English Literature

The short story Woman Hollering Creek, written by Mexican-American writer Sandra Cisneros, depicts the social roles of women as they interrelate with men and other women. Written by a Mexican-American, the story focuses on the struggle of one Mexican woman to find her independence and self-awareness amidst a life of poverty and violence. This essay analyzes, from a feminist perspective, the short storys critical portrayal of the status of women not only as it applies to the Chicana experience, but to women of all cultures and inclinations.

The characters in the story reflect stereotypes that presently exist in society today. The women in the story are portrayed as the protagonists. The main character, Cleofilas, is the typical young Mexican woman who believes in a happily ever-after and immerses herself - like many young girls - in soap operas, love songs, and movies that form their secret dreams and desires about romance and marriage. Before turning into a mature, strong woman, Cleofilas exemplified the traditional female who accepts societys assignment of woman as subordinates of men. She would later learn that her earlier visions of a happy marriage and prosperous life in the U.S. border would be subversively different.  Cleofilas is the woman who endures the physical abuses committed by the antagonist in the story, husband Juan Pedro Martinez Sanchez. Juan Pedro exemplifies the typical macho and dominant male who treats women as mere objects. He is materialistic, shallow, and violent. Challenging this unequal and abusive relationship between the stereotypical man and woman is the liberated woman, portrayed by Felice and Graciela, both of whom reject the conventional norm of the patient, silent, and suffering woman.

The story illustrates the plight of oppressed women everywhere, not just to the Mexican American woman. Acculturation to conventions of femininity is significant in conditioning the minds of women that their only salvation is love and marriage to a man. Cleofilas and her peers pine for such aspirations from their favorite soap operas, romantic movies, and songs, which create for them illusory pictures of perfect marriages and fairy tale endings. After marriage, they soon find themselves trapped in a life they never dreamed of poverty instead of prosperity violence instead of a happy ending. Despite being abused, Cleofilas reminds herself of what the telenovelas have taught her about the nature of love and marriage - that to suffer for love is good. The pain all sweet somehow. The story is a tribute to the painful plight of such women, some of whom never get out of their marriages alive.

The title of the story is significant because it also tells of its main conflict. The legend of La Llonora, from which the Woman Hollering Creek is named after, tells of tragic plight of an abused woman who was driven to insanity because of despair over her husbands infidelity, causing her to drown her children to death. As a consequence, the woman is condemned to wail and moan in search for her children forever. That women are condemned to silence and passivity is something that invites further violence or even death. Hence, violence against women is condemned and recognized as a serious issue not only in the United States, but all over the world. When a woman is beaten by her husband, just like Cleofilas was, tradition says she must accept that. After all, a man has the right to discipline his wife if he sees fit. Because Cleofilas chose to remain mum about her predicament and instead forces her feelings bottled up, she has essentially become La Llonora, the helpless, desperate woman who can do nothing but cry over her circumstances.

In the end, Cleofilas chose to break her silence and enlisted the help of two women, Felice and Graciela, who helped her return to her fathers home in Mexico. Aboard Felices pickup truck, they were able to successfully cross the creek. Crossing over the creek symbolizes freedom and salvation for the abused or oppressed female. When they reached the other side, Felice yells happily as loud as any mariachi, making Cleofilas find her own voice in the form of a cry gurgling out of her own throat... like water.