Junot Diaz was a very exciting author to read. I enjoyed his use of words and detailed descriptions thought out the book. The text was extremely easy to follow and fun to read. It is not hard to understand why the novel won so many awards.
The first thing that caught my eye when reading this book, was the oppression Oscar felt with his friends and family about not being attractive enough for a girlfriend. The theme of machismo is something that we have followed throughout the course of our class. Oscar’s fat, dorky, adolescence self is suppressed by this need to feel handsome and be a ladies guy. His family and friends both let him know that he is not fitting into their cultural stereotype.
So many times in the Latino community there is a big push for hurrying the process for marriage and children. I wonder if it is created by the weight machismo plays among Latino boys. My 25 year old male Latino friend told me the other day, how he was somewhat sad. He was 25, no wife, no kids, no girlfriend. He felt as if he had done nothing with his life. I kind of chuckled and told him how my parents threaten to kill me if I even thought about marriage before I was 30! It made me wonder and made me think about these two culture stereotypes.
In the third chapter of the book, we then see how Beli, Oscar’s mother, at a young age also deals with machismo in her life. She become wildly crazy in love for a boy named Jack and begins stirring with this idea of marriage to him. Though we know that Jack is promised to someone else, we see how he fits the typical role of a machismo male. Beli shows how she, a young Latina woman, begins wrestling with this idea of marriage.
As the book goes on we read about Beli, Lola, and Oscars mishaps with love. Rather it be a Latino thing or not this theme of machismo and love, is something that we have followed and will continue to follow throughout Latinos work.
It is the truth that when you reach a certain age you must be married and have kids. My brother is at that age but doesn't have none of these. My mother always annoys my brother on the issue. My mother always asks me whether I have a girlfriend and I always say no. This is in every conversation that I have had with her and I can tell that she really wants my brother and I to settle down soon. Latinos grow up around this and it does make a person sad if they cannot be in a relationship past 25. We see people getting married at age 17. I do not agree with getting married by a certain age. It will come one day but the wait is the loneliest part. Especially when you have a mother who constantly ask you about getting in a relationship.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you enjoyed this book, Jessica. You've brought up a great connection with personal experience here--attitudes about marriage and sexuality are deeply embedded in our culture. Thanks for sharing your own family's attitude towards marraige--that it can wait for you to experience more of life. Meanwhile, thanks for sharing a different cultural perspective, Tavo, about your own pressures to be married and have a family. It must take some independence and a strong identity to get a college education and play some serious basketball first!
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