Category: Machismo

Abstract

This paper explores the varied history of women’s rights within Mexico and the modern implications of the Mexican women’s rights movement. This paper is structured chronologically, with a brief overview of the history of women in Mexico before delving into modern issues. The concept of ‘machismo’ is also explored within the essay and is used to explain the phenomena of femicide and gendered violence within Mexico. The essay ends with the conclusion that the apathy of the U.S. and Mexican government is the cause of rising number of missing and murdered women within Latin America and it proposes that it is the duty of civilians to stop these atrocities from occurring.

Women in Mexico have been an integral part of their society since the Pre-Columbian era. However, women’s status and role in society has changed drastically as societal and economic changes shifted the cultural fabric of Mexico and the whole of Latin America. Prior to the 19th century, women were cast in the role of homemaker and had limited political, social, and sexual freedom. With the rise of urbanization and liberalism, women mobilized and made significant strides in their right to work, education, and freedom from male influence. However, progress within the women’s rights movement is still slow moving and has adapted to face the modern issues of femicide within Mexico and along the U.S. Mexico border. In order to understand the unique challenges that plague Mexican women, it is important to understand their rich history and the current social moments that are taking place to elevate women within Latin America.

The education of women and their establishment into society did not occur until the Spanish era, in which individuals were divided by a system of racial hierarchy. This system can best be described by Casta pantings, a series of paintings that documents the inter-ethnic mixing occurring in Spanish territory among Europeans, indigenous peoples, Africans, and the existing mixed-race population. These paintings, such as the Casta Painting of the Virgin of Guadalupe created by Luis de Mena, depicts white Spanish or European men with their indigenous, Indian, or African wives. This attests to women’s mobility within this society, as ethnic women were often betrothed to white men in order to elevate their social status and could only gain education through this process. Education was limited to the elite wives of white upper class men and by the late 17th century only 10 percent of elite Mexican women had a formal education.

This trend continued throughout the following century and working class peasant women were excluded from the conversation of women’s rights until the early 20th century. Prior to the Mexican revolution, during 1904-07, middle and upper class women created The Mexican Woman, a publication that argued for women’s right to access professions only accessible to men in order to make them better homemakers and mothers. This publication catapulted interest in women’s rights and in 1907 two textile workers, sisters María del Carmen and Catalina Frias, developed the political group “Daughters of Anahuac,” in order to defend the rights of female agriculturists and the Mexican Liberal Party. By 1915, the women’s rights movement gained traction and activist Hermila Galindo worked towards establishing women’s rights in law through her publication, The Modern Woman, which demanded women’s right to suffrage and focused on women’s education, job training, and sexual health.

Some of these goals were achieved in 1917, when the new Mexican Constitution established the right to divorce, equal wage rights for women and men, and protections for laboring pregnant women. However, in this new constitution women were not granted the right to vote and were still under the jurisdiction of their husbands and had to have permission from their husbands in order to work and live independently. During the Mexican revolution, hundreds of thousand of women were taken out of traditional family roles and traveled with the armies of Zapata, Villa, and Carranza. Within these militias, women cooked, washed clothes, and cared for injured soldiers and therefore became an integral part of the army’s survival. These women also worked as scouts to help soldiers find camps for the night as well as risked their lives as couriers printing manifestos, making and distributing guns, and taking up arms themselves. Many women were directly involved in armed conflict and strategizing and would often disguise themselves as men in order to fight in place of a fallen husband or brother.

One Zapatista, Colonel Rosa Bobadilla, was a prominent member of the Zapata movement who was essential in drafting Zapata’s Ayala Plan. Another notable Zapatista, Elena Arizmendi, created the Neutral White Cross, an organization of nurses and medical students who aided the resistance in place of the Red Cross who supported the Porfirio Díaz dictatorship. Significant developments for women’s rights did not occur until the late 1930s, with the rise of a strong Communist Party presence that fought for progressive interests. In 1935, working class women and educators created the United Front for Women’s Rights, which fought for women’s suffrage. Two years later, President Lázaro Cárdenas promoted a reform granting full political rights to women that was ratified by both the Cham0ber of Deputies and the Senate but was never officially enacted. It was not until 1953 that President Enrique Peña Nieto finally gave Mexican women the right to vote, which began the second wave of feminism in Mexico. Major social movements defined this era, such as the Zapatista’s movement “Caracol,” which organized 50,000 peasants into opposing the building of the La Perota dam in the state of Guerrero. Another prominent feminist organization, the Coordinating Committee of Oaxacan Women, marched against a media blackout and occupied a state-owned TV station for 21 days until their demands were met.

Today, Mexican feminists protest against the rising issue of femicide on the U.S. Mexico border with protests such as the “Day of Dead Women,” in which hundreds of women marched through the streets of Mexico City to draw awareness to unprotected gender-related killings. In order to understand the rise of femicide in Mexico, it is important to grasp the culture of violence against women that is perpetuated by the Mexican government and the social phenomena of ‘Machismo.’ ‘Machismo’ is defined as strong or aggressive masculine pride that normalizes men’s superiority to women and reinforces the idea of women as second-class citizens. Pamela Neumann, professor of Latin American Studies at Bucknell University, states that, “There has been a social and cultural expectation in Latin America since the Spanish conquest, that men are entitled to women, and it’s how they express their sense of masculinity.”

This entitlement to women’s bodies has lead to more than 2,500 deaths of women in Mexico every year, with less than a quarter of these murders being investigated and with fewer than 2 percent of these cases leading to sentencing. One example of this is the murder of Graciela Cifuentes and her daughter Sol, who were bludgeoned to death by Alan Sánchez Romero after Sol rejected his romantic advances and “never took him seriously.” This case was ruled as a double suicide by the Mexican government, one example that attests to the lack of investigation put towards missing and murdered women within the country and along the border. In order to protest the femicide epidemic, feminist organization “Voices of Absence,” have created the “Day of Dead Women,” which is a protest that includes over 100 families broadcasting the names of missing loved ones on large purple crosses displayed in Mexico City’s main square. Frida Guerrera, the creator of the demonstration passionately claims that, “We march on ‘Day of the Dead Women’ to take them beyond just the altars,’ she said. ‘They did not die of old age or from illness. They were snatched away, they were ripped from their families, and we want them to be seen.

May they not remain in the invisibility of Day of the Dead celebrations.” This demonstration mirrors the protests executed by the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, an organization of mothers that formed in 1977 to draw attention to the disappearance of their children during the Argentinian dictatorship of 1976-78. Both protests used strong visual strategies to convey an emotional message, with the mothers displaying the enlarged silhouettes of their missing children on the street walls of the Plaza de Mayo. Similar to the mothers who often wore white and carried pictures of their children, Mexican activists have donned large photos of heir missing loved ones and have worn the color purple to symbolize the missing women. The mothers’ activism goes beyond demonstrations and has expanded into multiple organizations, such as “The Founding Line,” a group that is dedicated to discovering the particular causes of death for individuals killed during the dictatorship. Other associations formed by the mothers include the “Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo” and “HIJOS,” which focus on reuniting missing children to their families and establishing bonds between the parents of lost children. These organizations are similar to movements founded to rally against femicide on the U.S. Mexican border, such as the group “May Our Daughters Return Home.” This organization was founded by the mother of a victim of femicide and focuses on bringing justice to casualties of gendered violence in the border city Ciudad Juarez.

Another feminist organization, “Colibri Center for Human Rights,” is group that uses an independent DNA bank to help find and identify remains of indigenous women who die crossing into the United States. This center has also established statistics on the type of women that are the victims of gendered violence, stating that, “The social and economic marginalization of Indigenous women and girls not only makes them prey for violent men, but is also used by officials as a justification for failing to protect them.” These organizations claim that this deeply rooted racism has lead to the Mexican government turning a blind eye to missing and murdered indigenous women, with government officials dismissing the alarming statistics as side effects of drug use and sex work. Enrique Morones, a leader of the volunteer group Border Angles, has stated that, “This issue’s been going on for a long time … the mistreatment of women, especially women of color, the abuse of women, the disappearance of women.

And it’s not only happening on the U.S.-Mexico border…But you don’t hear those stories, and this series are important that they be told.” Activists such as Morones have inspired my course of study to be social work within Mexican communities particularly along the border. My goal is to work with disabled children who have crossed over and whose parents have limited means in providing them specialized education or healthcare. The care of girls is especially important to me as young women often go undiagnosed or untreated for intellectual disabilities and are subject to violence and mistreatment particularly within Latin American communities. Due to the fact that Mexican girls are a vulnerable population, my long term goal is to create a women’s shelter along the border of Ciudad Juarez in order to protect these women from targeted gender violence. The population along the border has been ignored by the U.S. and Mexican government for far too long and it is our responsibility to protect Mexican individuals from racial and gender motivated brutality.

Overall, the position of women within Mexican society has changed over time but the deeply rooted effects of ‘machismo’ and institutionalized sexism are still felt to this day. Historically, Mexican women were limited to the jurisdiction of their husbands and family life but through social mobilization and publications such as The Modern Woman, they were able to elevate their status. During the 1900s, women worked as revolutionaries and used this political leverage to gain suffrage in the 1950s and continue to advocate for women’s rights through moments such as the Zapatista’s “Caracol.” Today Mexican women draw on examples set by organizations such as the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, and use visual strategies to protest femicide within Mexico and along the U.S. Mexico border. The hard work of Latina organizers has inspired me to delve into the world of Latin American political activism and continue to fight for the thousands of missing and murdered women within Latin America as their voice for justice.

References

1. Binkowski, Brooke. “Mexico’s Epidemic of Missing and Murdered Women.” The Globe and Mail, Phillip Crawley, 26 June 2017, www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/mexicos-epidemic-of-missing-and-murdered-women/article25137141/.
2. Longoni, Ana. “Photographs and Silhouettes: Visual Politics in the Human Rights Movement of Argentina.” Afterall: A Journal of Art, Context and Enquiry, vol. 25, 2010, pp. 5–17., doi:10.1086/657458.
3. Monk, Heather. “Mexican Women — Then and Now.” Solidarity Mexican Women Then and Now Comments, Solidarity , 14 Oct. 2010, solidarity-us.org/atc/148/p3035/.
4. Ortiz, Veronica Lira. “The Culture of Machismo in Mexico Harms Women.” Merion West, 31 Dec. 2018, merionwest.com/2018/01/28/the-culture-of-machismo-in-mexico-harms-women/.
5. Sostre, Safire R. “‘Day of the Dead Women’ March in Mexico Demands Justice for Missing and Murdered Women and Girls.” BUST, 3 Nov. 2019, bust.com/feminism/196611-day-of-the-dead-women-mexico-protest.html.
6. Whelan, Robbie. “’A Horrible Culture of Machismo’: Women Struggle With Violence in Mexico.” The Wall Street Journal, Dow Jones & Company, 4 May 2019, www.wsj.com/articles/a-horrible-culture-of-machismo-woman-struggle-with-violence-in-mexico-11556978401.

Machismo has been around since the 1930s from Columbian descent. The term was used in Puerto Rico shortly after, often referring to members of street gangs and to the men of the households. While predominantly run by the Roman Catholic and evangelical Christian churches, the island has very few sanctuaries for the LGBTQ community where gay individuals can be themselves and feel safe. By continuing to fight and protest against the government about injustices done to them, the gay community in Puerto Rico is advancing in creating a safe and respected environment for themselves and for future LGBTQ individuals.

Although most of the younger crowd are progressive, some Latino parents are not, especially for men. Typically in an hispanic household, the men are favored and thus must live up to the expectations of a machismo. Machismo and patriarchal authority characterize the male role; the roles of a traditional woman are housewife and mother. Women are expected to defer to the authority of their husbands.

The machismo notion is engraved early in male adolescents as they are just developing and figuring out who they want to be. A study done by Richard Mora in his article “Dicks are for chicks” he examines young boys in Romero Elementary and middle school and their ideals of homosexuality and machismo. Mora states, “… some boys view homosexuals not as less masculine, but rather as not masculine, and, thus, argues that ‘homophobia marks an intragender boundary between masculine stereotypes and the male other”(344). The idea of homosexuality is considered to be an ‘other’, not fiting into a category and labeled as being different.

In the article by José Toro-Alfonso, et al., they state “… Latino culture imposes a series of social expectations that strongly divert from the possibility of developing or expressing same gender desire” (60). In the article it also states that the machismo and familismo, which is the strong urge to stick by family traditions and customs, creates a turmoil in the youth that it is their duty to sitck with traditions and abide by hetero-normality (60). The men and youths are expected to not feel and if they do they are considered feminine and soft.

This goes into the sensitivity category that a lot of men possess, especially in their early years of age and also holds a huge part in homosexuality. In the article “Reported Effects of Masculine Ideals on Gay Men”, the authors state that “Gay men are seen to break from traditional masculinity ideology mainly because of their affectional and sexual orientation. Consequently, the general perception is that gay men are not masculine (Kite & Deaux, 1987; Madon, 1997).” Many gay men, especially in Puerto Rico do not think they are female just because of their preference to men. That’s a false statement that’s been proven wrong time and time again but still remains. This feeling of loss of masculinity to these individuals leads them to therapy to find their identity and second guessing on what gender they want to be.

Identity is a major part of a young males life, especially in a Latin upbringing.Families with a strong emphasis on traditional values were perceived as less accepting of homosexuality than were the low traditional families. Those who work with adolescents need to be aware that some will recognize their sexual orientation as gay, lesbian, or bisexual during this time of their lives. These youth need support in the coming out process because they may encounter stigmatization and disapproval not only from the larger society, but also from their families, peers, and sometimes the gay community itself.

The mindset of children and youths have increased in positivity with more musical artists coming out as gay, who have a big impact on youths culture. Following the death of Kevin Fret, Puerto Rican rapper who was renowned as the first openly gay artist in the Latin trap genre, many individuals were in an uproar. The LGBT community sought justice for the death of the young advocate who was gunned down, marking him the 24th gay Puerto Rican killed last year. Although unfortunate, these casualties stirred up the population that the gay community needs better protection and laws to prevent these occurences to happen again.

The LGBT community had little resources to help them in their quest for a better and fair environment for themselves but despite that they persevered and were able to accomplish many feats in such short years. Due to the persistence of these youths and the, the government of Puerto Rico has developed laws that protect gay, trans, bi and any sexual orientations from domestic violence and in the workplace. Another bill was passed just recently where transgender individuals can change their gender on their birth certficate.

In the poems “Tú me quieres blanca” and in “Hombre pequeñito”, Alfosina Storni writes about women’s struggles with machismo. Storni openly and actively criticizes the men of society and those who value men and their desires more than those of women. To express her frustrations and emphasize society’s hypocrisy Storni uses many elements of modernism and postmodernism.

Postmodernism is the expression of feelings, postmodernism literature is ironic and sentimental, it focuses heavily on emotions. This literary movement is more direct about the extremes of how a writer feels about a specific topic. Rather than using complex metaphors and symbolism, postmodernism is more direct.

Modernism, on the other hand, is much more convoluted. Modernism makes use of more complicated forms of language to express an idea and emotions. For example, modernism uses colors to articulate ideas and emotions known as chromatism (McClennen). When using chromatism in literature the reader must think about what do these colors mean. Chromatism is much like using metaphors, colors can have various meanings depending on the context of the literary work. Like metaphors, chromatism can have a direct or implied meaning, but more often the meaning is implied. The use of the two literary movements modernism and postmodernism are very interesting when discussing the matter of machismo. According to Dr. Richard D. Parker in his journal “Behaviour in Latin American Men: Implications for HIV/AIDS Interventions” machismo is the gender hierarchy that establishes levels of power and dominance between men and women, often emphasizing the dominate role to be male while the submissive role is female. Machismo also includes the concept that male sexuality is constantly growing and uncontrollable, while female sexuality is an object of male control.

Many poems by Storni include the theme of machismo and her dislike for how it controls her life. From her poems “Tú me quieres blanca” and “Hombre pequeñito” the reader can understand how there is a large difference between how men act and what men expect from women. In Storni’s works, she demonstrates how men have character and color and depth, while women are boring and lifeless. She writes to exhibit this unfair hypocrisy of double standards.

In “Tú me quieres blanca” Storni condemns men for their desire for women to be pure and faithful while they spend their days with many women. In the first stanza of her poem, Storni writes “Corola cerrada.” (line 7). This line, in particular, is interesting because a closed blossom is symbolic of not a woman not having sexual relations. Also, the way Storni describes the demand to be pure is one dimensional. When taken into consideration the color white has no depth to it is plain and boring. When she writes “Ni una margarita/ Se diga mi hermana.” (lines 10-11) Storni emphasizes how there is life and beauty in flowers and that they are vibrant, but because he loves her white, she is colorless with no meaning (Morello-Frosch). Storni continues in the second stanza of the poem listing how men expect her to be untouched like snow and pure as the dawn. “Tú me quieres nívea, /Tú me quieres blanca, /Tú me quieres alba.” (lines 12-14). Storni quickly denounces these demands by telling men, in lines 15-18, that they have enjoyed the sweet honey and fruit of many women. To the point that their lips are purple.

As a poem that exhibits many qualities of modernism, Storni often uses chromatism as a method of expressing ideas and feelings through color (McClennen). In line 18 “Los labios morados.” this is the first moment that Storni mentions any other color other than white. This is important because white is often used to symbolize purity, but the use of the color purple represents being tainted. Another example of chromatism is in lines 23-26 “Tú que en los jardines/ Negros del Engaño/ Vestido de rojo/ Corriste al Estrago.” The color black in line 24 refers to the man being broken and tainted this is supported by line 26 when Storni writes that men run to destruction. As for the color red, it is a color of love passion and lust. To be dressed in red is symbolic of indulging in one’s sexual desires openly, as red is bright and noticeable. Both colors are a beautiful contrast to the meaning of white in this poem which signifies purity, wholeness, and celibacy, while red and black represent lust, sex, and impurity. Storni’s usage of chromatism is an amazing demonstration of the hypocrisy of men. She then challenges impure men to do the impossible and become pure like how they want her to be.

“¡Me pretendes alba! / Huye hacia los bosques, / Vete a la montaña;/ Límpiate la boca;/ Vive en las cabañas;/ Toca con las manos/ La tierra mojada;/ Alimenta el cuerpo/ Con raíz amarga;/ Bebe de las rocas;/ Duerme sobre escarcha;/ Renueva tejidos/ Con salitre y agua;” (lines 35-47)

After her challenge Storni then tells men that once they have become whole and pure again to then ask her to be white, to be snow, to be chaste but until then she tells men to pretend, she is all those things. “Y cuando las carnes Te sean tornadas, Y cuando hayas puesto En ellas el alma Que por las alcobas Se quedó enredada, Entonces, buen hombre, Preténdeme blanca, Preténdeme nívea, Preténdeme casta.” (lines 50-59)

“Hombre pequeñito” Storni destroys the fantasy that men have power over women while at the same time, Storni expresses her desire for freedom and the freedom of other women. In “Hombre pequeñito” Storni has no tolerance for men and their egos, so she attacks the ego of men by using the word pequeñito making men seem small and insignificant. Though she attacks men so quickly in the first line of her poem, Storni’s poem is surprisingly ironic as well. For example, lines 1-4 “Hombre pequeñito, hombre pequeñito, / suelta a tu canario que quiere volar/ Yo soy el canario, hombre pequeñito, /déjame saltar.” These lines are interesting because when she calls herself the canary trapped in a cage; she gives power to the man who put her in the cage. The irony here is that she admits that she is reliant on what men can do, and without their permission, she can’t be free. Knowing that she is forced to rely on men, Storni expresses her resentments by continuously calling men hombre pequeñito.

The poem “Hombre pequeñito” is filled with so much emotion, the reader can understand that she is sad but more importantly extremely frustrated. Storni’s frustrations can be seen in lines 8-10 “Digo pequeñito porque no me entiendes, /ni me entenderás. /Tampoco te entiendo, pero mientras tanto, /ábreme la jaula que quiero escapar.” These lines refer to the situation social-political situation Storni lived in, the man not understanding her and her not understanding him will always lead to a power struggle between the sexes. In her final stanza, Storni expresses that she can no longer love the man she speaks to; she continues and tells the man to never ask her again to love him (line 12). This final line can lead the reader to believe that Storni has no hope that the little man can ever change and that they should go their separate ways.

In conclusion, Alfosina Storni is a woman and poet of many strong ideals, she was never afraid of speaking out against the injustice of machismo. Storni understood, perhaps long before many others, that there is no difference between men and women, that both genders deserve the right to be independent. Storni was vivid in her use of modernism and postmodernism literary techniques from the metaphor of her being a bird in a cage to thought-provoking chromatism. The way she expresses her thoughts and feeling in her poetry is amazing, she doesn’t make her point difficult to understand but at the same time, she gives the reader something to think about. Though the reader understands her hatred for hypocrisy and resentment toward men who believe they are important, the reader can also understand that Storni has a hope that men can change even if it is unlikely.

In “A Rose that Grew from Concrete” by Tupac Shakur, he symbolizes the concrete as the ghetto which is where he grew up in. The second symbol in his poem is a rose which represents himself and all the difficult things that he has went through. In a similar way, the rose is the women and young men who are going through the concrete, which is Machismo. Many people believe that machismo makes a man’s life shorter. One of the reasons that people believe this is because a “real tough man” usually does not go to the doctor’s office because real men can handle sickness on their own. Men tend to usually suffer in silence when suffering mental health issues because if he reaches for help then he would have been looked upon as “weak”. Machismo harms women’s opportunities in their household or work. It makes specific ideas of how to act and think limiting females with their lives. This does not only affect women’s health but the men too.

What does it mean to be a machista? Machismo is the sense of being highly manly with a strong sense of masculine pride which makes men be superior to women. It is known that to be macho is a good thing because it means that you can protect women but there is a much more severe level of being a macho man. Machismo is strongly used in the Mexican culture and affects women’s health and well-being. Crime rates against women in recent years has been quickly rising up, which lead Mexican’s to start discussing the harmfulness of it through violence and sexism. An abusive partner includes constant fighting, lack of communication, and lack of respect which is all caused by machismo.

Machismo comes up as a problem because many of the women are being affected by it. Machismos do not realize what they are doing to their women and will never change because that is how men are raised to be, which is being intimidating, being in charge, and being emotionally aggressive. This disgusting behavior within a family causes fear, jealousy, arguments and rage with their wife/ daughter. In the workforce, machistas are bothered and angry seeing women in a high position or being a type of leader at work so they see them as bossy or arrogant. In family households, women are being put down and being forced to serve them or else they are afraid that their husband/ dad will hit them. Women who have been through this for a long time now can not change the way how the man is. Women would have to find a way to either escape from them or to attend therapy. Living in the same household with a machismo can start giving mental health issues to the women who are suffering from it.

A way to prevent machismo is by educating those who think that their sexuality determines who is weak and who is the dominant ones in the relationship/ household and will learn that men and women are both equal. Adding this conversation/problem to sex ed classes in school for teens to start giving them an idea that women and men are equal and what mental illnesses can this cause to the women. Through lectures and giving explanations this can benefit our future generation by not having women being mentally or physically abused.

Young men will be forced to take a sex ed class and will be informed by the disadvantages and harm that can cause women’s mental health. It can give young men a heads up that this is not how society or hispanic cultures should be. Young men can realize that maybe their father is a machista and can speak up for themselves and see that this is not a normal way of living. The only problem is that the young teens will not take this class seriously. They might already be with the mind that the man is the one who rules the house by the way of how they are living in their household.

Machismo is not only a problem for women, but for men too. This can affect men because it is possible to feel pressured by not being able to show emotional feelings or having to be brave all the time and gives no room to let real emotions out. What might be challenging is that young men might already be influenced by machismo from older brothers/ father/ uncles. Many kids can still be affected by machismo but the hours that is being spent at school can still push for at least a small change. Having teens take a sex ed class talking about this problem can increase a solution to machismo in the future.

My father is a machista and my mother and I are still being affected by it today. Having a male who believes that he is the one who is in charge and his wife’s/ daughter opinions do not matter or expressing violence in a physically or mental way is not something that should be normalized. Having women who can speak up for themselves before a machista starts to take over needs to be brought up. Women and machista’s themselves are being emotionally distressed without it even being realized.

Machismo is a problem for the machista himself and the women that are being affected by it. It does not only bring in physical violence but it also affects the mental health. Having sex ed classes bring this problem up will make a difference on how to handle it and avoid it in the present time or future. Knowing that my father will never change his ways of being a machista does still affect me but the day when I leave my home and marry the man of my dreams, machismo will only be a part of my past.

Work Cited

1. Montero, Henry A. “Depression in Men: The Cycle of Toxic Masculinity.”
2. Psycom.net – Mental Health Treatment Resource Since 1986
3. Ortiz, Veronica Lira. “The Culture of Machismo in Mexico Harms Women.” Merion West, 31 Dec. 2018.
4. “The Trap of Masculinity: How Sexism Impacts Boys and Men.” Anti-Defamation League.

According to the American Journal of Public Health, machismo sexual behavior is a source of pride for males and men must prove their manliness by upholding their sexual dominance. In this way, reputation is one of the driving forces behind machismo. We see this prides affect in How the Garcia Girls Lost their Accents by Julia Alvarez .

The character Mr. Garcia’s negative practice of machismo affect the lives of his four daughters: Yolanda, Sandra, Carla, and Sofia. Not only does it stirs up a rebellion in the girls, declaring themselves “feminists” it causes insecurities and other problems. However, the sexist idea comes under more observation in the United States than in the Dominican Republic, even though there is still sexism in the United States. In order to understand characters like Mr. Garcia and his views on why his daughters need constant supervision and need to be chastise in order to keep the family name untainted, which seems overbearing and almost dictator like.

The Garcia girls struggle to balance the machismo of their father that is like the Dominican Republic, and the male chauvinists in America. Sexism is everywhere they turn. They cannot keep up with the desires of their father to maintain their passive femininity. Every decision each of the daughters have made are based on their father’s perspectives and desires. [insert quote] Yoland for example, aspires to become a poet but because it does not meet her father expectations, he crushes her dreams [ insert reference]. This causes her to look judge herself based on what her father views- someone who is incapable of writing. Alvarez opens the novel with the girls in their adult lives but the how men impact, especially the father’s control. She writes, “ They would gather together, without husbands, would-be husbands…For this too was part of the tradition: the daughters came home alone. The apartment was too small for everyone, the father argued. Surely their husbands could spare them for one night?” (Alvarez 24). Compared to the tradition in America, where daughters bring home their husbands, boyfriends, or fiances to meet their parents to determine their fit in the family. Mr. Garcia did not allow any of the other men in the girls life come to celebrate. It is notes that when the Garcia girls come to visit, their father gives them money filled envelopes knowing that he can still provide for his girls in someway.

This reflects the machismo in Mr. Garcia, that he is the macho man and has the pride and need to continue to provide. [insert study] The author continues to express the effects of machismo on the girls and how it impacts their feminine identity concerning their relationship with men. “There had been several divorces among them, including Yolanda’s. The oldest child … had married the analyst she’d been seeing when her first marriage broke up … The second one was doing a lot of drugs to keep her weight down. The youngest had just gone off with a German man when they discovered she was pregnant.” (Alvarez 52). It seems that the Garcia girls cannot have stable relationships with men, and it derived from their father- who is aggressive, assertive, and reserved. They continue to look for a man like that of their father. [insert study] When the daughters are dating in hopes of getting married, the father finds that no man is good enough for his daughters.

The only time that he is in accord it is with a man that has many things in common with Mr. Garcia, however, these men usually do not have good intentions. And this is intermeddling with his daughter’s life and happiness . The author expresses how machismo of the Garcia girl’s father irritates the girls with how the husbands feel about Mr. Garcia. “The husbands would just as soon have not gone to their in-laws, but they felt annoyed at the father’s strutting. ‘When’s he going to realize you’ve grown up? You sleep with us!’”(Alvarez 24). The husbands are implying that they aren’t comfortable how the father walks around with his daughters like trophies. The only husband that Mr. Garcia grows accustomed to is Otto- Sofia’s husband. This is presumed because Sofia gave birth to the only male child in the family.

However, Mr. Garcia does not forgive Sofia for her actions but chooses to make amends with Sofia’s husband. It is very clear the Mr. Garcia understands the amount of power her holds within his family. The girls can never escape their father’s image because “standing up to their father[] was a different matter altogether. Even as grown women, they lowered their voices in their father’s ear shot when alluding to their body pleasures.”(Alvarez 47). Their father has been able to manipulate with fear as leverage. The girls honor and love their father so much that they fear in displeasing him, because they have done so in the past. It is from not just the negative responses from Mr. Garcia but also other men that cause the girls to have psychological breakdowns.

This is seen when Yolanda divorces John and has a mental breakdown- losing the meaning of language. Alvarez expresses the amount of psychological disconnects the Garcia sisters have experienced when the doctor says to Mrs. Garcia “ ‘You mean other daughters have also had breakdowns? Bad men is what they’ve had’ “(Alvarez 52). It is not only the bad men in the girls lives that impact their breakdowns it is also their father’s continuous reflections. The girls continue to look for resemblance of their father in other men. This leads them to unhealthy relationships and their father being able to continue having a part in their lives. Machismo is a strong characteristic of many men in the latin community, with the need to provide and control their household. Alvarez depicted the impact that a father with machismo qualities can do their daughter’s lives and their expectation in men.

The mental impact is strong, as it has been seen that the Garcia girls mental breakdowns all came full circle to their father, who wants to continuously be there to provide for his married-educated daughters. Causing irritation with their husbands, and marital problems. The girls are constantly pulled between two cultures: America and the Dominican Republic. Both having their sexist moments. As can be seen when Carla had the interaction with the man in the car who flashed her compared to the men in the Dominican Republic. Their father is a minor character but his machismo plays such a strong role in all his daughter’s lives.