Ethnicity as Well as That of Latin

¶ … ethnicity as well as that of Latin America. Discussed are the changes such as socialization, cultural attitudes, laws and customs, which need to be made so women can have more freedom. Essay is based on Silvana Paternostro's In the Land of God and Man: A Latin Woman's Journey. One source used.

In the Land of God and Man

Silvana Paternostro paints a vivid picture of her life growing up in Columbia during the 1970's. The culture of the Latin world was not that much different than life for women in the United States. A new generation was emerging here, as well as there. However, for females growing up during those years, choices were limited and rebel thoughts were frowned upon by contemporaries and older generations alike. Although, there have been many changes during the last three decades, women are still being harmed by the customs and attitudes of our society. They still lack the freedom of men.

Paternostro was taught, or rather programmed to go from convent school to hosting cocktail parties. The women of her society and culture obeyed God and man and never questioned. This is not unlike the American woman stereotype of Donna Reed or Harriet Nelson. Squeaky clean and faithful, always turning the head or rather burying the head in the sand at unpleasantness such as adultery, homosexuality, her own sexuality, and injustices of any kind. She was helpless to change anything anyway. Paternostro addressed this in her book saying, "Machismo is a rigid system that both men and women promulgate" (Paternostro 1999). Women in this country were fighting machismo as well, and still are.

Paternostro described that girls married the first boy they kissed because "kissing seemed to go hand in hand with getting pregnant" (Paternostro 1999). It was no different for females here. Premarital sex was taboo, although it was going on everywhere, no one talked about it. A teenaged girl who became pregnant would be sent to live with relatives for a year, the baby usually put up for adoption, or in some instances raised as the girl's sister.

Paternostro's scene of riding around in cars with boys as a teenager echoes every teenaged girl's experience with the opposite sex. The boys were thought to be more experienced and the girls merely were there for the teaching.

Trying to break out of the mold could be frustrating and lonely. Paternostro describes how she was awed by men's power, even their signatures, "about whom I was consumed with curiosity. What they did, how they talked seemed much more alive than what women did" (Paternostro 1999). Men talked of politics and things that seemed so much more important than women's lives. It makes one think of the scene from "Gone With the Wind," when the men retire to the library for cigars and brandy. They close the doors and discuss manly things, while the women tend to womanly things and young girls take naps, far away from the closed doors of the library. And if a female should enter, she might be humored for a moment but was inevitably put in her place. Paternostro described how she too was humored when she dared try to discuss politics with the men, promptly and politely put in her place. She was told, "It's not attractive to be so opinioned" (Paternostro 1999). She said, "My place as a woman was a follower" (Paternostro 1999).

Paternostro discussed the power of dress for her as a young girl. Females were supposed to be desirable. She wore short skirts and small tops, and although she had barely been kissed, she was scolded for her attire. She said, "But it was confusing to be reprimanded for the one thing that I had been hearing a girl should most want to be" (Paternostro 1999). Although, women today are not raised in the conservatism of that era, and sex talk is cheap and is found everywhere, radio, books, television, schools, women today still face sexism, they are still up against machismo. The image of women in advertising is perhaps the payback for knowledge. Women's bodies are exploited in ads to the point that young women and even young girls are suffering severe self-image problems. Many are literally starving themselves to death to become the waif seen in ads. Moreover, in contrast to the Donna Reed era, women today are expected to be mature sexually at a younger age, thanks in part to advertising and other media.