Mexican Women Writers

            I chose to research Mexican women writers because I wanted to read narratives and learn about the authors describing my heritage. I started my research by looking into the work of Maria Luisa Puga and Silvia Molina. My research developed by reading Contemporary Mexican Women Writers by Gabriella de Beer. This book gave me a better understanding of the challenges these women faced in expressing their thoughts. Mexican women writers faced the same dilemma as all authors whose ethnic identities were central to their work. (Beyond Books, 3). This report is going to describe the Mexican women writers, Maria Luisa Puga and Silvia Molina. This report will also identify their writing styles, imagery and themes in their works.

The Mexican women writers Maria Luisa Puga and Silvia Molina were born in the 1940’s and 1950’s. Their work was published in the late 1970’s and 1980’s. Each writer has published a considerable number of works, continues to write and attends literary activities around the nation. Similarities between the writers include experiences of their childhood and being known as Mexican literature authors without reference to their gender. Differences between the writers include different writing styles, imagery, and themes. Challenges these women faced included always being second to male counterparts, the women were never taken seriously, and the traditional lifestyle of being a stay at home housewife.

It all began with acknowledging the women that made this opportunity all possible. Influential women whom opened the doorway for these writers included Nellie Campolello (1909-?), Rosario Castellanos (1925-1974), and Elena Poniatowska (1933). Nellie wrote about the Mexican Revolution, the participants and observers. Rosario was the first to write about gender, sexuality and language. She described her condition of being a Mexican and a women and what her place was in her culture. Elena was most concerned with real events. She refined the art of interviewing and investigative journalism. She wrote novels and essays on class and ethnicity issues (De Beer, 3). Although, the women described are all in the Mexican women writer category, they all have their own unique writing style, imagery, and themes.

            Maria Luisa Puga was born on February 3, 1944 in Mexico City. Puga was raised  in Acapulco and shared a room with two brothers and a sister. At a young age her mother died and her father remarried and moved them to Mazatlan. There she shared a room with her sister. It wasn’t until about twenty that she moved out and returned to Mexico City. In Mexico City she lived in an apartment and finally enjoyed her own privacy. During her childhood she kept a journal, a cuaderno, or notebook. Puga self-taught herself how to write and new that writing was to be her life. Puga’s writing style was a storytelling type. Imagery in her work included the depiction of poor characters in her stories and in contrast the beautiful sight of the beach. She was able to capture the emotions of the poor vendors crying out to customers, and then describe the good things of town such as the view of the beach. Themes that Puga writes about includes different approaches of life in Mexico, difficulties of a city life, and problems with personal struggles to be herself when others want her to conform into someone she isn’t. An example of a personal struggle many women faced is the language issue. What was one to do if they could not understand English (Mora, 11)? She has become a noticeable author because she describes human nature from a woman’s perspective and many people can relate to her struggles.

            Silvia Molina was born in Mexico City in 1946. Molina does not like to reveal much about her childhood and separates her personal life from her public life. Molina is very straightforward, serious, and simple. Readers tend to believe her work is autobiographical when it really isn’t. Molina’s writing style is narrative. She tends to write about both personal and fictional experiences based on real or imagined events. Imagery in her work includes a narrator using a  natural tone of voice, love affairs, and being alienated from her family and their values. She writes about characters breaking away from the traditional way and experiencing self-realization. Themes in Molina’s writing includes the relationship issues between husbands and wives, parents and children, or lovers.

            I chose Mexican women writers to report on, because I could relate to the culture, the values, and the challenges faced by these women. The information gathered in the report included different writing styles, similar themes relating to the course, and an insight of literature from a Mexican woman’s point of view.  These Mexican women writers are the voices of many people that are left unheard. If these writers can influence one person to follow their example and pursue writing professionally, it will all be worth it in the end. In conclusion, there are several stories to be told, it is just a matter of one educating themselves in reading and writing and producing the literature.

Works Cited

Beyond Books. Mexican-American Voices. Apex Learning Inc. Retrieved April 1, 2006, from http://beyondbooks.com/lam12/3f.asp.html

De Beer, Gabriella. Contemporary Mexican Women Writers: Five Voices. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1987.

Gillan, Maria. Unsettling America- An Anthropology of Contemporary Multicultural Poetry. New York: Penguin Books, 1994.

Texas Christian University. Early Mexican-American Literature. Retrieved December 1, 2005, from http://www2.tcu.edu/depts/prs/amwest/pdf.html

  [LC]