Negotiations of Power in Mexican and Mexican
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NEGOTIATIONS OF POWER IN MEXICAN AND MEXICAN AMERICAN WOMEN‟S NARRATIVES by CAROLINE LOUISE MCNABB A THESIS Presented to the Folklore Program and the Graduate School of the University of Oregon in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts June 2011 THESIS APPROVAL PAGE Student: Caroline Louise McNabb Title: Negotiations of Power in Mexican and Mexican American Women‟s Narratives This thesis has been accepted and approved in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Master of Arts degree in the Folklore Program by: Dr. Lisa Gilman Chairperson Dr. Carol Silverman Member Dr. Robert Haskett Member and Richard Linton Vice President for Research and Graduate Studies/Dean of the Graduate School Original approval signatures are on file with the University of Oregon Graduate School. Degree awarded June 2011 ii © 2011 Caroline Louise McNabb iii THESIS ABSTRACT Caroline Louise McNabb Master of Arts Folklore Program June 2011 Title: Negotiations of Power in Mexican and Mexican American Women's Narratives Approved: _______________________________________________ Dr. Lisa Gilman Approved: _______________________________________________ Dr. Carol Silverman Approved: _______________________________________________ Dr. Robert Haskett This thesis examines casual storytelling among Mexican and Mexican American women in Oaxaca, Mexico and Eugene, Oregon. I focus on narratives involving powerful female protagonists and explore the ways in which storytelling can represent a negotiation of power in informants' lives. Taking a feminist and performance-centered approach, I analyze informants' perceptions of power and gender dynamics in their own lives and the lives of the iconic characters discussed. Analysis is based upon participant- observation, in-depth interviews, casual conversations, popular culture artifacts, and library and archival research. My research indicates that prose narratives are popular and discussed frequently among the communities I interacted with. Female icons function to shape virtuous feminine behavior and chastise immoral behaviors. Women form and articulate multiple identities and communicate about power and gender dynamics through discussion of these protagonists. iv CURRICULUM VITAE NAME OF AUTHOR: Caroline Louise McNabb GRADUATE AND UNDERGRADUATE SCHOOLS ATTENDED: University of Oregon, Eugene The Evergreen State College, Olympia, Washington DEGREES AWARDED: Master of Arts, Folklore, University of Oregon Bachelor of Arts, focus in Anthropology and Music, The Evergreen State College AREAS OF SPECIAL INTEREST: Folk narratives Vernacular Religion Folk Art Corridos Supernatural Beings Religious Architecture Feminism Oral History PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE: Graduate Teaching Fellow, Folklore Archivist, University of Oregon Spring 2011, Spring 2010, Winter 2010 Graduate Teaching Fellow, Intro to Folklore, University of Oregon Fall 2010, Fall 2009 v ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I wish to acknowledge my committee members; Dr. Lisa Gilman, Dr. Carol Silverman, and Dr. Robert Haskett; for their patience and support during this project. They gave hours of thoughtful reading and critique to help me craft this manuscript. I would also like to express my gratitude to the women in Oaxaca and Eugene who informed my research. Thanks, too, to the communities that enabled this research: UO Folklore Program, UO MEChA, Downtown Languages Center, Randall V. Mills Archives of Northwest Folklore, Museo Cultural de Oaxaca, Oaxaca Lending Library, and the city of Teotitlán. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter Page I. INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................... 1 Theoretical Viewpoint ........................................................................................... 2 The Legends ..................................................................................................... 4 History.............................................................................................................. 5 Methodology .......................................................................................................... 7 Literature Review................................................................................................... 14 Ethical Considerations ........................................................................................... 16 II. VALUE OF STORYTELLING .............................................................................. 20 Ethnicity and Gender ............................................................................................. 22 Storytelling Events ................................................................................................. 28 Communicating Pride and Community Solidarity ................................................. 34 Belief ...................................................................................................................... 38 Storytelling as a Teaching Tool ............................................................................. 45 Media Influence on Storytelling ............................................................................ 47 Notes ...................................................................................................................... 50 III. POWERFUL FEMALE PROTAGONISTS .......................................................... 52 La Llorona: the Weeping Woman.......................................................................... 52 La Virgen de Guadalupe/Tonantzin ....................................................................... 61 La Malinche/Malintzin........................................................................................... 73 vii Chapter Page Gendered Storytelling ............................................................................................ 80 IV. ANALYSIS OF POWER AND GENDER DYNAMICS ..................................... 85 Bad/Evil Protagonists............................................................................................. 89 Good/Virtuous Protagonists ................................................................................... 95 Chastising Men ...................................................................................................... 100 Gender Dynamics................................................................................................... 102 Informants‟ Perceptions of Gender .................................................................. 104 Informants‟ Life Histories ................................................................................ 112 V. CONCLUSION ....................................................................................................... 121 Fieldwork and Analysis ......................................................................................... 126 Final Thoughts ....................................................................................................... 128 REFERENCES CITED ................................................................................................ 132 viii CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION This thesis examines Mexican and Mexican-American women‟s narratives, specifically those involving powerful female protagonists. Although I analyze the narratives themselves, my major focus is the function of casual storytelling. My research investigates three popular Mexican legends: La Llorona, la Virgen de Guadalupe, and la Malinche. La Llorona is the legend of the weeping woman who murdered her children. The legend of la Virgen is the narrative of a Marian apparition that began the national worship of la Virgen de Guadalupe in Mexico. La Malinche was the slave of Spanish conquistador Hernan Córtes, who bore his child, creating the first Mestizo Mexican. Each of these narratives personifies a powerful woman, and storytelling about these characters can represent a negotiation of power in the teller‟s life. La Llorona, la Virgen de Guadalupe, and la Malinche are iconic figures in Mexico, and they are found in oral tradition, literature, art, and popular culture. Not only are they discussed in conversation and used as moral examples, they are also widely disseminated in entertainment forms. They are ubiquitous in corridos (folk songs), ceramic art, outdoor murals, T-shirts, bumper stickers, novels, and paintings. As icons, they represent parts of national Mexico, and they are used by various political groups to express different ideas. They are also common in family conversation, and in legend and joke telling. My fieldwork took place in Oaxaca, Mexico as well as Eugene, Oregon. I spoke with ten women of different ages, ethnic identities, socio-economic levels, and from different regions in an effort to compare and contrast their experiences with popular 1 Mexican narratives. This thesis explores how Mexican and Mexican-American women build community, form multiple identities, and communicate about power and gender dynamics through casual storytelling. My findings show that many narratives are well known and used frequently in daily life. Narratives position strong woman characters as virtuous or evil through moral choices and outcomes. In casual storytelling, Mexican and Mexican-American women emphasize moral behavior, explore personalities as three- dimensional and complex, and use stories as object lessons for children, other women, and sometimes men. Narratives involving evil or neglectful female characters are also occasionally re-told in a women-centric, positive way. Theoretical