THE FATHER, THE SON, AND LA CHINGADA: THE TRINITY OF THE CONQUEST ‘Lo Mexicano’ is a phrase-turned-concept in 20th century Mexican philosophy. The term literally translates to “the Mexican,” however, it is also used to superficially describe the identity of the Mexican individual. The notion came about after the revolution; the phrase was meant to emphasize and unite Mexico as an independent people. Today, the phrase is understood as an all encompassing term for “mexicanness,” or that which makes someone a true mexican. Octavio Paz, a Mexican poet and essayist, is one of the many philosophers with a written piece regarding his understanding of Lo Mexicano. Paz’s “Sons of La Malinche” was first published in the Labyrinth of Solitude in 1950 and is a rather grim interpretation of the Mexican character, however, it captures the crisis of identity that Mexico was burdened with after the conquest. Paz uses the Spanish term “chingar,” (when literally translated means “to screw, to violate”) and its associated phrases to understand the conquest and the effect …show more content…
La Chingada can take many forms; in this context, it is mother Mexico and La Malinche. Native Mexico and the conquest are obvious examples of a taking, however, La Malinche is all but a personified chingada. Doña Marina (La Malinche) was Hernán Cortés’s personal advisor and Indian mistress. Marina was used by Cortes and became recognized as evidence of the physical violation of women by Spanish conquistadors, or chingones. Paz argues that La Malinche can be seen as the violated Mother of Mexico, while La Virgen de Guadalupe is hailed as the virgin Mother. Both of these figures have passive personalities, weakening the character of one and emphasizing the maternal nature of the other. Also, both Mothers acted as middlemen; La Malinche as Cortes’s advisor from within and La Virgen as the intermediate between the Father and the
Being unsuccessful the father moved his family to New York where they settled in a neighborhood where they were the only Hispanics in the neighborhood. The story “¡YO!” picks up with Alvarez using her alter ego Yolanda to tell the story of being between two different cultures. Julia Alvarez makes it possible for the reader to understand the story by having main culture, but also having her own culture (Gallo). “¡YO!” has different chapters of how different characters view Yolanda, and the chapter “The Mother” explains the struggle of being a mother of a family of immigrants. Julia Alvarez shows three main themes on the chapter “The Mother” false identity, freedom, and being caught between two
Guadalupe’s identity is related to all of her children “She does not make a preferential option for the Spanish conquerors, the Mexican nation, or even the indigenous” (Cross 118). What this is saying is the Guadalupe doesn’t want to be a mother to certain children she wants to be the mother of all children. Through the covenants it is shown that Guadalupe has a more formal argument. The main transformation of the Guadalupe covenant is seeing ourselves and others. Guadalupe tells her covenant has everlasting love within each and every one of us.
The ease and dexterity in which Cortes’ Colonists conquered the battle-tested Aztecs goes against any modern doctrine of warfare. Octavio Paz, acclaimed Mexican historian and author of The Labyrinth of Solitude, explains that the Aztec’s encounter with the Spaniards ultimately led to their eventual “suicide” (Paz 93). In this instance, “suicide” means any act or behavior which predisposes oneself to vulnerability or harm. Paz outlines the series of events and cultural views of the Aztecs to paint a landscaping picture of the reasons why a small band of Spanish soldiers were able to subjugate one of greatest Mesoamerican societies of all time. One must start at the crux of the Aztec identity, their culture.
Notwithstanding, many Chicanos stand up for their values and ideals to defend their own culture and spread it around the world; one example is Gloria Anzaldua. Anzaldua denies the comments of Paz and emphasizes that the Mexican culture is antique and useless. She affirms due to her rebelliousness, she was “the first in six generations to leave the valley.” p.2 a shocking declaration. In the modern world, most of the Mexican values have been dismissed and have reached a point where they are not longer apt to adapt to the new world.
1) The Conquest of Mexico represents the views told though the eyes of those that were living during the conquest of the Aztec city, Tenochtitlan. The viewpoint reflects somewhat biased respect for the Aztec political and social organizations, along with their warriors who challenged Cotes' army. Sahagun captures the fear that the Aztecs had and all the trauma they experienced with the defeat. He viewed Cortez as ruthlessness; with all his power and resources; firearms and horses.
Through Valdez’s conscientious usage of racial stereotypes and satirical social criticism, he targets the American government as a result of its enmity and prejudice towards Mexican Americans. Valdez utilizes the stereotypes to highlight on the social conflict between the brutal American powers and the poverty stricken Mexicans Americans; thus, he satirizes how in truth, the American government is a ludicrous robot that does not fathom the gravity for equal rights. To depict the corruption of power of the American regime against Latinos, Valdez utilizes a satirical tone, understatements, and hyperboles; thus, he demonstrates how Mexican Americans are equally human and are not slaves nor animals, the Mexican American revolution against prejudice
Flores utilizes a vast array of evidence to prove his argument including giving the actual history of the Alamo, comparing the two women who helped create the Alamo—Clara Driscoll and Adina De Zavala, and analyzing the representations of the Alamo in film. The way that Flores structures his argument is interesting; he starts by presenting a social theory to explain why and how the Alamo represents a class and racial control then moves onto a chronological layout of the history of the Alamo. Flores concludes with a
Gloria Anzaldua’s theory of a mixed culture offers an insight into how the Immigrants in Pat Mora have to be educated in a much more “American” style than their own culture. Anzaldua argues that “we need you to accept the fact that Chicanos are different” (107), relating to Mora’s idea that though these children are being forced to be “like” an American in
The Renaissance era was a great transition from the Medieval times. The arts started to be emphasised and individualism became a major theme. Human exploration was celebrated through art, literature, and theater. Not only was the Renaissance time period the age for human exploration it was a time of global exploration. Hernan Cortez was one of the many explorers of the Renaissance age.
This poem “I Am Joaquin” helped establish the term “Chicano” and helped the concept of Chicanoism. Prior to the 1960s the term “Chicanos” was not used, but through this poem it was able to establish this Chicano identity. It helped bring this identity together and people began to call themselves as Chicano/as. (Lecture 10/8) Roldofo Gonzales insisted that we as Mexican Americans needed to stand up and work for justice.
This play is about stereotypes of the Mexican American family; the father who drinks a lot an alcoholic, the mother who is in long suffering, the rebellious pachuco son who doesn’t care about anything and always going jail back and forth, the daughter who is pregnant, and the righteous son who was in Marines, and tries to adapt into the mainstream culture. There is this another oldest brother, named Belarmino. He 's a man without body has only head, a dark mop of curly hair, expressive eyes and eyebrows. He is strangely funny and slightly creepy, an animal who at first can 't talk, but finally starts speaking and shows good understanding of both Spanish and English. The family is very poor to start with, but when knowing that they have to
With this Juan begins to show love to Guadalupe and himself. Guadalupe wants to be the mother of all children; this highlights the covenant with Juan Diego and all the children on the New World. Overall Guadalupe exposes a covenant of “unconditional love with each of us and with all of the cosmos a covenant that is reaffirmed every time we see her picture and experience her presence” (Cross 121). This means that every time we see her that we should know that she loves us unconditionally. Guadalupe is similar to the Mosaic covenant when she wishes to become a protagonist of the Nican mopohua.
Topic Disclosure Today I will be talking about legends in Mexico, and what they tell us about Mexican culture itself and the tradition as well as the importance behind them. Audience Link Some people Don’t see much importance of being informed about these legends, because many will see them as a made up fantasy in ones head. Nevertheless you may never know for sure when you might come across with something similar to it. Preview During this speech I am going to share with you; what legends are along with a commonly told legend that has survived many decades.
Fuentes stated that this shaded my childhood and shaped my sense of Mexicanness” (theguardian.com). Along with being a tal-ented novelist Fuentes was a powerful political voice for Latin America. He made it clear that they intended to demonstrate commonalties shared within the nations, instead of showcasing the differences. As the leader of the group Fuentes was really pushing the writers’ publications be-tween the US and Europe, he also brought the writers
It could be concluded that the first two decades after the Mexican Revolution, the country’s children started to be viewed as potential cultural and social critics, model citizens, and influential reformers. In fact, children were meant to play a central role in the movement of reformation led by the revolutionary nationalist government as they also received a large percentage of the national budget, which went toward their educational development. To support this claim, Elena Albarran’s Seen and Heard in Mexico zeroes in on children and their contributions to the defining of Mexico’s identity at the time by analyzing records of children’s perspectives available through letters, stories, and drawings to examine how Mexican childhood corresponded to the hopeful yet varied visions of revolutionaries, which was a stark contrast to the more uniform basis of cultural nationalism. By teaching children how to step away from aesthetic goals in order to encourage them to take more political stances, the youth were guaranteed a rightful place at the middle of Mexico’s rewriting of their narrative. There were various ways through which children contributed