Week 4: Gabriela Mistral “Madwomen”

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I absolutely adored this week’s readings, as I love reading poetry above anything else. I have already read some of Pablo Neruda’s poems so I decided to go for Gabriela Mistral and I think it has been / will be the best choice I will make this term. There is something about poetry written by woman that perfectly portrays very specific aspects of femininity in a depth like no man will ever be able to write or understand. I can best describe it as an unspoken language that people that identify as women will collectively understand with just a few sentences. I have read and analyzed stuff written by women in the past, and the way something so small rings so many bells to me and my women peers that men do not perceive the same way we do is astounding and beautiful to me. This was a common occurrence when reading Gabriela Mistral’s poems in this week’s reading. An example can be found in the poem “A woman” where we read: “She speaks only her soul’s words, and to those who pass, none.” (p.83). I specially liked this line as it perfectly portrays my attempt at what I previously tried explaining.

I loved everything about her writing, her metaphors and analogies were written so beautifully and the way she portrayed emotions was amazing. One of my favourite poems was “The Abandoned Woman”, and although I loved every line, one of my favourite lines has to be the closing one: “My night, hurried on by fire, let my poor night not last till day!” (p.37). I read the poems in Spanish and this line specifically in Spanish seems to have a deeper meaning than in English. To me, when I first read this line was so beautiful, as the poem is like a “goodbye” to a lover she is giving up on, the entire poem hurts and shows how bad she is trying to let go of something so dear to her. But this last line shows a side of her we didn’t get to see in the rest of the poem, where she hopes that night will not end, because when the morning comes it means she must let go entirely of her lover, something she does not want to do yet entirely.

I could go on listing my favourite lines and aspects about this week’s reading but my question for this week will be: if you are a guy, what aspects (if any) did you found hard analyzing in her poems and if you are a woman, what aspects did you found yourself identified with that most surprised you?

 

Week 3: The Underdogs

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I really enjoyed and was fascinated by this week’s reading “The Underdogs”, as this was an opportunity to read and learn about the Mexican Revolution from another perspective. Back at home in Mexico, every year I was surrounded by the Mexican Revolution, either in history class or during the festivities. A beautiful sense of patriotism always surrounded me, yet reading this novel gave me another perspective other than historical. This novel gave me the opportunity to read about a more personal view of the Revolution, where themes such as classism and social oppression (which where not the focus of the history classes taught in Mexico) where brought to such detail in this novel.

Another thing that really interested me was that by the end of the novel, Demetrio is very discouraged to keep fighting in the revolution, and questions the reason why he keeps doing this. It shows another version of these heroes that fought during the revolution that gave us freedom from Porfirio Diaz’s dictatorship. Unlike the heroes I learned so much in school, that had such strong ideals and fought to see a free Mexico, these heroes (even if fictional) that fought as much as those famous heroes, not always had strong ideals and doubted the reason why they were doing this. It was such a beautiful experience to read something like this, as it shows a more human and “flawed” side of the revolutionary fight. It proves to us that such a complex thing as a revolution, will not always have strong ideals in their front lines, but rather a confused group of people in the lead. This is not a bad thing! While I was reading this novel and noticed Demetrio’s confusion as on why he kept fighting alongside his men, I sympathized with them (not because I have every fought in a revolution) but because then again, it depicts an ordinary, human side of the fight. What did you think about this? Do you think a revolution should always have strong ideals or therefore it will fail?

The last thing I want to talk about is about the development of Luis Cervantes, who we follow throughout the novel. At first we see him in the fight, alongside armed men, but at the end of the novel he goes off to the US and starts making another life, a “good” one far away from the violence his country was facing. This reminded me a lot of this current idea of “escaping” Mexico, of the desire of many families to escape from the violence these days and go to the US to make a new life. But this is usually only a reality to those who can afford to do this, which was also the case of Cervantes. He was an intellectual, had means to support himself, which is why he could have a “better” life in the US. What do you think about this decision? Do you think it was selfish of him to leave his country in such times, to get himself a better life?

“Mama Blanca’s Memoirs” – De la Parra (Week 2)

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For this week’s reading I think it is very important to note and acknowledge the presence of De la Parra’s intent of portraying aspects of her own life in this series of memoirs. Even though these memoirs are not hers, but rather from the childhood of Mama Blanca, I was able to notice a very beautiful way in which De la Parra’s presence was there.

One of the first things and probably one that mostly stood out to me right at the beginning of the novel was the foreword, in which we can read how Mama Blanca “gifted” her memories to the fictional writer. But it wasn’t just anyone who Mama Blanca trusted her childhood memories to, but rather someone who she saw as a child of her own. We can read about this maternal love and warmth in the foreword, which was something that really spoke to me. It reminded me a lot of my great-grandmother, who spent her last years always gifting me even the smallest of bracelets whenever I went to visit her. Her love spread throughout the house and every time she would gift me something of hers, talk to me about her past, or teach me life lesson she learned through her life, it felt as if she was trusting her memories would live through me. When I was reading this foreword, I was reminded me of these life instances I shared with my great-grandmother, and really touched my heart.

Another thing that stood out to me and which I found very interesting was the strong presence of women throughout the novel. Mama Blanca’s memoirs are accompanied by the presence of her five other sisters. I believe it is very powerful how the portrayal of mundane activities performed by women during the time when the dictatorship of a man was worrying an entire country, really shows us another slice of life. How the six sisters innocently lived and enjoyed life in a rural area far away from “big” problems was really endearing to read. It reminds me an awful lot of this “matriarchal” side of life in which I grew up, as my grandmother was the one who called the shots in her household, and my mother was a single mother. But following this empowering part of life in which girls grow and live her life to later become women, there is a sorrowful part.

For example, when Mama Blanca payed a lot of attention to small details such as her hair. How she had to be beautiful, which was portrayed as a task rather than something she did out of joy and pleasure. This part was very vulnerable, as we woman tend to hide these insecurities and pretending they are not there.

Overall, I really enjoyed this novel and I think it helped me connect and reminisce parts of my life I seem to have been forgetting.

first blog :)

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Hi everyone, my name is Rebeca Ponce. I am a second year intending to major on International Relations with a minor in Economics. I was born and raised in Monterrey Mexico, lived there the first 18 years of my life until I moved here to Vancouver for college.

My main expectation for this course is that I can (hopefully) get back to my habit of reading, as I used to read a lot but really slacked off the past year. I am also looking forwards to the opportunity to read Latin American classics, as I usually read books with English authors.

As I was born and raised in Mexico, I have been always exposed to Latin American literature, even if I didn’t always read them. “Magical realism” has been a genre that I have studied in the past, and which I have concluded out of personal experience, is a genre that was born out of a need for Latin American people to escape from violence surrounding us. I am really looking forwards to read other texts of magical realism, to compare them and get to know more about this genre.

Another thing I am looking forwards when reading these books is that I will get to have another perspective other than Mexico, to read magic realism. Being able to read other Latin American authors will broaden my knowledge and perspective of Latin American literature, which will be interesting to compare with what I have read in the past.

One thing that stood out to me from the lecture was the question regarding having less anxiety and fear of getting the right meaning of literature. During high school, when I had homework such as analyzing a text, I would be very scared of not understanding it to the depth and level where I would get the meaning my professor was looking for. This may be one of the reasons why I stopped enjoying reading, as I was afraid I was not reading the texts properly, and even began to feel ashamed I was not as “smart” as others were. Now I know that this is not the case, and that reading either a classic or a “trendy” book is a different experience for everyone. Even during this class, we will have different perspectives and conclusions about the texts, but that doesn’t mean we are wrong for this. I really like that this course encourages feeling less anxiety when reading a text and to actually enjoy it, not being focused on getting a good grade based on an analysis we might be scared to write.

The question I would like to ask is, have anyone experienced a situation where you and/or classmate have had completely different perspectives on a book you both have read? And if so, why do you think that was?

I am really looking forwards to hear all of our different points of view for the following weeks!!! 🙂