Never Merry A Mexican
In Never Marry a Mexican, a short story by Sandra Cisneros, the main character Clemencia remembers her family, her parents’ culture, and her affair with a married man. This story captures a glimpse of what it’s like to be Chicana, out of place and not knowing which class you belong.
At the beginning of the story she gives her views on her parent’s families. Her mother’s family is poor yet generous. Her father is humble and never greedy; Clemencia’s mother says he always gave food to children and strangers that stopped by their home. Clemencia’s father came from a proud Mexican family, and felt he married below him because Clemencia’s mother was born in America. Clemencia recalls that her father’s family wasn’t poor, but a middle-class family that ridiculed her mother on her American ways. “I imagine my father in his fanfarronclothes, because that’s what he was a fanfarron.”(Cisneros)The translation of fanfarron is a show off, indicating her father and her father’s family was greedy. Her mother plays a really big part in her upbringing because of her cheating on her dad while her dad was bedridden and sick. She has an affair with a foreman at the photofinishing plant where she worked. This was Clemencia’s example at an early age that having an affair would be okay.
Clemencia’s early years are very liminal, with her mother being Mexican American and her father Mexican born and raised. She does not really fit in and also explains that she doesn’t fit in the social economic classes: “I’m amphibious. I’m a person who doesn’t belong to any class”(181).
She starts talking about her affair with a married man, Drew, and about how when his wife was giving birth they were making love in their bed. Cisneros gives the character power by feeling like she had control over the pregnancy and had a connection to the birthing. This makes her seem in control but in reality she isn’t. She is just telling herself these things for her comfort. Cisneros makes Clemencia more powerful in this story; the last time that they meet to make love, she hides a lot of gummy bears around where only Drew’s wife would notice. She wants to break them up but her efforts arein vain.Just like any other affair the one who is cheating is only looking for a thrill, but does not want to lose his or her family if they would they could simply get a divorce. In the story Clemencia wants to believe that they can be together, and that they should be together.
Later in the story Clemencia seduces her lovers’ teenage son. He’s almost finished with high school; she makes love to him trying to get him to love her the way she loved his dad. In the end Clemencia seems to get over her love for her lover. She tries to bring comfort to herself by saying “Sometimes all humanity strikes me as lovely. I just want to reach out and stroke someone, and say There, there, it’s all right, honey. There, there, there” (188).
From her book "My Wicked Wicked Ways" I analyzed "Twister Hits Houston,” where Cisneros talks about a twister coming while her father sits on the front porch, where he watches the approaching storm. The mother is busy trying to install a light bulb. To me it seems like the father and family are underestimating the storm and its’ power, because the father just sits as the storm hits the porch.
"Papa who was sitting on his front porch
when the storm hit"(Sandra Cisneros)
He watches as things are destroyed by the force of the wind, making a sedan land in his front yard.
"Mama was in the kitchen Papa explained.
Papa was sitting on the front porch.
That light bulb is still sitting
where I left it. Don't matter now.
Got no electricity anyway." (Sandra Cisneros)
The end of the poem alludes to her mother’sdisappearance after the storm had hit; she was gone with the wind and the light bulb when the storm ended. To my understanding this poem deals with a loss of a life and that nothing material is more important than that of a human life.
~Analysis by Moises Vazquez
At the beginning of the story she gives her views on her parent’s families. Her mother’s family is poor yet generous. Her father is humble and never greedy; Clemencia’s mother says he always gave food to children and strangers that stopped by their home. Clemencia’s father came from a proud Mexican family, and felt he married below him because Clemencia’s mother was born in America. Clemencia recalls that her father’s family wasn’t poor, but a middle-class family that ridiculed her mother on her American ways. “I imagine my father in his fanfarronclothes, because that’s what he was a fanfarron.”(Cisneros)The translation of fanfarron is a show off, indicating her father and her father’s family was greedy. Her mother plays a really big part in her upbringing because of her cheating on her dad while her dad was bedridden and sick. She has an affair with a foreman at the photofinishing plant where she worked. This was Clemencia’s example at an early age that having an affair would be okay.
Clemencia’s early years are very liminal, with her mother being Mexican American and her father Mexican born and raised. She does not really fit in and also explains that she doesn’t fit in the social economic classes: “I’m amphibious. I’m a person who doesn’t belong to any class”(181).
She starts talking about her affair with a married man, Drew, and about how when his wife was giving birth they were making love in their bed. Cisneros gives the character power by feeling like she had control over the pregnancy and had a connection to the birthing. This makes her seem in control but in reality she isn’t. She is just telling herself these things for her comfort. Cisneros makes Clemencia more powerful in this story; the last time that they meet to make love, she hides a lot of gummy bears around where only Drew’s wife would notice. She wants to break them up but her efforts arein vain.Just like any other affair the one who is cheating is only looking for a thrill, but does not want to lose his or her family if they would they could simply get a divorce. In the story Clemencia wants to believe that they can be together, and that they should be together.
Later in the story Clemencia seduces her lovers’ teenage son. He’s almost finished with high school; she makes love to him trying to get him to love her the way she loved his dad. In the end Clemencia seems to get over her love for her lover. She tries to bring comfort to herself by saying “Sometimes all humanity strikes me as lovely. I just want to reach out and stroke someone, and say There, there, it’s all right, honey. There, there, there” (188).
From her book "My Wicked Wicked Ways" I analyzed "Twister Hits Houston,” where Cisneros talks about a twister coming while her father sits on the front porch, where he watches the approaching storm. The mother is busy trying to install a light bulb. To me it seems like the father and family are underestimating the storm and its’ power, because the father just sits as the storm hits the porch.
"Papa who was sitting on his front porch
when the storm hit"(Sandra Cisneros)
He watches as things are destroyed by the force of the wind, making a sedan land in his front yard.
"Mama was in the kitchen Papa explained.
Papa was sitting on the front porch.
That light bulb is still sitting
where I left it. Don't matter now.
Got no electricity anyway." (Sandra Cisneros)
The end of the poem alludes to her mother’sdisappearance after the storm had hit; she was gone with the wind and the light bulb when the storm ended. To my understanding this poem deals with a loss of a life and that nothing material is more important than that of a human life.
~Analysis by Moises Vazquez