Transcript Slide 1

It is my experience
that the myths we
enter most deeply
are not ones that we
choose out of some
book of myths.
Rather, in some
profound way, these
myths choose us.
Christine Downing
Sandra Cisneros
1954-
Best known for her novel The
House on Mango Street. Much of
her writing is influenced by her
Mexican-American heritage. She
draws heavily upon her childhood
experiences and ethnic heritage as
the daughter of a Mexican father
and Chicana mother, addressing
poverty, cultural suppression,
self-identity, and gender roles in
her fiction and poetry.
Creating characters who are
distinctly Latina/o and often
isolated from mainstream
American culture, emphasizing
dialogue and sensory imagery over
traditional narrative structures.
Cisneros seeks to create an idiom
that integrates both prosaic and
poetic syntax.
Setting
The short story “Woman
Hollering Creek” is set in
Seguin, Texas where the
actual Woman Hollering
Creek runs under Interstate
10, north of San Antonio.
The origin of the creek’s
name is often associated with
the legend of La Llorona, the
spirit of a woman who is said
to haunt the area.
Role Models?
In “Woman Hollering Creek” Cisneros
juxtaposes the heroines of contemporary
Mexican telenovelas with the traditional
figure La Llorona to imply that then, now,
and always the ideals of femininity
that Mexican popular culture presents
to its women are models of pain and
suffering.
From “On Not Being La Malinche: Border Negotiations of Gender in Sandra
Cisneros’s ‘Never Marry a Mexican’ and ‘Woman Hollering Creek’” by Jean Wyatt
Borderlands
A borderland offers a space where such a negotiation
with fixed gender ideals is at least possible. Where
cultures overlap, definitions become fluid. Cisneros
draws attention to the shifting meaning of signifiers in
the border zone by using the same “border” phrase to
mean two different things: “en el otro lado” “on the
other side” can mean either the U.S. or Mexico,
shifting its referent according to where the speaker
stands. These borders can be literal or figurative
or both.
Borderlands critiques are those that examine texts
from this liminal perspective. (Wyatt, “On Not Being Malinche”.)
Three Icons:
Virgin, Whore, Mother
From what Chicana feminist
writers report, that Mexican social
myths of gender crystallize with
special force in three icons:
“Guadalupe: the virgin mother
who has not abandoned us,
la Chingada (Malinche): the raped
mother whom we have
abandoned, and la Llorona: the
mother who seeks her lost
children.” (Wyatt, “On Not Being Malinche”.)
The Legend of
La Malinche/La Llorona
Legend has it that La Malinche is the native woman who helped Cortés & the
Spanish defeat the Aztecs. The night before Cortés’ departure, La Malinche
escapes with her twin babies, whose father is Cortés. Cortés’ soldiers soon
discover her absence and set out after her. Upon arriving at the lake that Mexico
City now rests on, the soldiers surround La Malinche. Just as they are at the
brink of capturing her, she pulls out a dagger and stabs her babies in the heart,
dropping their lifeless bodies into the water. La Malinche lets out a heartwrenching cry, “Oh, hijos mios.” (Oh, my children.)
Up to the time of her death she is seen and heard near the lake weeping and
wailing for her children. She is given the name La Llorona, the crying woman.
She is most often seen on the night of a full moon, wandering the streets
wearing a white dress with a light veil covering her face. Her agonizing cries
terrorize everyone who sees or hears her.
Sightings of La Llorona spread throughout the most of the Americas with
people in each town/city/country believing she is local to their own area,
creating a powerful and passionate belief in this ghost.
La Malinche:
November 8, 1519. Facsimile (c. 1890)
Lienzo de Tlaxcala
‘Infamously described by Octavio Paz as “the
cruel incarnation of the feminine”
The poet Carmen Tafolla, directly challenged
Paz’s depiction of her as “la chingada” .
I became Interpreter, Advisor, and lover.
They could not imagine me dealing on a
level
with you—so they said I was raped, used,
chingada.
In reclaiming the historical figure of Malinche,
Chicana feminists rejected her stereotyped image
as the violated indigenous woman whose body
symbolized Mexico itself and instead repositioned
her as creator of “Mother world/ a world yet to be
born. …/la raza.”
Chicana feminists shifted the depictions of La
Llorona from her metaphorical relationship to the
land of Mexico to emphasize the gender and class
dynamics of her mythology. In these accounts,
she is reinterpreted as the prey of a Spanish man
who has rejected her to marry a woman of his own
status.’
(Text on this slide from La Malinche
by Michelle Moravec, “The Politics of Women’s Culture” at
http://historyinthecity.wordpress.com/about/artists-dohistory/venas-de-la-mujer/introduction/the-past-put-intochicanismo-perspective-images-of-the-chicana/la-llorona/)
Archetypes
According to Carl Jung, innate universal
psychic dispositions that form the base from
which the themes of human life emerge. Being
universal and innate, their influence can be
detected cross-culturally in the form of
myths, symbols, rituals and instincts of
human beings. Archetypes are components
of the collective unconscious and serve to
organize, direct and inform human thought
and behavior.
Modern Day Lloronas?
Is this an archetype for the
very real, very tragic
Post partum depression?
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Tina Marie Reynolds
Andrea Yates
Amanda Hamm
And way too many
more….
•http://www.lallorona.com/1modern.html
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“Weeping Women” of
Other Cultures?
Medea, Greek
Banshee, Irish
Lilith, Jewish
Lamia, Greek
Onryo, Japanese
Crying Wind, African
Woman in White, Philippines
Lady of Lake Ronkonkoma, Native American
These are just a few… there are many more…
Perhaps building on the archetype idea…how, then, can
claiming an archetype, even one that is inherently destructive,
•http://www.lallorona.com/1modern.html
be seen as empowering? Can it?
a Popular (fun) depiction…
Photo screenshot from Youtube video at this URL. 2004, aired in
California http://youtu.be/erhsuXTyDww
Llorando
• A more serious depiction…
Photo screenshot from Youtube video at this URL. From the movie Mulholland Drive,
2001 http://youtu.be/je6L2clZOGM
Another– really shows the cultural
tradition of the image
• From Grimm, Season 2.
Photo screenshot from Youtube video at this URL.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wyKFNUTnBc
From Supernatural, Pilot, Season 1.
Way scarier. Doesn’t call her La
Llorona, but that’s totally what she is.
•
Photo screenshot from Youtube video at this URL.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOC75rLgOAA
Costume, 2012
Controversy? Or cool?
“They're familiar characters in the debate over controversial Halloween
costumes: suicide bombers, geishas, gangsta rappers, rednecks and
sexy nurses.
Such costumes regularly draw allegations of racism, sexism or
insensitivity. But where do fully-clothed folk legends fit in?
...
True, she was wearing a lace bustier under a shawl, but the layers upon
layers make her appear more like the haunted bag lady than a sexy
spirit.
It's the folk legend's cultural significance -- and the lack of skin, save an
inch of midriff -- that, for some, make this costume more acceptable than
sexy señoritas or Mexican tequila guy.” From CNN: In Debate over
Offensive Halloween Costumes, Where's the Line?“
Writer Andrea Gompf argued: “We could probably argue about the
authenticity of La Llorona’s depiction, but I personally think it’s kind of
cool that they included her at all” (REMEZCLA).
Border Crossings
It can be argued that
Cleofilas must redefine
La Llorona in order to
redefine her own
possibilities as a woman
and a mother.
Do you think she is
successful at redefining
the roles offered to her?
How?
Works Cited
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Chalquist, Craig. “Introduction: The Tears of Llorona.”
http://www.terrapsych.com/introduction.html
Gompf, Andrea. “American Apparel Takes On La Llorona & Other Hispanic
Halloween Costumes.” REMEZCLA. http://www.remezcla.com/tag/la-llorona.
Grinberg, Emanuella. "In Debate over Offensive Halloween Costumes, Where's the
Line?"CNN. Cable News Network, 30 Oct. 2012. Web. 19 Feb. 2013.
http://www.cnn.com/2012/10/27/living/halloween-ethnic-costumes.
Moravec, Michelle. "The Politics of Women's Culture." The Politics of Womens
Culture. The Politics of Womens Culture, n.d. Web. 19 Feb. 2013.
http://historyinthecity.wordpress.com/ .
"Sandra Cisneros." eNotes Publishing. Ed. Scott Locklear. eNotes.com, Inc.,
. eNotes.com. 20 Feb, 2013 http://www.enotes.com/sandra-cisneros-reference-guide/
Santistevan, Bernadine. "The Cry: La Llorona." The Cry - La Llorona. N.p., n.d. Web.
19 Feb. 2013.
Wyatt, Jean. "On Not Being La Malinche: Border Negotiations of Gender in Sandra
Cisneros's 'Never Marry a Mexican' and 'Woman Hollering Creek,'" in Tulsa Studies in
Women's Literature, Vol. 14, No. 2, Fall, 1995, pp. 243-72.
Photo credits
(Where possible. Some photos are missing credits because they are unavailable on the
Internet where I initially found them).
• Slide 2: Cisneros: Vida En El Valle Blogs: The Latin Voice of the Central
Valley." Vida En El Valle Blogs RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Feb. 2013.
http://blogs.vidaenelvalle.com/blog/2012/01/23/sandra-cisneros-to-visit-fresno-state/.
• Slide 3: Woman Hollering Creek sign: "Woman Hollering Creek." Wikipedia.
Wikimedia Foundation, 02 Jan. 2013. Web. 19 Feb. 2013.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woman_Hollering_Creek.
• Slide 4: photo of Woman Hollering Creek: "WOMAN HOLLERING CREEK." Woman
Hollering Creek. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Feb. 2013.
http://www.texasescapes.com/TexasFolklore/WomanHolleringCreek/WomanHollering
Creek.htm
• Slide 7: B/W picture: "Steven Symes, Writer." : La Llorona or the Ditch Witch. N.p.,
n.d. Web. 19 Feb. 2013. http://writerstevensymes.blogspot.com/2011/09/la-llorona-orditch-witch.html.
• Slide 17: American Apparel costume: http://store.americanapparel.net/halloween201
2.html?cos=17
• Slide 18: Wilkins, Cathy. "La Llorona by Cathy Wilkins - Fantasy Art Galleries at
Epilogue.net - Fantasy and Sci-fi at Their Best." La Llorona by Cathy Wilkins Fantasy Art Galleries at Epilogue.net - Fantasy and Sci-fi at Their Best. N.p., 1 Sept.
2004. Web. 19 Feb. 2013. http://www.epilogue.net/cgi/database/art/view.pl?id=72003