers and fancy candy, and write engagement announcements.” (Marquez 31) This is what the women were to succumb to. They were brought up in a society that viewed marriage as the most important thing in a woman’s life. From the day they were born, when it was revealed that they would come into this world as girls, they would be prepared for marriage, and throughout their years as infants, and children, until the day would come when they would finally be seen as young women, they would be sculpted and perfected into the ideal-enough woman for any man. Through the character of Angela Vicario, Marquez flawlessly presents the exploitation of women in Latin American society. The character of Angela Vicario is almost a symbol for what Martinez could have become had she not chosen a different route for herself becoming an advocate for feminism.

Is "Arabic Religion" A Thing?

               What I found interesting about "It's Not an Oxymoron: The Search for an Arab Feminism" by Susan Mauddi Darraj was the fantastic points made about the undeniable ignorance of Western society on the Arab culture and the Islamic religion, and how extremely spot on it was about the treatment of Arab Americans. The author touched on many issues facing Arab Americans, particularly women, some of these being horrendous racism after 9/11 affecting Muslim individuals, or anybody of Arab, or Middle Eastern descent, or basically anyone that "looked" Muslim. This idea of "looking" Muslim always fascinated me as many Americans seem to believe that they can pinpoint someone who practices the religion Islam simply by how they look. This brings up the topic of blatant and ignorant racism that people that simply look a certain background face constantly, but more importantly the extremely ignorant matter of fact that people can not seem to distinguish between culture, and religion. People often times say things such as "The Arabic culture," "The Arabic religion," "The Muslim culture," "The Islamic culture," and many more blatantly incorrect terms that fuse together a certain culture, and language (as Arabic is a language not a culture) with a certain religion. The author also touched on this when she mentioned that because she was Arab, many people instantly assumed she was Muslim but she was in fact an Arab Christian. It is this ignorant view that if you're Muslim you must be Arab and if you're Arab, you have to be Muslim that broadcasts the ignorance of today's society. People do not realize that although Islam is the prominent religion in the Middle East, and Northern African Arab countries, Islam is also a prominent religion in many parts of Asia, different parts of Africa. and across the world, however people still associate Islam with only one culture, as well as a certain "Muslim look."As mentioned before this concept of "looking Muslim," always baffled me. No one would ever say that there is such a thing as "looking Christian," however individuals with any form of a long beard, a darker complexion, and even wearing a turban which is a custom of a completely different religion of Sikhism, are constantly targeted and harrassed, being called Muslim terrorists because they look a certain way. I for one find this overt ignorance horrific and dangerous.
                Another point that Darraj mentions in "It's Not an Oxymoron: The Search for an Arab Feminism" that I related to in an instant was the absolute need for women of Western cultures to "save" Muslim women who choose to veil themselves in honor to their religion and their God. Western women consider this an act of "feminism" which contradicts the sole meaning of the word entirely. Seeing women who practice their religion in wearing the Hijab as oppressed and voiceless is honestly nothing more than an absolute joke, and calling it an act of feminism is nothing more than a nonsensical attempt to cover up extremely close-minded and ethnocentric beliefs by pretending that they want to help these women. Feminism is defined as the advocacy of women's rights on the grounds of political, social, and economic equality to men, but what many Western women seem to forget is that feminism applies to women of all cultures, religions, and races. Why is it that in choosing to veil oneself, one automatically loses the right to call themselves a feminist? It seems as though feminism has lost all meaning to the word as it no longer focuses on equal rights for all women but instead introduces a sort of hierarchy between women. As if the hierarchy between men and women wasn't enough, now women of Western cultures are using feminism as a poor excuse to justify their close-minded and racist ideals of not being able to accept someone unless they are exactly like them. Women are so focused on "saving" these poor oppressed souls, that they completely dismiss the religious aspect of wearing the Hijab and the strength that it gives to these women to know that they can cover their bodies and let their beauty shine through from their souls. When did the way someone dresses become a means for feminism? I was led to believe that it was exactly this, men thinking they were entitled in telling women what they should, which was why we needed feminism.