Takeaways from PRLS 3105
I chose to include this screenshot from an in-class conversation because it reflects an important lesson I learned from this course, and it is that we need to look deeper into how history is depicted and taught to us. It is vital that we do the work to understand the different ways history is modified to make certain groups of people look like heroes—glossing over any wrongs they have committed—and other groups as helpless and uncivilized. Furthermore, it reminds me of how important it is that we use our voices to shape our own stories, rather than relying on an outsider’s perspective. The various pieces of art, photography, short stories, and poetry we have dissected in this class are prime examples of members of the Latinx community using their distinct voice to tell stories only they can tell.
Photo Comparison
While, visually, these two photos appear to have nothing in common, there is a similarity below the surface that presented itself to me. In the first picture, we see a woman (Maria, from the state of Puebla, who now lives in New York) at her place of work— a laundromat. Through her work at the laundromat, Maria makes a living to support herself and family back home— she sends $150 a week to family in Mexico. In the second photo, two large rock-like structures are pictured. The rocks seem to be sturdy enough to build something on— a good foundation, dependable and strong. For me, the two rocks symbolize Maria’s role as a provider for both herself and her family.
“Mexican Heaven” José Olivaraz
“all the Mexican women refuse to cook or clean or raise the kids or pay bills or make the bed or drive your bum ass to work or do anything except watch their novelas, so heaven is gross. the rats are fat as roosters & the men die of starvation.”
Jose Olivaraz
I chose to include this particular vignette in this blog post because it connects to the Dulce Pinzón photograph in how it depicts Mexican women as providers. I interpret this vignette as speaking on how Mexican women are the backbone of the family— they are what keeps the home together, not always necessarily because they WANT to, but because they are expected to. If not, the rats would be “fat as roosters” and the men would “die of starvation” (Olivaraz). This dependence on the women of the family to cook and clean and provide for seemingly everyone but herself is not only a common thread in this poem and the Dulce Pinzón photo, but in Latinx culture as a whole.
However, this self-sacrifice doesn’t always get the reward or recognition it deserves. In fact, there are many instances where women are not appreciated for what they do, but instead abused. In this video clip about machismo, a man from El Salvador describes the mistreatment of women he witnessed from an early age: “I grew up in a home where my father used to beat up my mother.” It is upsetting to think about the violence many women in Latin America are subject to simply because of their gender. If I could add to “Mexican Heaven”, I would write in a verse about the non-existence of machismo and gender based violence as a feature of Olivaraz’s imagined paradise.
The Male Gaze in “Pandora’s Box” by Arturo Arias
This article talks about the male gaze in regards to storytelling in TV shows and movies— “The effects are poisonous” (Loofbourow). We see the poisonous effect of the male gaze in “Pandora’s Box”, how women feel so uncomfortable in their own skin, having to be mindful of how they dress, and of how they exist in the world, because of men watching them. The old lady that spoke to Juan after seeing how closely he watched Pandora knew the effects of this gaze well, and let him know: “..you would be better off being Juana or Juanita, so as to know and feel as she does, to understand the power of that gaze of yours, to feel the burning eyes upon your skin as if you were being tattooed. Wait and see how it feels” (Arias 30).
Also, the article mentions that “We don’t see complexity in female stories because we have so little experience imagining it might be there” (Loofbourow). That reminded me of the scene in “Pandora’s Box” where Juanita is genuinely shocked to learn that Pandora has a life of her own as a museum curator, “It had never actually occurred to me that she had a mind. She had always been just a body to me” (Achas 38). From this point, Juanita begins to understand the harm his past thinking has had on Pandora, and begins to see the “complexity” in her life.
A Playlist for “Kimberle”
- this is me trying
- “‘I have to be stopped,’ Kimberle said. […] She was asking me to keep her from killing herself.” (Obejas 14). This part of the story was clearly Kimberle reaching out, doing whatever she could do to not give into any suicidal urges she had. A phone call may not seem like much, but in this case it was everything.
- this is me trying relates to this scene in that it is a song about someone trying their best to not give into the pull of their worst desires. “Pulled the car off the road to the lookout / Could’ve followed my fears all the way down / And maybe I don’t quite know what to say / But I’m here in your doorway” (Swift). Both the narrator in the song and Kimberle made conscious efforts to be/talk with someone as a way to keep them from ending their lives.
- Cranes in the Sky
- “I slept it away, I sexed it away, I read it away” (Solange) / “We both seemed to be in weakened states […] depression had swallowed her…” (Obajes 16).
- The connection between these two quotes is that they both are referring to being in a depressed state. The song talks about doing everything to escape the feeling of depression, but it never actually working. This relates to the story because rather than dealing with her depression/suicidal urges head on and working towards healing, Kimberle instead did various things to try and avoid them (for example, the many different people she would bring home to have sex with).
- Sudden Desire
- This song is about acknowledging one’s own desire rather than denying it, even though it may be uncomfortable. In regards to how it connects to the story, the narrator gave into her desire time after time even though at first she felt unsure and maybe scared, “I was going to protest but was too unnerved by their boldness and then, in my weakness, seduced by the silky warmth of skin on either side of me.” (Obejas 22).
- Don’t Touch My Hair
- “‘I didn’t come to see Kimberle,’ the professor had said, her fingers pulling on my curls, which I’d found disconcerting” (Obejas 23). On top of Kimberle’s “vaguely racist comments” about the narrator during sex, the professor doing this felt like another violation of the narrator (Obejas 23). This lack of respect is a central theme behind the song Don’t Touch My Hair, in which Solange equates someone touching her hair with someone touching her soul– not in a good way but, rather, in an invasive way.
- Paper Thin
- “They said they’re scared of you, I’m like ‘me too’ […] We both just want to be free.” I connect this lyric from Paper Thin with the scene where Kimberle takes the narrator for a drive and the narrator is so scared she thinks they’re “going to die” and throws up after it’s all done (Obejas 22). Yet, the narrator said it was “amazing” and that Kimberle had made her feel “alive” (Obejas 22, 24). While the narrator felt scared of Kimberle and her actions, she also simultaneously felt a kind of freedom she hadn’t felt before.
Alternative Ending to “Porcupine Love” by Tatiana de la Tierra
I decided to stop repelling love. There is still a part of me that is unsure I can even do that, but for myself, for Antenna, for the possibility of us, I am willing to try. And so I did. As it turns out, 14 years of silence don’t mean much when you form a real connection with somebody. She says she loves me, she tells me that I am the only person who calls her Antenna— and that means something. We have marked each other.
I learned to turn off the little voice in the back of my head that told me that this meant nothing, that she was probably married or in some serious relationship and I was being used as some kind of escape from the monotony of it all. But even if that is true, I don’t mind it. I have some of her and it is enough for me.
