Hello! This week’s reading was on Mama Blanca’s Memoirs written by Teresa De la Parra and I thought it was an incredible story to start off the course. As the story is narrated by a young Blanca Nieves, I found it interesting how the narration highlights an innocent perspective of serious topics or recollections of the past. For example, Vicente Cochocho is a character subject to a fair amount of racism, which can be seen from Evelyn, who saw Vicente as “a filthy, loathsome creature who, being a louse himself, probably had a head full of them”. While Blanca is aware that these prejudiced comments originate from a “complex, personal race hatred” towards Cochocho, she and her young sisters view him with admiration regardless of his social position in comparison to her own. After describing the nature of his nickname, Blanca is quick to state that to her, his “art and greatest glory was that of having made the ugly beautiful”. Throughout this section of the story, the narrator continually expresses their admiration for Cochocho’s wisdom and noble manner despite the views set forth by her caregivers. Personally, I feel as though in most literature I have read this child-like perspective is rarely explored and I found it interesting to view these topics through a unique lens.
Additionally, Something I first looked past but further investigated was the importance of names within this narrative. This significance was illuminated to me after Blanca’s description of the cows, stating that “between the cows and their names there existed a kind of harmony or concordance that was lacking between us and ours”. Thinking deeper into this quote, I noticed how as Blanca described the cows, their names correspond quite literally to the traits they exhibit, such as sunshine having. Golden brown coating. On the other hand, the names of certain human characters seemed to contradict Blanca’s perspective of that person, mainly in relation to their personality. For example, Blanca states that her sister Violeta embodied “the spirit of Juan Manuel the Desired” rather than “the modest, sweet-smelling little winter flower” that her name is based upon. Furthermore, Blanca perspective of Vicente’s noble and kind personality does not reflect the literal meaning of his nickname “Cochocho”, referring to a louse. I find this aspect of the story quite intriguing however am a little puzzled as why certain characters, such as the cows, use literal names in contrast to the complexity of the human characters’ names and corresponding personality and would love to explore this theme more in depth.
Discussion question: Looking further into the meaning of your own name, do you think your own name matches its original meaning? How so? Do you think others would have the same perspective as you or not (e.g. how Blanca does not believe that Violetta’s name corresponds to the meaning of the name)?
hi mandy,
I also found it very interesting that there was specific emphasis on names and the ownership of them, especially comparatively to the cows and the girls. I’m glad you asked this question because I didn’t think about it until you mentioned it. It’s funny because my name is Jasmine and that’s typically a very elegant, poised, and flowery name, which are all things that I’m not. Even though I do love my name, and I love that my namesakes are literally flower and rice, (which I love), it’s generally known within my circles that the connotation of my name doesn’t fit me. But I also think that’s what makes it interesting, the fact that it doesn’t fit me, yet I still have it and have some affinity with it makes it special – perhaps that’s what the girls feel as well.
I didn’t even think of this until you brought it up. I think the conflicting names of the characters versus how she describes their actual character is a really interesting thing to think about. Something that stood out to me about the names, mainly those of the girls was that they were more a reflection of their mother rather than them. She says “none of them sat well upon us, but they suited Mama … they became a further adornment, as though they were lace or ribbons, and afterward she gazed upon herself with satisfaction”.