I also think this passage was particularly powerful because it's told through the voice of a young girl. Nena sees her mother and her friends, and this is what she remembers. It's not the daily chores or the work or the religion that typically gets associated with women. It's the sisterhood that carried them forward. Vecinas. Comadres. Mujeres.
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Comadres- Journal #4
I absolutely loved Norma Cantu's section entitled "Comadres." This story, focusing on three women, had an almost romantic, poetic feel to it and I felt completely submerged in these women's lives. The overwhelming sense of sisterhood that this passage invoked is what I believe to be symbolic of the entire Chicana movement. Each woman is different with her own unique struggles to worry about, yet they connect on a much deeper level. After they do their daily chores and perform stereotypical women's roles, they share with one another "chismes, dreams, gossip, advising each other," suggesting a powerful bond that they can confide in each other over anyone else (35). I got the notion that these women care about one another more than they do themselves, "pain forming bonds stronger than blood makes them more sisters to each other than to their own sisters" (36). Turning to one another in the face of all the oppression and restrictions, especially as women, was their survival mechanism. Deriving strength from one another, they learned to live.
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I also thought this story was particularly powerful. Often the sea of relatives gets confusing and overwhelming, here are a group of women Nena's mom, has chosen, her best friends. And in this tight community of women are some of the most positive aspects of relationships, support, loyalty, and trust. It shows that "family" is not just blood but all the good that comes from these healthy and strong relationships between people.
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