Woman Hollering Creek

The run-on sentences and fragments mirror the non-linear structure of the book, resembling an oral history of a Chicana community. Although the structure is relatively unconventional it is effective in portraying an oral tradition or perhaps a manifestation of memory. The voices of the characters almost seem to come alive in "Little Miracles, Kept Promises". The word orders of the little prayers mimicked Spanish grammatical rules and Cisneros seemed to create somewhat of a hybrid of both languages and perhaps create something that is neither Anglo-American or Mexican but instead, something that is identifiably Chicana.

The novel also demythisizes the typical Chicana image by portraying them as "the passive virgin, sinful seductress, and traitorous mother." (Wikipedia) Most of the anecdotal stories are told from the perspective of women and portray the men as misogynists. One of the few that are not told by women is "Los Boxers". A widowed husband has been seemingly domesticated after his wife's death. He discusses ice cubes as a miracle solution to all stains. It is interesting to read how he remembers his wife through seemingly mundane chores and how the wheels have turned and he has taken a more feminine role.

Los Boxers, along with most of the stories, seem to be a critique of marriage. The husbands all seem to have mistresses and at times have kids outside their marriage. With the protagonist of "Los Boxers", there seems to be a bit of ambiguity. He is telling the story instead of the wife.

Woman Hollering Creek

The book has a rather unusual structure. The stories seem to be chronologically compiled from childhood to adolescence and adulthood; however, each story has no explicit beginning or end. The stories open by identifying the main characters by their names and the protagonist seems to shift with every story. If the stories are told by the same narrator, she introduces herself indirectly through her tocaya. She seems to demarcate the borders by offering a birds-eye-perspective on her identity, negotiating her location between borders.
Cisneros seems to represent her position between Anglo and Mexican culture, “el otro lado- on the other side” by juxtaposing the Spanish words with the English words. Although she uses Spanish words once in awhile, I think this is the first time she placed them side by side.

I think it is interesting to see a book structurally similar to … y no se lo trago la tierra and find a poignant difference- the importance of naming stressed and how names function book. It reminds me of Who Would Have Thought It and how nearly all characters have names. Julie, the only surviving canary, symbolically trades places with Lavinia who ends up caged by the corruption of the ideological American dream.

I think Woman Hollering Creek and other stories ties all our reading together with its similarities with the other books.

Borders

I was in a film studies course prior to this class and I remembered one of the required reading was Michael Cieutat’s account on Mexican iconography. “On the one hand, there was a Mexican Catholic, subject to a harsh social hierarchy (from hidalgo to peon, crushed by tradition… on the other, the American Protestant on racial purity, rejecting miscegenation, unlike the Mexican who accepts the mestizo.”

Religion seems to be poignant issue regardless of the period in which the novel is set. Ruiz de Burton uses Catholicism to distinguish Spanish Catholics and Irish Catholics through Lola’s refusal to sleep beside Mrs. Norval’s Irish maid. The boy in Rivera’s novel seems to have a problematic relationship towards religion. Rivera juxtaposes images and ideas.

The novels also better informed me of Chicano history. The theory of Manifest destiny was reflected in Who Would Have Thought It? and migration seemed to be the pressing concern in ...y no se lo trago la tierra before it was published in the 1970s.

I have enjoyed the books we read so far. They constantly questioned the concept of borders and its fluidity. In my introduction, I had restricted myself in defining North American literature and in a way confined myself within a personal border. By reading Ruiz de Burton, Marti and Rivera, I now have a better understanding of North America in its entirety.

… y no se lo tragó la tierra

I was looking at the cover for quite awhile, trying to find the words to describe the book entirely. I started thinking that what appeared to be a dragon might actually be “el Diablo”. But I thought the devil did not come despite the boy calling him.

The book uses dialogue to portray events in the boy’s life. Dialogue with the unseen such as the devil, the ramble in the boy’s head and the conversations in the truck all seem to have a communicative effect that reaches beyond the conventional narrative. While I was reading “Cuando lleguemos”, I felt like I could almost hear the voices of the people in the truck. They resemble streams of consciousness. Their inner thoughts are so diverse yet limited to that of the adults only. The readers do not know what the children are thinking. The book has been told from the perspective of a young boy trying to understand the adult world. Like most things in this book, the dialogue seems to be confined within the minds of the adults. And through Rivera’s writing, their voice is heard.