The Witch's Husband Analysis

Even though culture division is a part of the mestiza consciousness, borderlands acknowledge the cultural roots of the Latino writers, which allow them to embrace their heritages in their writing. Mestiza is a Spanish word meaning mix race and these writers embrace all of who they are in their stories and showing how their different cultures coexist in their characters. Latin American writers such as Judith Ortiz Cofer of Hispanic heritage and Sandra Cisneros of a Puerto Rican heritage incorporated their culture with the American culture. Bothe authors use Spanish words within the writing, but before they are introduced to you as the readers, you have an understanding of the situation in the previous dialog. An example would be Cisneros, story “DIRT”, where a young girl tells a story of a typical

The day is spent on an American street that portrays the Spanish culture in a marketplace. Where you can buy anything, but the customer is never to pay the asking prices, so the father haggles the price of the Zapatos (shoes) he wanted. Cofer also uses Spanish words in as she expresses the cultural role of women, in her story “The Witches Husband”. Her grandmother is elderly and taking care of her sick, grandfather, so she goes to Puerto Rica to convince her that it is time for here children to take care of her because she is getting to old to take care of her husband who had dementia. Once she has established the theme, in the story, she then refers to her grandmother by the Spanish name Abuela and describes her life and role of mother and wife as Latino women. Cofer explains the struggles her grandmother had living up to the expectations as a women in the Latino culture, which she called “martyr complex” in Puerto Rican women, of self-sacrifice (Cofer, 1993, para. 3). The symmetry of the story” The Witches Husband” and her grandmother, is if the wife leaves the husband he should not follow, but let her return if she chooses. And if she