Dianna L. Ruiz

Research Journal

November 30, 2001 

The Explorative Measure of Education in Mexican American Women

Introduction

What becomes of a Mexican American woman when she decides to venture outside of her community and pursue postsecondary education?  With a college education, what life altering experiences could she encounter, and would these changes be good?  What difference would a college education make for a Chicana?  I believe education would present a minority woman with choices.  It would present options in a world where many feel “trapped” in traditional roles.  My intent is to explore the role of Mexican American women with and without postsecondary education.

Personal Inquiry

I no longer view my culture and my community the same way.  One part of me respects the strength it takes for Chicanas to uphold and function in traditional expectations, the other part of me feels – if only they knew they can choose not to follow those patterns.  Viewing the women in my culture brings a sense of familiarity, but at the same time it brings a sense of sadness.  The women in my family each have their own stories, and though they have assimilated into the dominant culture, the pressure of upholding the traditional roles still influence they way they live their lives.

The women in my family have learned their traditional roles from my Grandmother, their mom.  Grandma has eight children, four sons and four daughters.  In 1954 Saginaw Newspaper featured an article on my grandmother.  She had two sets of twins, each set a year apart and the births occurred in the same month.  One set was born on October 16, 1953 and the other set was born on October 23, 1954.  In the article Grandma said, in reference to the two babies in the right arm and two babies in the left arm, "yes, Robert and I do not plan on having any more children."  Six years later, my grandparents and their small family of four moved to Texas. The original decision to move to Texas was for work, and partly because Michigan was just too cold.  Grandma was born in Houston, but when she was a child her family moved to Michigan for farming, so grandma grew up working on the farm with her thirteen brothers and sisters.  Grandpa was born in Michigan, and that's where he and grandma met. 

In 1961, while living in Galveston, another addition to the family was born.  Then another, and another, and another.  Her life was her children's and her husband's.  Eventually, her life extended to twenty grandchildren and five great grandchildren.  Many of my aunts and uncles had to work at a very young age.  Some did not finish school, and some did.  Three out of four of my grandmother's daughters graduated from high school.

Studying Mexican American Literature introduces terms to identify the patterns in minority life; it raises awareness of ambivalence and challenges associated with assimilating and resisting.  Consequently, through analysis I gain comparative value in relation to my own experiences and observations. 

 

I.  Review of Dependent Women in Sandra Cisneros’ House on Mango Street

Cisneros, Sandra.  The House on Mango Street.  New York:  Vintage, 1991.

Esperanza in “Beautiful and cruel” experiments with the ideas of separating from the traditional role.  She listens to her sister Nenny talk of wanting to marry early, she listens to her mother talk of her getting older, and she feels ambivalent.  At that moment she tells herself, “I have decided not to grow up tame like the others who lay their necks on the threshold waiting for the ball and chain” (88).  When I read that line I heard my own voice telling my aunts, “the telephone is for you, it’s your ball and chain, he has tracked you down.”  Sometimes, I would carry it a little further and walk as if one foot was heavy and tease, “It must be hard to wander away with such a heavy load.”

Listing some of Esperanza’s friends will give a summary of the dependent women who do not see options outside of marriage for obtaining dreams and goals.  Marin, Esperanza’s friend from Puerto Rico living on Mango Street, talks of meeting some one in the subway who would marry her and provide a home.  Esperanza describes her as someone “waiting for a car to stop, a star to fall, someone to change her life” (27).  She is observant to the reoccurring behavior of barrio women expecting a man, a husband, to change their fate rather than deciding or making changes for themselves.  Realizing the consequences of relying on the trend of marrying as an escape, Esperanza comments about a neighbor who “gets locked indoors because her husband is afraid Rafaela will run away since she is too beautiful to look at” (79).  Her friend Sally makes the wrong decision and marries someone to get her away from the imprisonment of her father’s home and becomes trapped in the same situation in her husband’s home.  In reference to Sally, Esperanza said, “she sits at home because she is afraid to go outside without his permission” (102).  She notices the commitment of marriage is a commitment to seclusion, abuse, neglect, and loneliness, but many of these women continue to submit to the pattern because they know no other way.  The characters mentioned are encumbered to the patriarchal power of the Mexican Male. 

Exception to this pattern is Esperanza’s friend Alicia.  Alicia has dual roles of fulfilling duty to family while pursuing her own dreams.  She exemplifies the path Esperanza must choose to escape the pattern.  Esperanza comments, “Alicia, who inherited her mama’s rolling pin and sleepiness, is young and smart and studies for the first time at the university.  Two trains and a bus, because she doesn’t want to spend her whole life in a factory or behind a rolling pin” (31).  Alicia realizes education will present options for choosing a different path in her life.  Education allows a certain sense of authority and Esperanza had figured that out at a young age.  She admits, “I’m the only one who can speak with any authority; I have science on my side” (50).  She makes a conscious choice to work to earn money to attend a Catholic high school because public school was for those who “wanted to turn out bad” (53).  Reinforcements are constantly presented to Esperanza, for example her aunt tells her to continue writing because it will keep her free (61).  Often, Esperanza mentions the escape she feels from reading books and writing poems.  The exposure changes her vision; she begins to see things in relation to language art, “somersault like an apostrophe and comma” (71).  Her mother is the biggest influence and says to her, “Esperanza, you go to school.  Study hard . . . Got to take care all your own” (91).  A large number of Hispanic females drop out of high school and get married as a way out of their home life to only end up in the same pattern as their mothers and peers.  It may not occur to them that the choices are wrong because it is the only world they know.  Education is not valued because their parents did not enforce it, and their parents’ parents may not have enforced it. 

Learning options comes from the explorative practice in postsecondary education.  Graduating from high school doesn’t’ always provide answers to the deeper questions.  Through reading and writing, students have the opportunity to explore the external world and to explore the world within the self.  High school programs do not offer material that young minority adults can relate to.  There is little, if any, literature exposure to minority writers or contemporary writers.  Not until college, if they attend college, will Mexican American females have the opportunity to explore ways of exercising voice.

 

II.  Review of Studies and Statistics 

Luna, Catherine Medina Gaye.  “Narratives from Latina Professors in Higher Education.” Anthropology & Education Quarterly, 31 (Mar2000): 47-66.

Rodriguez, Adele Lozano, Florence Guido-DiBrito, Vasti Torres, and Donna Talbot.  “Latina

     College Students: Issues and Challenges for the 21^st Century.”  NASPA Journal 37.3.  (Spr2000): 511-27.

Wycoff, Susan E. Macias.  “Academic Performance of Mexican American Women: sources of Support that Serve as Motivating Variables.” Journal of Multicultural counseling & Development.  24.3 (Jul96):  10, 146.

In 1998, the U.S. Bureau of Census reported, only 53.1 % Latinos compared to 86% of non-Latinos have complete high school and some college (Rodriguez).  The low percentage of Latinos finishing high school reflects the low parental support they receive throughout their academic endeavors.  Students who are academically successful tend to receive support, council, and advice from parents and teachers, and of that whole, only 5.2% of Hispanic students are enrolled in colleges in the United States (Luna).  Results from studies done in 1981 and in 1995 found Mexican American women, without family support or support from their mothers, had extreme difficulty pursuing non-traditional goals (Luna).  Moreover, Mexican American females have been labeled by a troubling stereotype, “docile, with no ambitions other than producing children” (Rodriguez).  However, Wycoff, by researching the academic performance of Mexican American women, is able to chip away at those misconceptions.  In fact, devoted and serious, the Mexican American female may even extend her expectations “beyond an undergraduate degree to graduate and postgraduate school, and perhaps, a professional career in academia” (Wycoff).  In spite of low socioeconomic status and in spite of the Latin male’s perspective of the disrespectful pursuit of non-traditional behaviors, the Latin mothers often provide encouragement for daughters seeking a college education.  Also, in contrast to the stereotypes, Rodriguez points out that many of these Latin mothers work outside the home, exercise decision-making, and foster independence in their daughters.

The other side of the academic achievement is – lose to gain.  It is a brave act to separate from the traditional world, to be ambitious, to obtain postsecondary education, and it does not always offer promising rewards.  Luna’s article presents three Latina faculty members teaching in state colleges recounted the difficulties of choosing to assimilate.  A study completed by Gibson and Ogbu in 1991, indicates:

[The] cultural – ecological theory of school performance that voluntary minorities (those who choose to immigrate to the United States) often see their experience and status in the United States as very different from that of involuntary minorities.  Voluntary minorities do not have the historical discrimination or long history of racism in the United States that would lead them to distrust white institutions.  In fact, they often see these white institutions as places of opportunity and are committed to excelling in them.  Involuntary minorities, on the other hand, are often ambivalent about schooling because of their own personal experiences in their communities. (Qtd. In Luna)

Luna also points out the President’s Advisory Commission (1996) found that Latinas in the public school system are likely to be placed mistakenly into remedial education tracks, or incorrectly assessed with a learning disability. 

The three Latina faculty members reported receiving negative messages regarding education, but the influence they received from their mothers encouraged them to not give up.  Once these Latin women earned their doctorates and began working at universities, they faced resistance from their Anglo academic colleagues.  Dr. Stella Falcon, assistant professor and self-identified Chicana, in her first year serving as assistant professor, felt excluded.  She admits, “some days the loneliness and anxiety are overwhelming . . . institutional racism is everywhere . . . sometimes the yearning to share, collaborate, and speak of my own strengths and uncertainties in the workplace are profound” (Luna).  Dr. Gabriella Gonzales, assistant professor and self-identified Puerto Rican, feels there is no support.  She tells, “I feel so isolated . . . to this day I don’t know what our [research] grants are.  I have asked constantly . . . to the point where I think they don’t want me to know” (Luna).  For Dr. Alicia Cantu, tenured professor and self-identified Mexican American, the racial constraints are not as prominent.  She explains, “there is still a certain amount of divisiveness, a certain amount of competitiveness – but not to the degree that it feels uncomfortable or that it interferes with who I am” (Luna).  She feels that she has abilities to bring to her job and position that’s different from the others, and she doesn’t leave her identity outside.  The differences in the perceptions of the three women may reflect the stages in career development, anxiety in new situations, comfort level in self-identity, and/or personality traits (Luna).  Furthermore, Luna believes “claiming ourselves and our voice” is based on the female sense of identity.  She quotes from Josselson:

The most important development task facing women today is the formation of identity, for it is in the realm of identity that a woman bases her sense of self, as well as her vision on the structure of her life.  Identity incorporates a woman’s choices for herself, her priorities, and the guiding principles by which she makes decisions (Qtd. in Luna).

 

III.  Review of Sandra Cisneros and her work

Gonzalez, Myrna-Yamil.  “Female Voices in Sandra Cisneros’ The House on Mango Street.” U.S. Latino Literature:  A Critical Guide for Students and Teachers.  Ed. Harold Augenbraum and Margarite Fernandez Olmos.  Westport, CT:  Greenwood.  2000.  101-11.

Kafka, Phillipa.  “Chapter 5:  Educational Economic, Individual Solutions.”  (Out) Classed Women:  Contemporary Chicana Writers on Inequitable Gendered Power Relations. Westport, CT:  Greenwood.  2000.  71-79.

Madsen, Deborah L.  “Sandra Cisneros.”  Understanding Contemporary Chicana Literature. Columbia, SC:  University of South Carolina Press.  2000.  105-134.

In a 1991 interview Cisneros stated:

In my stories and life I am trying to show that U.S. Latinas have to reinvent, to remythologize, ourselves.  A myth believed by almost everyone, even Latina women, is that they are passive, submissive, long-suffering, either a spit-fire or a Madonna.  Yet those of us who are their daughters, mothers, sisters know that some of the fiercest women on this planet are Latina women (Qtd. in Gonzales).

Cisneros voice was shaped during her years at the University of Iowa’s Writer’s Workshop in 1978.  Feeling displaced among a majority of Anglo students and their writing styles, she became more conscious of her suppressed Chicana voice.  In this break through, Cisneros developed a self-identifying technique of writing.  Writing has always been a part of Cisneros’ life.  At a young age she would write poems and only allow her mother to read.  As an adult, her work evolves to deeper issues of patriarchal values in Mexican and American cultures.  She creates various works of poetry and fiction threading themes of gender and cultural issues.

Cisneros’ influence comes from her life experiences, from frequent moves in childhood, from living in a barrio on Chicago’s north side, from being daughter of a Mexican father and a Mexican America mother, and from being a sister of six brothers.  Female challenges were not foreign in a household dominated by males, and Cisneros transforms the lonely period of her youth into creative stories.  Madsen recites Cisneros statement concerning women, “there’s always this balancing act, we’ve got to define what we think is fine for ourselves instead of what our culture says” (108).  However, defining what is fine for the self brings strong resistance from the Mexican American culture.  Adopting “Anglo” femininity, as Cisneros describes, is to be “told you’re a traitor to your culture.”  She adds, “it’s a horrible life to live . . . being a Mexican woman living in an American society, but not belonging to either culture” (Madsen 108).  In that statement, Cisneros describes the classic situation of the ambivalent minority.

Using words like mujeres andariegas (wandering women) and mujeres callejeras (street women), Myrna-Yamil Gonzalez describes the stigmas placed on Mexican American women who have separated from their moralistic practices of staying home to tend to the husband, children, and parents (106).  Rooted in the patriarchal culture, Mexican women are expected to be passive, self-denying, and nurturing (Gonzalez 106).  Alternatively, these women are independent and self-sufficient.  They choose to not stay at home; not to let others control the direction of their life.  They are often labeled as troublemakers for speaking out on public issues, for actively seeking change and justice (106).  Social standards in Hispanic communities pressure the families to place constraints on females.  The women are told not to shame the family, but to live in accordance of the Church and culture’s expectations.  Gonzalez believes, “Mango Street explores a world where women are betrayed by the ideology of ‘home,’ a world where girls are raised to believe that marriage to the ‘right man’ can liberate them from poverty and the rule of fathers;” however, Esperanza is aware of the racial oppression and economical sufferings, but it is the fate of the women in her community that has the most profound impact on her (Gonzalez 109).

The patriarchal constraints of the Mexican American culture can also be seen in Cisneros’ Never Mary a Mexican, which borders on the oral tale of La Malinche.  In Cisneros’ story, an Anglo man believes he can never marry a Mexican, so his Chicana lover seeks revenge, and the revenge symbols settlement for all Chicanas who are good enough to seduce but never good enough to marry (Madsen 112).  According to Madsen, “vengeance [is] on behalf of all the women who are led to believe that marriage is the only mechanism by which their lives may be validated and if they are not married then they themselves are somehow not valid” (112).  She goes further to say the legacy of La Malinche is common in the culture because Chicanas continue to seek approval on both Anglo and Mexican terms, which inevitably becomes a self-sacrifice.  Relating the theme of marriage as a mechanism, Madsen also reviews Cisneros’ Woman Hollering Creek.  In this story, the woman is brought to Texas from Mexico and hopes her marriage life will be like the telenovelas, but instead she enters a life of abuse and neglect; until a nurse introduces her to new views of femininity and helps her escape (Madsen 118).  Cisneros, again, deconstructs patriarchal beliefs and brings power to women, the power that can be found in knowledge and language:

Cisneros is not coy when it comes to articulating clearly the reasons why women become trapped in situations of extreme oppression.  Fear of violence, sexual violence especially, is one of the prime strategies by which women are kept under control.  Poverty, illiteracy, inability to speak English – these reinforce and exaggerate the coercive effect of patriarchal violence by limiting the mobility and opportunities of women (Qtd in Madsen 122).

Mexican American men in Cisneros’ writing use force to prevent their objects of control (wives and daughters) from seeking knowledge and escaping imprisonment.  The oppression, according to Phillipa Kafka, creates a crisis, which becomes the catalyst for Chicana writers.  The writers create new models for their readers.  Based on information from Yarbo-Bejarano (1988), Kafka writes “the first step that Chicana authors take in their efforts to effect change in terms of how the culture situates women is to become educated and to write, to explore their identities as subjects, especially their sexuality” (78).  Cisneros, in “Mango Says Goodbye Sometimes,” speaks of her discovery for writing and her plans for leaving the barrio.  Through her books and papers, through learning and observing, she finds options.  She can imagine her life another way and chose not to fall into the same patterns as her friends.  Through the language of poetry, Cisneros’ expresses the ambivalence she feels about assimilating into contemporary behaviors and resisting the traditional expectations placed on Mexican women.  Mexican women are expected to maintain virginity until marriage, marry at a young age and follow the patterns of the women before them.  She expresses the harsh reality of what tradition has taught her and she accepts her newfound displacement with her traditional family.  “Old Maids” by Sandra Cisneros:

 

My cousins and I,

we don’t marry.

We’re too old

by Mexican standards.

 

And the relatives

have long suspected

we can’t anymore

in white.

 

My cousins and I,

we’re all old

maids at thirty.

 

Who won’t dress children,

and never saints –

though we undress them.

 

The aunts,

they’ve given up on us.

No longer nudge – You’re next.

 

Instead –

What happened in your childhood?

What left you all mean teens?

Who hurt you, honey?

 

But we’ve studied

marriages too long –

 

Aunt Ariadne,

Tia Vashti,

Comadre Penelope,

Querida Malintzin,

Senora Pumpkin Shell –

 

lessons that served us well.

 

Cisneros has studied, she’s studied through reading, and she’s studied the marriages of the women in her family, the women in her culture.  In the last stanza, she uses the terms that identify women through the connection to men, for example “Mrs.” in Spanish is senora.  Sandra Cisneros is “nobody’s mother and nobody’s wife” (Mango Street 111).  She is secure in her decision, and she reaffirms the sureness by stating the lessons served well.

 

IV.  Review of Psychological Affects

Lorch, Dontella.  “Is America Any place for a Nice Hispanic Girl?”  The New York Times  11Apr. 1996:  B1, B4

The article discusses the difficulties that Felisa is having as she tries to assimilate into the modern culture, while at home she has a grandmother, father, and mother still living in traditional practices, such as her mother shining her father’s shoes daily, her grandmother lecturing her mother for not getting her father a glass of water, and her father and grandmother telling her she must remain a virgin until marriage.  Felisa Valeta, a “first generation American whose parents came from Columbia,” is twenty-three years old.  The pressures and expectations trickle down onto Felisa to the point she feels distraught and depressed.  Three generations under one roof.  Mrs. Velta said, “I grew up in a culture where women are superwomen.  You do it all and you don’t complain.”  Since Mrs. Velta’s mother lives in the house, she can feel the mother judging her, but she doesn’t say anything in defense because it would be a sign of disrespect.  Mrs. Velta eventually suffered from stress and a heart attack.

In addition to the constraints, marital fidelity between Hispanic male and female are perceived differently.  Mrs. Velta said, “If your husband has a girlfriend, you’re supposed to close your mouth.  After all, you’re the one married, not your husband.  My mother thinks you should stop being that way.  You’re supposed to serve your master.”  The typical expectation is for the woman to not speak, to not voice, complain or ask to be treated differently. 

Dr. Carmen Vasquez notices the strains on the Hispanic females stemming from “marianismo,” the modeling of the cultural identity of the Virgin Mary by exhibiting behavior of “duty, self-sacrifice, passivity, and chastity.”  Acculturation problems are compounded by the expectations rooted in the beliefs of the Spanish-Roman Catholic church.  The pressure of assimilating into the mainstream is expected to increase Hispanic patient therapy-treatment from the current 10.2 percent to 24.5 percent [of the population].  Traditional behaviors may be admired in the homeland countries, but in America, the behaviors do not hold the same validity. 

Though Mrs. Velta is unhappy being treated as a voiceless object, she ironically passes the expectations onto her daughters.  The daughters are considered rebellious because they want to exercise a certain amount of freedom.  As a solution, the family decided to seek family therapy, which is uncommon for the culture.  Cultural stigmas label Hispanic women who see therapist as “nerviosa (nervous) or loca (crazy),” without an in between description.  Felisa calls herself a “feminista” because with the help of therapy she feels she can better assimilate.  However, she admits to pacifying to the tradition holders at home in order to keep them happy.  She has feelings of guilt, which may come from the pull between tradition and modern behavior. 

 

Conclusion

Through education, a Chicana can better understand the world around her, she can learn skills for analyzing, she can reflect upon her own life and make meaning, she can imagine her life in another way, a way that is right for herself.  More importantly, a Chicana reading literature written by minority writers exposes her to situations she can relate to.  Some Mexican Americans have fully assimilated into the dominant culture; therefore, the terms in which I am speaking may not apply to all Mexican American women.

Though education will inherently present choices, it does not promise rewarding experiences.  Assimilation into new territory may be frightening, and intensify the feeling of separateness.  Education may not promise the ideal job or the ideal salary, but the knowledge a Chicana gains cannot be classified in terms of money.  Knowledge is power, her power in self-determination. 

A Mexican American female experiencing social dislocation will come across identity issues which will cause her to make personal or cultural sacrifices.  She will encounter mixed feelings and contradictory attitudes, but that is part of deciding on her identity.  There may also be a strong mistrust (for some) toward the “institutions” that have contributed to the struggles, but not every institution operates outside of equal opportunity, and the current progress in a multi-cultural society offers organizations that provide support.  There are many other minorities struggling with similar issues and a Chicana can combine with others who share in her experience. 

For a Mexican American woman, becoming educated presents weighing and balancing of challenges – verses - not having a choice. 

 

Personal Summary

Reading Chicana literature has helped me to analyze the world I know, and to better understand the world my grandmother comes from.  Often, I would read to her, though she is literate, a handout from class or an article from research, and by this she realizes I am not trying to eliminate our culture from my life.  It has been a challenge to find a middle ground because we see each other differently, but Grandma and I share a rare closeness, a closeness without so many words.