ingléspañol

La Cultura Machista

As much as I don't really want to admit it, but I must for the sake of the post, I've been watching "La Esposa Virgen" on Univision lately - to IMPROVE MY SPANISH, THANK YOU KINDLY!!!!
but I must admit that it does bring to mind a certain culture aspect that I will probably reflect upon in the future posts: the Culture of the Macho/La Cultura Machista.

It's not uniquely Hispanic, but it does seem to be prevalant among Mexicans and other latino cultures.

From the outside looking in, basically it appears as this: Man gets to do whomever he wants because by golly he's the man!

"Don't worry, baby, you're the mother of my children, so you KNOW you're my main squeeze, my numero uno, mi princessa! Those other women, they mean nothing to me. Glad you see it my way, my love . . . now don't wait up!!!"

This telenovela is the same way: simply put - the main character's wife is dying so she can't really "please" him in that way. They love each other/truly/madly/deeply, and you do believe that.

But he's got "needs." When the story opened, basically he'd had his lover and everybody in the town knew it but the wife.

Now, weeks later, it's all been found out and everyone's spilling their guts and the wonderfull and beautiful and pure-as-the-driven-snow dying wife tells the husband that she UNDERSTANDS!! She loves him, etc. It's OK,

wow.

I turned to my wife and said, "Do you know how many men are watching this with their wives right now and saying, 'Now why can't you be more like HER!' ??"

To which my wife replied, "And you had better not be one of those men."

No, definitely not.

But I wanted to mull over the cultural theory, that laissez-faire acceptance of infidelity - almost as though it's expected. Primary questions for further research: is this religious or sociological in nature? Secondary: what other cultures have similar machista attitudes? Third: have certain cultures had this in the past and "rid" themselves of it?

Think about it and let me know. For me, I must now go and empty the dishwasher.

VG

posted by Verble Gherulous @ 5:02 AM 0 comments

Living in Spanglish

I should write a review of this book on my other blog, but I didn't really finish the book, because after about halfway through it I realized that it wasn't really a book about Spanglish, or hispanic-americans, but just another book about New Yorkers.

Actually, that's kind of funny in and of itself, because the writer had promoted this book as being about the influence of Latino culture on American culture, and I thought, GREAT! MORE INFO!!!

And as I continued, it was mainly about Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, and their influence on music and television - also a lot of mention about Cuban influences. I mean, this writer had several pages devoted solely to Marc Antony and Jennifer Lopez, for goodness sake! Mark Antony! Get real.

So, actually, what was supremely funny about this is this:

Manhattan/New York thinks that "America" begins at the edge of the Atlantic and ENDS at the Hudson River. Everything else is a vague, hazy wasteland that ends with LA. And THIS book, Living in Spanglish, although it purports to be a book extolling Hispanic culture, it really is simply another example of BIG APPLE VANITY.

Makes me smile, every time!

VG

posted by Verble Gherulous @ 5:01 AM 0 comments