Articles on La Llorona

7/28/2019 Articles on La Llorona

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AZTEC MOTIFS IN "LA LLORONA"by

Rober t A. BarakatiTHE ULTIMATE ORIGIN of Mexico's most popularlegend, "La Llorona" (The Weep ing Woman), is o bscured byextensive acc re tion of moti fs from Aztec and European sources . .Indeed, the legend has become identified with an actual case of in-f an ti cide in Mexico , add ing to the confusion .J The s imi la ri ty of nat iveand non -native elements has resul ted in much sp ecul ation as to theorigin of the story , bas ed , gener al ly , on the pre sence of cer ta in mot if s.Two theori es have been expounded: one po ints to a Europ ean ori gin,and the oth er to a nat ive Mex ican o rigin .

Significantly, both theories have ou tst anding merit s. Kirt ley'sa rgument tha t the legend "i s l argely European in origin" appea rs to bethe most accept ab le, since the basic narrativ e p at tern app arently i sfrom the Old World.s However, the fact that Aztec mythology hasprovided numerous moti fs s tr ik ingly s im ilar to those in the Europeancognate in no way enchances Kirtley's theory. In point of fact, thepre sence of such e lements tends to inval idate h is thesi s to some exten t.

~ Such mot if s a s the wai ling , water, kni fe , and gener al appear ance of the( weeping woman are directly link ed to Aztec myt hology as we shal l see.The d iss emina tion of the legend, and the amazing ly constan t inc1E~Qn.

. . .Qi the above moti fs can be at trib uted to the conquest ~f MexiE.~~lthe Spanish and that country's subs~t..o.!!:~! ion __Qy."!..~~.g.~EJ:~Catholi c Church. In bo th instances, the means of dissemi nation wereideal and also account for the wide diversity of the legend. Someversions t ake on a defini te reli gious character with overtones of thesupernatural. In most cases t he mot ifs present ill such version s areEuropean in provenience.

There can be lit tle d oubt t hat the forei gners confused their legendwith a similar one o f th e Azt ecs and, consequently, passed it on to thenatives, who in turn added t heir own elements. Kirtley's sugg estio n

'Soledad Perez, "Mexican Folklore from Austin, Texas," in The Healer o f LosOlmos and other Mexican Lore, ed. Wilson Hudson (Publication of the TexasFolklore Society, XXIV, Dallas, Texas, 1951), pp. 73.

2BacilF. Kirtley, "La Llorona and Related Themes," Western Folklore, XIX(1963), 168.

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AZTEC MOTIFS IN "LA LLORONA" 2 89

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that the social and moral values of the Spaniard involved are notthose of an Aztec male, but those of a European is valid.f Indeed,h e is correct because there are no parallels in Aztec mythology t hatbear a similar pattern of behavior on the part of the lover. This ele-ment, perhaps more than any other cited by him, is essential to hisargument. As a direct result of the betrayal of the native woman, ~ ~"n. .4infanticide is committed. Without this betrayal, there would be no ~~~ rW.ff>"La L lorona" legend as weknow i t. Doubt le ss, thi s moti f i sEuropean , m ' - f 1 > . - t t .and not Aztec. This, and the European legend, "Die 'Weisse Frau,"! ..which may have contributed the model for the weeping woman, areclearly of European provenience.

That Mexican s to ry-tel le rs r efe r to the decei tf ul lover a s un gacku-pin, and not un espaiiot, is also s ignificant. This post-conquest appella-t ion is derogatory in nature and gen erally cast s some doubt on the in-t en tions of the man. Nati ve Mexicans woul d prefer to make the weep-ing woman blameless, and at the same time shift the guilt to the for-e igne r, par ti cu la rly a Spaniard . The f ol lowing var iant o f "La L lorona"s erves as an excel lent example to i llus tra te thi s point , even though thefemale involved is una criol la (Mexi can born Spaniard). The storyproves that the social and moral values which Kirtley speaks of docome from the Old World because the female is no t really a Mex ican ;the story-teller emphasizes this.

There are many versions of "La Llorona" (The Weeping Wom-an); the best one that I know is about a gachupin (Spaniard) livingin Mexico, and who was in love with a criolla ( Span ia rd born inMex ico), probably not an Indian, but very beautiful. He had rela-tions with her, but they never married.They lived in a house, a very beautiful house, in a suburbapart from the city. Th ey had several ch ildren and l ived happily ;she was in love with him, and to all appearances, he with her. Butthe neighbors began to talk about why she always stayed withinthe house, and why he came to see her only once in a while.One day a neighbor came to say that she had found out that herhusb and di d not live with her, t hat h er husband liv ed in the cen terof Mexico Ci ty in a b eau tiful house. She had been t o see the house,and had climbed up to the windows of the man's house and hadseen that there was a wedding and that he was being married to abeaut ifu l woman dress ed as a bride .Then in her desperation, after hearing this, she went to herhouse, got a knife, and killed her children (S302; S12.2). SheIbid., 161.-tus., 157-158.

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290 ROBERT A. BARAKATdidn 't d ie but she became insane and walked a long the st ree tand saying: "Oh, my chi ldr en (QSS5)!"

As the years passed (And a good deal of time did pass!),said that every night she can be heard in that suburb (E334.~.J;ES47), and later in other areas, crying: "Oh, my children!' .....'.Because of this they say that the weeping woman is one who"appea rs dre ss ed in whi te (E425 .l .1 ; E402 .1 .1.3; E422 .4.3), wi thloose hai r and wild eyes , c ry ing l ike an insane person.

f I t appea rs, the re fo re, tha t. the basic pat te rn of the legend , bet raYa l. andinfanticide, is from the Old World upon which native elements havebeen graf ted . At lea st the Mexicans were a ffo rded a s imi lar mode l, i .e .,"Die Weiss e Frau ," from Europe with which they cou ld as sociate the irown legend, or motifs. The spread of the native motifs, along withthose from Europe, has made it difficult for scholars to identify andselec tive ly class ify the Aztec and non-Az tec e lements. The gr ea t d i-versi ty of the legend has accord ingly compounded the di ffi cu lty.

Janv ie r, and o the r studen ts of the legend, have f ormulated a theoryincorpora ting nat ive e lements to point to an ess en ti al ly Az tec origin. e

0,,e,,-,0; The dis tinct s imilar ity~etw~. the '!~~~9 the ~zt~


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292 ROBERT A. BARAKATexample, the goddess, CihuacoatI, after abandoning her cradle, ~"appea rs into a body of water ,13 She appa rent ly l imi ts her movements ':to an a rea nea r wa te r, as does the goddes s, Chalch iu tl i ycue, who ki ll s, ,>men in a body of water. The yearly s ac ri fi ce to thi s goddes s by personS"' ;'who make the ir l iv ing from water indica tes tha t perhaps she too l imi ted

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her v ic tims to these ind iv idua ls .t+ This e lement , and those mentionedprevious ly , revenge and general appea rance , a re di rec tly t raceab le toAztec mythology, a s i s the kni fe moti f.

1 That the weeping woman either slays her children with a knife, ordrowns them, is important since both motifs are apparently of Aztecorigin. Cihuacoa tl carri ed a sacri fi ci al kni fe in he r c rad le , so per hapsthe presence of t he knife in the legend is the result of motif accretionfrom native sources. This is also the case with the drowning motif,since water in Aztec mythology is of vast import, as we have notedpreviously.

Ostensibly, "La Llorona" may be identified with t he Europeanmodel suggested by Kir tley.v" the cognates cited f rom Aztec mythology"and any other of the numerous individuals who may have been in-volved in a similar situation as the weeping woman when she wasa live. Ki rt ley 's ident ifi cat ion of the weeping woman as "Die Weiss eFr au" suggest s only a vague poss ib il ity, even though the story of thi swoman circulated in Europe previous to the conquest of Mexico. In-deed, she is similar in many respects: (a) her origin is humble; (b)she murders her illegi timate child or children (S12.2); (c) she goesinsane and dies violently (Q211.4; Q555; Q558.9); (d) she returnsas a malign ghost (E411.1; E425.1.1); (e) those who see her dieshortly afterward (E545.2) .16 These po in ts a re wel l t aken, but the re areso many except ions to these par al le l e lements that Kirt ley suggest s,one wonders if they are in reality exceptions rather than the generalrule.

As regards the first parallel, some versions refer to the weepingwoman as uiAcriolla, who certainly is not of humble origin, and she isnot always ruined by a young aristocrat (T72.2),l7 Often, as in thesecond variant noted in this article, the false lover is from humbleorigin himself, or the story-teller simply does not refer to the origin

"'Perez, op. cit ., 73-74."Anderson and Dibble, op, cit ., pp. 6-7."Kirtley, op. cii ., 157-158.=rsu; 158-159.=tua; 158-159.

AZTEC MOTIFS IN "LA LLORONA" 293of the man involved. This very same version does not refer to theancestry of the man. Another version states:

There once lived a woman named Rita. Her boyfriend refused tomarry her after she became pregnant so she went to visit withrelatives because of the shame she had to bear. One day she satdown in a corner of the house, near a fireplace, and shot herselfwith a gun.She now appea rs , c ry ing , in the st reet s (E402 .1.1.3) - Peop lesaid it was this woman because the crying begins at the placewhere she killed herself and ends near the spot where she isburied (E411.1.1.; E334.4).J.8

Here, too, the man is not identified, nor is there a case of infanticidecommitted, although in the eyes of the Church there is. This motif isalso omitted from many versions of "La Llorona" in my collection.The following is a representative example:

There was once a beautiful young widow who had lost all herch ildren in a swamp. The ch ildren had d ied dur ing a n ight when themoon was full. Now, whenever the moon is full , she goes out andcr ies fo r her chi ldr en : "Oh, my chi ld ren! Wher e a re they? '1J.9Indeed, this woman is still very much alive in the story and there isno mention of the male who betrayed her, if any did.Invariably the weeping woman does go insane (Q555), although'she does not always die a violent death. Story-tellers make veiledre fer ences to her a ft er her demise, bu t o ft ent imes do not s ay whethe rshe died violently or not. These motifs apparently are narrated to-gethe r in most va rian ts, along with the ghost e lement . Sign ifi cant ly , Jthe weepi ng woman does not always return as a malevolent ghost, asKirtley suggests. Sometimes she returns simply to find the bodies ofher children whom she has not killed, but who have died, as is clearlydemons trated in the las t version jus t p re sented . She i s being punished Iby God for not taking care of her children, and must roam the riverbanks, or streets, looking for their bodies. Granted t hat she is por-trayed as a malign ghost in numerous variant s, but importantly shea lso i s port rayed s imply as a woman who must search for her ch ildrens'bodies.That "La Llorona" is an omen of impending death, and those whosee her die shortly afterward (E265.3),20 has some basis since a

"Story related by Francisco:llelendaz, 78, resident of La Union, New "Mexico,former resident of Ciudad Juarez. Chihuahua, Mexico, in Spanish.1.Story related by Juan Aquirre, 21, resident of EI Paso, Texas, in Spanish.

:.Kinley, op, cit., 159.

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294 ROBERT A. BARAKAT';great many versions portray her in this light. However" the ;"A;';~;.t:.who sees her does not always die; he sometimes goes mada malady from which he is capable of recovering from. accordingsome story-tellers. The weeping woman is also supposed to kill littleboys and gir ls whom she sees out at night to compensate for her: loStchildren. Perhaps the weeping woman in this respect, is an exteruioi! ~:.of the "Bogey man" story (E293)" as Leddy suggests.et A Mexicanstory-teller s tates that "about 1900 and 1920 she appeared. Many .priests said that CIaHorona' would appear to disobedient children, orwandering boys who at tend part ies or dances late at night . And withthis they motivated fear and prompted the children and boys to returnhome early."22 She is indeed the bogey-man type in this variant.

The identif ication of the weeping woman is impossible in the light Jof extensive motif accretion from native and non-native sources. A s lk i t , ? j 1 . ( ) " c e was noted previously, the European legend, "Die Weisse Frau," sug-

,.(XI) gests only a vague possibi li ty . One version of the legend this wri tercollected in northern Mexico identifies "la llorona" as "Ia Malinche,"23a native woman from Mexico City, who was betrayed by one,Velasco,a Spaniard (T91.6). She had given birth to three illegitimate children

[who were branded as slaves. The Spaniard had an affair with anotherwoman (T72.2), and Ia Malinche, in a rage of jealous anger and hate,stabbed her children to death (S12.2), and threw their bodies in a well.The story-teller even places the incident in a specific part of the city,near the Cathedral, and dates the event at around 1774-1776. Signif.icantly, the story-teller states that "from then on la Malinche, orbet ter known as 'la l lorona' can be seen in al l cit ies in different partsof Mexico, especial ly where there is a well , a lagoon, or any placewhere there is water, crying out three times for her children (E547).But always she appears where there is water."24 He further states thatshe can be seen in the center of the city with long hair, as if she hadjust taken a bath, and dressed in white (E425.1.1). Clearly these

} elements identify the weeping woman as an apparition similar in mostl respects to one of the Aztec deities discussed previously, Cihuacoatl."Betty Leddy, "aL Llorona in Southern Arizona," Western Folklore, VII(1948), 277."Story related by Leonardo Villa, 31, resident of Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua,Mexico, in Spanish."See footnote 22.See footnote 22.

AZTEC MOTIFS IN "LA LLORONA" 295

To substantiate this conjecture, this same story-teller related an-other version of the legend in which the weeping woman appears withloose hair and in a white robe, but only when the tide is high andwhen many disasters have occurred involving boats, usually along thecoastal areas. She can be seen and heard crying for her lost chi ldren(E547) in the middle of the water. He cont inues in another vers ion:" ... persons say that they have seen her bending down over the topof wells in the center of Mexico City; wells are common in manyhouses and people draw water from them for domestic use. . . ." Isshe then the Aztec goddess, Chalchiuhtli ycue, who kills men in water?If she is , and there is a dis tinct possibi li ty, then the two Aztec god-desses are direct ly related to the weeping woman. In the case of thewoman and these dei ties , there is a defini te connect ion with water.Their appearance near or in water has a bearing upon the originof thewoman in the legend. Kirtley makes no mention of the importance ofwater in any of the variants of "Die Weisse Frau" since this moti f isabsent from them. This is not t rue of the vast majority of vers ionsOf] ~JU"La Llorona" collected in Mexico in which water plays a very signi-ficant part.

Numerous other motifs which are apparently of European pro-venience are also present in versions of "La Llorona." These aredoubtless the result of motif accretion from non-native sources. Onedeals with the weeping woman in much the same manner as ci ted inthe first version presented in this paper; however, she is considered awitch. The city authorities, after hearing of her crime; decide to burnher at the stake, and while she is dying, cries out for her children. Nowshe appears at midnight, the witching hour, weeping and wailing, andif an unfortunate wanderer happens by, then he will be killed (E25.3).The onlymeans that can be used to ki ll her is to drive a wooden stakeinto her heart. Another concerns the death of infants; "La Llorona"Jwas condemned to roam the streets in search of her sons for alleternity as a punishment meted out by God. Her soul cannot rest untilshe finds her childrens' bodies (0503). Clearly, these have a definitereligious flavor, and might well be from Europe.

In much the same manner, a young widow of Ciudad Juarez isdoomed to search for her children, but only when the moon is fullbecause she ki lled them during this phase of the moon. Likewise, ayoung woman from EI Paso, Texas, who drowned her child (S1212) in

"'See footnote 22.


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29 6 ROBERT A. BARAKATthe Rio Grande River, must look for the body t int il she finds i t,then she will be allowed into Heaven. So she, as with the others,search for what she can never find. These versions do not dealblameless woman, as in some; she has committed a crime and is punish.~

) ed accordingly. The influence of the Church is a prime factor ,and=, ,; ;,L probably accounts for the presence of the above motifs in the legend,Influences acting upon the oral tradition of Mexico are numerous

and diverse, as we have seen in the above discussion of "La Llorona."It is possible to conclude that Aztec mythology contributed many ofthe motifs because they are the most obvious . This is not to say thatmotifs of European provenience are not present; they are not asdistinct as the native ones.The Unive rs it y o j Texas

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MORALITY, COURTSHIP, AND LOVEIN GREEK FOLKLORE'"by

Constantina Safilios-Rothschild

M ORALITY AND LOVE in the traditional Greek culture can beunderstood only when examined in the context of "honor."Behavior is guided by the consideration of potential conse-quences for one's honor; any thing that may lead to dishonor is painstakingly avoided. Being honored or dishonored very often proves tobe a matter oflife and death. This extreme concern and literally "loveof honor," expressed in pkilotimo, constitutes a central characteristicof the Greek national character+

Three proverbs emphasize the importance of honor: "Honor has noprice and joy is his who has it," "It is better to lose your eye thanyour good name,"> and "Bet ter not l ive at al l than l ive disgraced.?"The first proverb is of interest in its original Greek version as the sameword timi means"honor" as well as"price." This synonymity seems toimply that a person 's wor th varies with and can be measured by thedegree of honor he can claim for himself.

One keeps his "good name" (i.e. good reputation) by preservinghis honor unspoiled. A good name in turn entities one "to walk holdinghis head high" because his "forehead is clean"-and therefore he "canlook people into their eyes" without fear or shame. This good reputa-t ion guarantees usual ly the esteem of family members, friends andneighbors.

*Arevised version of a paper read at the American Folklore Meeting in De-troit, December 29, 1963. Acknowledgment is given to Sally Snyder, who encour-aged me and helpedme to prepare this paper.

'For an excellentdiscussion of philotimo, honor and ntropi, see Dorothy Lee,"Greece," in Margaret Mead, Cul tura l Pat terns and Technical Change (NewYork, 1955),60-63; also Ernestine Friedl, Vas il ika, a Vil lage in Modern Greece(New York, 1962), 86-87 and 90-9l.'Both proverbs come from my unpublished collection of Greek proverbs, say-ings, and linguistic expressions. Throughout the entire paper, word, words, orsentences quoted, but not footnoted, have come from the same unpublished col-lection. This collectionis based upon my familarity with the Greek language andculture, as a Greek reared and educated in Greece, and upon data derived fromanalysing novelsand movies.' A Wor ld T re as ur y o f P rov er bs , collected by Henry Davidoff (New York,1946), 99.

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amopg the wat ers, and the tenuous veil s of her gown seemth(jklouds.'Four th Woman She c ross es roads dappled in moonligh t, and her

f il ters among the tree branches in the woods, i t reverberates against theweaves among the mountains.Fifth Woman At ni ghtfall , her long, shril l lament makes t he U,UUleSt

person shudder.... I have seen the rosary fall from the handsfrightened women astheyhear her mournful wail.Second Woman It' s not a human cry, but it resounds in our consci ouse

ness, it invades the inner coils of our hearing.First Woman I t seems tha t she carr ie s with her , ins ide of hers el f,

voices of many women.Second Woman Far away, beyond time.Fourth Woman To hear her isa badomen.First Woman They say tha t her most dolefu l c ry i su tt er ed when she

to Ia P laza Mayor. . .. That she knee ls down the re . .. . Turn ing towardsancien t t emples of the I nd ians , she k is se s the ground and wai lsand fills everything with sorrow.Second Woman They say that she loved passionately.Fourth Woman That she was abandoned . ..Third Woman That she committed a horrible crime.Fifth Woman That she spilled the blood of her loved ones.First Woman One t hing we know; she must have suffered

poor woman. Why can't she f ind any res t?

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VICTORIA MORENOBorn in Texas in 1957, Victoria Moreno is a faith healer. She comments, "I ama visionary. r live between the centuries-mosc frequently in the fifteenth. Informer lives I was a seamstress, a curandera [med ic in e woman} , a murde re r, acavern dancer, a maid, and a sculptor. I have fourteen children. My writing isfull of chese people. They cry our from within me. I am all of them and theyare me. Each one adds the strength of cheir experiences. My poecry seeks todance-my legs are paralyzed. I would like my writing co create, co sing, andespecially, co dance."

LA LLORONA, CRYING LADY OF THE CREEKBEDS,483 YEARS OLD, AND AGING

(-when we were children, we were told how La Lloronahad lost her children, how one could hear her cry at night,s ear ch ing fo r t he ir d ead l iv es , wa il ing, fl yi ng hai r, a nd w il deye s. D if fe ren t v er si on s and di ff er en t r ea sons , e ach t o t el l u sa moral, to warn us, Once, we found out what her phonenumber was and used co dial and listen to her cry, passinga round t he phone f rom one t o t h e nex t.Years later, we learned that the mych predated the arrivalof che Span ia rd s. The c ry ing l ady, a malincbe, had bemoaned

che face of her own children, a fate she had been accompliceto. We knew she would be forever with us, forever in ourmemories, crying for her dead children and for her childrenyet unbo rn t ha t wer e t o di e.But creek b eds got scarce in che barrio, and so, La Llorona

had to get a phone installed so we could reach her, so wecould hear her, so she could let us know the truth.)

La Lloronathey took away her childrenthe welfare officecame and stole awayher childrenbecause she had no right, they said,to be a single parent, non-model American family

they took away her children(all unborn)


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because He was married and she was on the pilI andHe didn' t careto fool with divorces and didn' t caretohave any bastard children and asked hernot to have his .

h they took awayher childrenit was way-out-of-style to long for large familiesand staying home with one's babies and breast-feeding truthand love and all that rot, especially if youwere a professionaland should know better, and one was only allowed tohave twoanyway, and only if one let the day-care raise them.

they took awayher children"how are you PROTECTING yourself?" they always asked,a s i f one cou ld be at tacked bypregnancy at any minuteand torn to shreds like the most horrible distortion

they took away her childrenbecause there was no timetobu ild thema wor ld , no t imein the battlefront, soldiers always neededand she had tostruggle jus tto stay alive

they took away her children'and made decrees about all children-to-be,(too soon) and slipped anti-fertility chemicals intothe water , to insure a society that was clean andscheduled and sterile, like the clinics designed to-(well , don't worry about preserving health, jus t make sure toFIGHT DISEASE!) -

theytook away her childrenAnd the Aztec Lady crying down the creekbedsran into a concrete wall and, puzzled blank,stopped her wailing for her childrenand just stared, realizing that

hope was gone.While J took up the dirgeand, screaming down the streets at night,car ried on the insane truth, the painknowing thatthey took away her children.

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FABIOLA CABEZA de BACABorn in 1896, Fabiola Cabeza de Baca now lives in Santa Fe. She has writtenseveral pamphlets on food preparation, including Historic Cookery, which iscur rently published by La Galer ia de los Artesanos in Las Vegas , New Mexico.Her memoirs of pioneer life in New Mexico, We Fed Them Cactus, were pub-lished in 1954. Of her background, she says, "My Spanish ancestors were herebefore the pilgr ims arr ived in the East. The Spanish settlers for centuries kepttheir culture, traditions, rel igion, language. I am including these notes so thatyou may real ize tha t we may not have the problems encountered by personswho may not have had the background which we have kep t here through thecenturies."

THE WOMEN OF NEW MEXICO

The women on the 11ano* and Ceja+ played a g reat part i n th e history ofthe land. It was a difficult life for a woman, but sh e had made h er cho icewhen in the marr iage cer emony she had promised to obeyand to f ol low herhusband . It may not have been her cho ice, s ince parent s may have dec idedfor her . I t was the Spanish custom tomake matches for the children. Whetherthr ough cho ice or t radi tion , the women had to be a har dy lot in order tosur-v ive the long t rips by wagon or car ri age and the separa tion fr om the ir f ami -l ie s, i f the ir f ami li es wer e not among those who were set tl ing on the L lano .The women had to be versed in the curative powers of plants and in

midwife ry , fo r the re wer e no doc to rs within a radius of two hundred mi le sor more.The knowledge of p lant medicine i s an inheri tance fr om the Moors, and

brought to New Mexico by the f irs t Span ish colon izers . Fr om chi ldhood weare taught the names of herbs , weeds , and plants that have curative potency;even today , when we have doc to rs a t our immediate cal l, we st il l have greatfa ith in p lant medicine . Cer ta in ly thi s knowledge of home r emedie s was asource o f comfort t o the women who wen t out to Llano, yet their faith inGod helped more than anything in their survival.Ever y v il lage had i ts curandera ] or medica , and the ranche rs r ode many* Rolling plains country.t Mountaintop.t Medicine woman.


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mile s to bring the medic ine woman or the midwi fe from a dis tantneighboring ranch.Qui te often the wif e of the pat ron * was well versed in plant mecncme.

know that my grandmother, Dona Estefana Delgado de Baca,g iven the name of medica, because i t was not conside red prope r in her.class, was cal led every d ay by some fami ly in the vill ag e, or by- pleados, t to t reat a child or some ot her person in t he family. In thethe yea r she went out to the h il ls and val leys to gathe r her supply ofherbs . When she went to live in La Liendre, there were ter rible outbreaksiclsmallpox and she had difficulty convincing the villagers that vaccinationa : so lu tion . Not unt il s he had a godch ild in eve ry f am ily was she able totrol the dreaded disease. In Spanish tradition a godmother takes the resoonsfb il ity of a real mother, and in that way grandmother conquer ed manystiti ons whi ch the people had. At least sh e had the power to d eci deshould bedone for her godchildren.From El Paso, Texas , she secured vaccines f rom her cousin Dr. Samamezo;

She vaccinated her children, grandchildren, and godchildren against theease. She vaccinated me when I was three years old, and the vaccinationpassed many doctors' inspections.As did my grandmo ther, so al l the wives o f the patrones held a very

por tant p lace in the v il lages and ranches on the Llano. The pat ron r uledrancho , but h is wif e looked a fter the spi ri tual and physica l wel fa re ofempleados and the ir fami li es . She was the fi rst one cal led when the redeath, i llness , misfortune, or good tidings in a family. She was a greatforce in the community-more so than her husband. She held thestrin gs, and thus sh e was ab le to do as she p leased in her chari tableprises and to help those who might seek her assistance.There may have been class dis tinction in the larger towns, but theon the Llano had none; the empleados and the ir f ami li es were asmuch a

of th e family of the patro n as his own children. It was a very democraticway of life.The women in these isolated areas had to beresourceful in every way.

were their own doctors, dressmakers, tailors, and advisers.The settlements were far apart and New Mexico was a poor ter ri tory

to adapt i ts el f to a new ru le. The L lano people had no oppor tuni ty fo rschools before statehood, but the re wer e men and women who heldfor the chi ld ren of the pat rones in priva te homes . They taugh t read ingSpanish and sometimes in English. Those who had means sent their childrento school in Las Vegas , Santa Fe, or Eastern s tates. I f no teachers wereable, the mothe rs taugh t the ir own chi ld ren to read , and many of the

ranchershad private teachers for their children until they were old enough togoaway to boarding schools.Dona Luisa Gallegos de Baca, who herself had been educated in a conventin the Middle Wes t, se rved as teache r to many of the chi ld ren on the L lanoterritory.Without the guidance and comfort o f the wives and mothe rs , l if e on theLl ano wou ld h av e been unbearabl e, and a great d eb t is owed to the bravep ioneer women who ven tured into the c ruel l if e of the p la ins, fa r f rom con-tactwith the outside wor ld. Most of them have gone to their eternal res t, andGod must have saved a ver y spec ia l p lace for them to recompense them fortheir contribution to colonization and religion in an almost-savage country.

* Landlord.t Employees.

/ ./


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MARCELA CHRISTINE LUCERO-TRUJI pachuco became an ideal Chicano type as the prototype of rebelling againstthe gringo-r aci st soc ie ty a t a t ime when Amer ican pat riot ism was a t an a .l lt imehigh: the Second World War .Like the Latin American, the Chicano also diminished the European psyche

byestablishing the Chicano Amerindia concept, which emphasized knowledgeabout the h ighly developed Aztec and Mayan c iv il iz at ions as hav ing beenequal to, i f not super io r to, the Greek and Roman c iv il iz at ions so predomi-nant in all facets of Anglo-American education.In the beg inning , in the early 60s , the Chicanos were r epea ting the same

conce rns of the Lat in American phi losophers and wri te rs o f the late n ine-teenth and twentieth centuries , among them Jose Mar ti , Jose Vasconcelos ,Leopoldo Zea, Samuel Ramos, Silva J . Herzog, I turr iaga and Octavio Paz, toname only a few. That d il emma of being an American of thi s con tinent , butimbued and dominated byEuropean language, culture and customs called forethnic self-introspection, which led to a recognition of autochthonous Ameri-can elements.Hence the popularity of Mexican writers and historians, especially Octavio

Paz's Labyrinth of Solitude, which car ried a compilation of his predecessorsconcerning Mexicanism, Mexican philosophy, psyche, thought and all theproblematics of achieving economic independence.Paz 's popular ity among Chicanos may have stemmed from the fact that he

wro te about a Chicano type in h is book: the pachuco , and thus, he broughttothe present a social phenomenon that Chicanos were familiar with, throughoral tradition, or the experience itself.The quest ions tha t Mexicans were asking prior to the 1910 r evolut ion in

repudiation of Positivism, the philosophy of Scientism, were repeating them-selves in the Chicano movement and the l it er ature . The lei tmoti f "Yo soyChicanoya" * predominated in much of thewritings; however, as the militancydecreased, the self-af firmation diluted into an anguished question. Was thisdue to the fact that s ince the Chicano movement began ten yea rs ago, Chi -canos are now realizing that the Mexican identification has not been sufficientto provide us with solut ions in order to surv ive within thi s cap it al is t r aci stoppressive society?This i s more acu te f or the Chicana than for the Chicano , a s evidenced by

the statistics that Chicanas place lowest on the .financial and educational scalein comparison with any other ethnic group, male or female (Neomi Lorenzo,De Colores, p . 11).The impetus of the woman 's movement together with the Chicano move-

ment contr ibuted to the Chicana 's lates t potential and so she began to focus inon her par ticular feminis tic exper ience through the arts. The Chicanas tookthe symbols afforded them through the Chicano movement and transformedthem according to their feminis t perspective. Some Chicanas' poetry is a. tra-

Born in Colorado, Marcela Christine Lucero-Trujillo currently lives insora, where she is an ins tructor in Chicano Studies at the Univers itynesora. Her poetry has appeared in Time to Greez! (1975), La Razon(1975), and La Lxz, She includes the following poem to explainas a writer:

My epitaph in poetry should read thusly . ..Lit major learned in "isms"symbols and imagery,but if she ain't communicatedwith the barrio educated,then this one here, ain't she.

THE DILEMMA OF THE MODERNCHI CA NA ART 1ST AND C R I TIC

Ute l iterary rebi rth of the Chicanos in the 60s co incided wit hmultaneous contemporary his torical moments : (1) the passage of theRights Act of 1964, (2) identification with Cesar Chavez'sstruggle, (3) the incep tion of Chicano S tudies depar tments, and (4)initiation of the socio-economic political national Chicano movement.Through unification and national mobilization, the Chicanos began to,

aware of their history, prev iously oblit erated in U.S. textbooks. The .to Mexican his tory, the emphasis on Mexican culture and traditions into seek self-affirmation and a positive self-identification, was almost ination of this U.S. Anglo-European system which has held us in second-erascit izenship s tatus s ince 1846, denying us the r ights and privilegesus in the Treaty of Guada lupe Hidalgo and agreed upon by the U.S.ment at the close of the Mexican-American war.As the Chicano movement began its evolution into unification,

were faced with the problem of diversi ty. Not all Chicanos wereall were Cathol ic; not all were Spanish surnamed and not all were speaking. I t therefore became necessary to invent or bor row symbols asmon denominators around which all Chicanos could unite.lOne of these was the symbol o f t he mesti zaje, t he t ripartite faceIndian mother, the Spanish father and their offspring, the mestizo.was the concept of a Chicano nation~Azt1an. Linguis tically, thereemergence of pachuquismos and regional d ia lec ts in * I am a Chicano/a,


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jectory of self-examination that terminates with a "cuestionamiento"socio-economic and polit ical factors that have taken their toll onvidualism.Some Chicanas' literature has been a vehicle whereby they could LL"~C u

another tempor al scene of our f olklor e, our legends and modustha t par ti cu la r pas t which seemed a safe r and saner world, theought to be, albeit a very traditional romantic view.Through the art s there is an attempt at lib eration from the

pean culture, that sys tem of government that has conquered' and LVWULCUin the s ame way i t had Cuba and now Puer to Rico, the d if fe renceChicanos are peripheral, marginal characters within the Metropolis,the other colonized Latin American countries are controlled by foreign

t C" tinational corporations within their midst.~ \t. :0/' : '" ( Literat ure has also prov ided an outlet for the frustratio ns ofin ) woman within the sexis t microcosmic Chicano wor ld of machismo,

) a li enat ion of being a Chicano woman in the lar ge r macrocosmic whi te\.club that governs the United States.I n a ques t fo r iden ti ty and an aBi rma tion tha t b rown is beautiful, the

fcana has sought r ef uge in the image of the ind igenous mothe r. Som~canas view the Indian mother asMother Ear th; some identify with thereality in religious themes of the Y'~in5~Lg,!:1~daIl!p~, the spirituliland still others identify directly with thc:l1e.~iC:~,l1ve, the historical_r,..:l_!l:!~~c;:he.he latter will beexplained in more detail.

suffering ~_~~cjfa!l_I?!,(:~ther:'.who. is,ceIebrate.~ . 11"May.}Q~~. The .Chingctlfais the rpJ2~h.~.:L~hQ..h3;~,~uffered_-=ITletaphoricalIyor actually-the corrosive~ll_g~fil1lljng action implicit il1tht: verb that giyes her her name" (Paz,Labyr inth , p. 75).Thus, Paz says, "hijos de Ia chingada" * i s a t rue bat tl e c ry , char ged with

a peculiar electrici ty; i t is a challenge and an aff irmation, a shot f ired againstan imagina ry enemy, and an exp losion in the a ir. " The Mexican den ie s LaMalinche , and the angu ish shows when he shou ts "Viva Mexico, h ijos de Iachingada" (Ibid., p. 75).I t is no wonder, then, that the ) \1exical1swanted to transcend this mythical

! Ilaternal imagetofind refuge in a Chr is tian feminine deity, one who s.ouI~. lc:ptacethe Mexican Eve, and so "La Virgen Morena"-the brownvi rg in .La Vi.rge!l,ge_g_l,l~g~lYpe'pecame the pj!trQ.lu~intQf lv{e)Cicowho is often.,~hQ_':l.:!1ed:'the@otlter,Qf(}rphans." She is also called Guadalupe-Tonantzinamong some of the Indian populat ion, and thi s l at te r concept re fl ect s, theChristian-Aztec mingling of religion and culture.La Virgen de Guadalupe is the Chr is tian virgin, symbolizing, perhaps , the

Spani sh 16th cen tu ry concept of honor which conside red v ir gini ty a s therepository of the family honor , a concept deeply rooted in Catholic ideology.' !:0f larl tz in, the Aztec goddess of fer ti li ty, is viewed as MotherNature, In

Chicana I iter~ture, the technique of pathetic fali~cY merges with the symbolof the good mother, Guadalupe or Tonantzin, presenting a harmonious rela-t ionship of the universe in fusion with nature....If .


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forces the fee ling of orphanhood, of a lienat ion and margina liza tionU.S. and Mexican soc ie ties, in the prismat ic view of Indian ident ityvades much of the Chicana's literature.However, to blame one woman, Dona Marina, for the Conquest, i s,

opinion , a false historica l consc ience. One woman could not stand inof European expansion; one woman could not impede the a ll iance ofc lass interests with the foreign invader 's economic interests . God, _gold, economic, political and religious reasons were one total objectiveChurch and State were not separated at the time of the Conquest. .pendence" is a mis nomer in Latin America as one foreignanothe r has i nf luenced and domina ted i ts e conomic sphere tocycle of dependency and neo-colonial status for its inhabitants.In t he c aseo f t he Chi canos , t he gr ingo has rep lac ed the Spani ards

"gran chingon" by vir tue of his having the posit ions of power. Andposit ions of power oppress through rac ism, which has made Chicanosand rever t t o t he Indi an mothe r t o say , t hrough he r, t ha t brown i sI t i s th is c ont empo ra ry soci et y wh ich ha s c lassi fi ed "brown" a sthe schemat ic s of r el at iv e beau ty. Thu s, t o r efut e t he rac ism and thetypes, Chicanas have emphasized the bronze race which , i ronica lly,past, has not appeared in the race classification. Under the present catezorres,only the black, whit e, r ed and yel low rac es a re v is ib le. And,t ha t r ea son, Chi canos have been c al le d the " Invi si bl e" t he 'the "Silent Americans."

THE PROBLEMATICS OF THE MODERN CHICANA

Sylvi a Gonzal es i n her poet ry i s f ir st o f a ll a woman , t hen a Chi canawith a mission . Materna l imagery permeates much of her poe try. Shepoet ry to her future generat ions , a nd she ponder s th ei r f at e as shein and out of herself, from the first to the third person in the poembegins "Yo soy la mujer poeta. *"2Como sera la generac i6n; c riada can la inquietud de la mujer poe ta

She expresses the anxie ties of being a woman poet, not a poe tisa , but apoe ta , who is faced with the sisyphus responsib il ity of advising andwel l t o t he future generat ion o f Chi cano reader s. Her mi ss ion i s t obecause she has many "consejos" t to give.In her persona l Ars Poe tica (De Colores, p. 15) she gives 'us her

ophy in dec lar ing tha t " th e ar ti st must be t ru e toher own soul and herper sona l e xpe ri ences , and in so do ing, t he me ssage w il l be un iv er saleternal" (Ibid.,p.15).

* I am the woman poet .t How will the generation be; fostered by the restlessness of the woman:t "Advices."

Sylvi a spe ak s col le ct iv ely for t he Chi cana and for a ll women when shes ta tes t hat "we a re al l s is te rs unde r t he f le sh ." In he r poem "On an unti tl edtheme, " whose p ri nc ipa l t heme i s mach ismo , she exac erbat es t he di lemma ' )f el t by every int el lec tu al woman who want s t o u se her he ad , o r who want s (t obe recogni zed for he r i nt el li gence, a nd not only for her body. She must (c onv ince her macho co ll ea gue s that h er goa l i s not t hei r b ed . She would Jr ej ect t he f in al it y o f t he Chi cana' s l if e o f bea ri ng son s for war s, of b eingal ienat ed af te r th e ch il dr en grew up and l ef t home. The cho ice o f be ar ingsons for war s o r as v ic tims o f a t echnolog ic al soci et y whose recour se f rompressures are drugs is an anxie ty tha t every contemporary mother faces. TheChicana mother whose only l ife has been her chi ldren may have difficult iesin her later year s. She may seek refuge in the bottle or transf orm into anagging wife or a "vieja chisrnosa." *The sanctuary of the Chicano home then becomes a replica of the conil ic -t ive soc ie ty . The modern Chicana faces a double confl ic t. On the one hand,she mus t overcome Chicano fam ily ove rp rot ect ion, and on the o the r, shefaces contempt from the outside world as she emerges into the professiona lwo rld, only to f ind ind if fe rence a s an swer s t o her ques ti on s on rea li ty andl ife. These are themes tha t women can relate to in Sylvia's poe try, but amidstthese problems, Sylvia aff irms her indiv idua lism in "Te acuerdas mujer ." tThis assertion of intel lectua lism is indirec t in the pra ises and eulogies to

Sra . Juana Ines de la Cruz, the renowned genius of Mexican colonia l t imes.Dorinda Moreno, among other poetesses, identifies with this victim of Catho-lic machismo who was made to give up her academic life and go out intothe wo rld, whe re she cont rac ted the p la gue and d ied a premature dea th a tthe age of 45, a martyr to feminine intelligentsia.

The modern Chicana , in her l iterature, t ries to synthesize the materia l ands pir itual conflict of her es sence. Her spirit is ingrained in the roots ofMexican cul ture and tradi tions, but her body is t ry ing to survive in a hosti lecapital istic environment , and she keenly fee ls the technological bat tle ofsci en ti srn v s. human ism. In t rying to resolve the two, her l iterature oftenshows the contradictions that exist between the two.Sylvi a Gonza les expresses t hi s c onc ern in he r a rt ic le i n t he fol lowing:"There are many Mexican cul tu ra l v alues t hat we c an rela te t o, but ar e t heyrel ia ble i n our sea rch for a n iden ti ty w it hin the Anglo Ame ri can cul tu ra ltradition?" The answer, she says , is a link between s cience and the s oul(Gonzales, De Col ores, pp. 15-18).An elaboration of that answer can be found in A. Sanchez-Vasquez'sbook, Art and Soc ie ty . "Creative freedom and capitalist production are hostilet o t he a rt is t. .. . Ar t. r ep re sen ti ng den ied humani ty oppo se s an inhuman so-

* Shrewish old woman.t Remember you are a woman.


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I ciety, and society opposes the art is t insofar as he res is ts reification, .he tries to express his humanity" (A.S.V., p. 116).The d il emma of the Chicanoz 'a art ist i s t rying to c reate an ar t f or

s ake, and not fo r a rt 's sake or fo r commerc ia li sm. He /She i s work inghosti le , scientific milieu whose marginalization is twofold: one, becausea rt ist 's cr ea tion i s not sc ient ifi c, but humanist ic, fo r the en joyment ofmani ty , wi th no u ti li ta ri an value , and second , because Chicanos 'values are not understood or appreciated by the dominant society.Chicano a rt is ts and wri te rs must cont inue to cr ea te and to communica fwith the grass roots people, and in so doing, will reach the universalwho identify with their contemporary situation whether in this orcount ri es , whe ther in thi s o r ano ther h is to ri ca l moment, fo r a rt has i tslaws which transcend the artist, his/her t ime and even the ideologybrought forth his/her art.Li te ra tu re i s a medium and a prax is wher eby we can start to quest ion

oppress ion, not by escapism into the mythical pas t in sentimentalr emini scen t o f o ther l it era ry ages, but in deal ing with the everydaylems. The Chicana can question and confront the society which holds herdouble jeopardy, of being a woman and a minority.Every Chicana's life is a novel, yet we have not read a

Chicana feminis t novel. The Chicana has had to be a cultural schizophrenic:in t ry ing to p lea se both the Chicano and Anglo publi shers , not to ment ionpleas ing the readers , who may neutralize her potential to create withinown framework of ideas.We must examine closely the published works of Chicanas who have

selected for publicat ion by male editors and publishers. We have toourselves if we have been published because we have dealt with themes thatreinforce the male ego. As urban profess ional Chicanas, we must reinterpretour pan thei st ic v iew of the world. Are we real ly the pro to type of thesuf fering indigenous mother? Are we co-opting and neutralizingtions by writing what the publishers want to read?1remind you that "macho" in class ical Nahuatl means " image,"

of myself." Are we then only a narciss is tic ref lection, and consequentlywe def ine ourselves as a ref lection of the Chicano perspective, as a reactioni 'rather than action of that definition?Then it becomes necessary to examine the totality of the Chicana 's

express ion, her motives for writing, the audience for whom it was intended; 'her biography as a product of all of her past exper iences which are projectedinto her work, and lastly to understand why her part icular content isporlan t in thi s space and t ime . For in examining a work in thi s c ri ti ca lwe would al so be examining ours elves, andcou ld come to a col lec tiveelusion of what direction we are taking within the feminis tic f rameworkthe Chicano's socioeconomic and polit ical s tatus within the United States.

/

Therefore, i t may be somewhat premature at this t ime to view the presentl it era tu re of the Chicanas as a cu lmina tion of the Chicana experience . Allof the literature has been posit ive in that i t has provided a his torical aware-ness, "una concientizacion," an inspiration to other Chicanas to aff irm theirl iterary talents , and those Chicanas who have been writing and publishingfor some time now are progressing steadily on t he incline of their ownapogee.

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