Los García

Although I don’t find her writing style quite as richly nuanced as Cisneros’, I do appreciate the story being told in this book, and the read has been flying by so far. I realize how fortunate I am to have been raised by hippies in a mostly open-minded society, but even still, it’s always helpful to be reminded of just how much intolerance and backwardness continue to haunt the world. It’s truly disturbing to see how inequality and closed-mindedness have been ingrained into a culture’s communal behaviour and thought processes. Now I wouldn’t be so naïve (or racist) as to believe that every Latin-American family out there goes through this, nor would I think for a minute that there aren’t millions of Americans (white and otherwise, and let’s not forget the rest of the world’s lovely inhabitants) who foment an equally disgusting attitude towards women and any incarnation of “the other”. For the purpose of this blog, however, I shall attempt to remain on task (always a challenge for me, as I just can’t help but tend towards idealism, as pretentious and annoying as I know it is. Sorry.).

In fact, although the father figure here is undoubtedly stuck in the past (somewhat hypocritically, since it was he who originally brought the family to America and wanted the girls to fit in), along with “the mother”, the family core is loving and compassionate, which is a lot more than can be said for most of the scenarios presented in Woman Hollering Creek. I am no proponent of religious zealotry (or extremism of any kind, for that matter), because its main purpose and result is to keep people’s minds glued to petty details and blind to the bigger issues, thus leaving a gaping hole for the higher-ups and what-have-you’s to do as they will. Gah, blasted ramblings again. Anyway, my point was that despite all this, I cannot deny the fact that tradition and moral stability can instil in a few good souls a beautiful and unwavering love. This is where I place the mother. And in spite of all their understandable moaning, it would appear thus far that the girls are going to come out on the other side pretty much unscathed and well adjusted, due to their strong character and the abundance of genuine affection in their lives. In the meantime, however, I am enjoying identifying with their struggles to strike a balance between old and new, Dominican and American, good and bad(ass).