Chicano Identity in Literature Culture in \"My

Chicano Identity in Literature

Culture

In "My Name" by Sandra Cisneros, the principle character's name is Esperanza. Esperanza's problem, at first, seems only to be displeasure with her name. She is certainly displeased with her name. She is disappointed with the meaning of her name in her native tongue, Spanish. She is frustrated and perplexed with the persistent difficulty that Americans have pronouncing her Chicana name. Esperanza wishes she could be lucky, like her sister, who can come home and have a different name, a prettier name, an easier name than her proper first name.

As the story progresses, readers learn that Esperanza's central problem is greater than her name. Her problem is with the history and the legacy of her name. She was named after her grandmother. Esperanza is somewhat conflicted about her connection and her similarities with her grandmother. One on hand, she does not like her name, but on the other, she reveres being similarly strong-willed, like a horse, just like her grandmother. Esperanza contends that one shared trait between Mexican culture and Chinese culture is their great dislike and fear of strong women. The elder Esperanza was abducted by a man who would later marry her and become the younger Esperanza's grandfather. The elder Esperanza was strong willed and wild. She preferred to be single and free. One day, her future husband threw a sack over her head, dragged her away from her home, and married her. Esperanza says her grandmother never forgave him; readers may infer that the younger Esperanza has not forgiven her grandfather either.

Esperanza's grandmother was restricted and confined to a life of domesticity because of the position of women in Mexican culture. Esperanza speaks of her memories of her grandmother sitting at the window, with all of her anger and emotions welling within her, filling her with tension and conflict for the rest of her life. Esperanza has observed that this is a common life for Mexican women and it is not the lifestyle she wants for herself. Therefore, Esperanza's real problem is not so much with her name, or being named after her grandmother. Rather, her central problem is being born into a family with a violent and misogynist tradition and history. Her problem is the lack freedom provided by her culture and society simply because of her gender. It is not so much that Esperanza has a problem with being a woman as such; she has a problem with how Mexican culture systemically confines and mistreats women.

The problem with Esperanza's name or pejorative aspects of her cultural aspects does not resolve. Readers can infer that the problem as such will dissipate based upon the tone of the story as "My Name" concludes. The story ends with Esperanza reimagining herself with a new name and perhaps a new accompanying personality. Readers may infer that because the story ends with Esperanza engaging her imagination, and not giving up on her dream of being free from the constraints of her culture and the tragic legacy attached to her name, that this problem will not remain a problem for Esperanza. The end of the story may leave readers feeling somewhat hopeful that Esperanza will find a way to combat the problem or supercede it, or just plain solve it. The defiance, rebellion, and strength of her spirit is subtly shown in the final lines of the piece.

Esperanza is Mexican; therefore, everything about her life experience is related to the Chicana experience. Just as every African-American person's experience in America is a part of the larger body of the whole African-American experience. Her very ethnic and culturally reflective name is the title of the story and the subject of the story. There are very few people named Esperanza who are not Latina. Being born into Mexican culture and having a very Mexican sounding name are conflicts that are related to the Chicana experience, especially the anecdote referring to her experience with her name in her educational experience.

…educators' beliefs were "premised upon political, scientific, and religious theories relying on racial characterizations and stereotypes about people of color that help support a legitimating ideology and specific political action" (p. 199). A case in point is how prohibiting Spanish-language use among Mexican school children was a social philosophy and a political tool used by local and state officials to justify school segregation and to maintain a colonized relationship between Mexicans and the dominant society (Delgado Bernal, 1999). Today, bilingualism often continues to be seen as "un-American" and considered a deficit and an obstacle to learning. (Bernal, Critical Race Theory, 2002)

Having her name mispronounced presumably by gringos is also directly a part of the Chicana experience, just as many Asian-Americans have analogous or precise replicas of Esperanza's experience as a Chicana. Unfortunately, the experience of Esperanza's grandmother is not an experience that is only indicative of the Chicana experience, but is indicative of the female experience for much of recorded and existing human history. Women from all over the world, across time and distance, have been brutalized, coerced, assaulted, and confined by restrictions of various societies. That much of the story is universal not so much of the Chicana experience as much as the female experience.

References:

Baugh, S.L. (ed) (2006) Mediating Chicana/o Culture: Multicultural American Vernacular. Cambridge Scholars Press: Cambridge, UK.