Fiction Literature

Woman Hollering Creek The real-life Woman Hollering Creek is a small waterway located in Central Texas. It is supposed that the name is a loose translation of the Spanish La Llorana or "weeping woman." This is a folktale of the area wherein a woman drowns her children in order to be with the man that she loves and yet he rejects her. Distraught over all she has lost, the woman (most ofthen called Maria) kills herself.

At the gates, the woman is not allowed to go through them because she is without her children. Unable to enter Heaven, the weeping woman is forced to haunt the living world, searching everywhere for her children, for she will not be allowed access to Heaven until she locates them. Sandra Cisneros short story "Woman Hollering Creek" is based upon this ancient legend. The story is about a young woman named Cle-filas.

She is a victim of an abusive relationship and yet does not have the strength to leave on her own. Through the course of the story, she changes from the stereotypical Hispanic housewife with no power who obeys her machismo husband blindly and evolves into a more self-sufficient individual. Having said that, Cle-filas still requires the assistance of other people to free her from her bondage; she is not strong enough to do so on her own much like the weeping woman of the story who cannot save her soul.

As a traditional Mexican woman whose lot in life is to obey the dominant male figure, Cle-filas begins the story by giving in to her father's wishes. Her father desires that she marry a man of his choosing. Whether or not she desires to take part in the union is of no consequence to either the father or to the suitor.

Cle-filas is well aware of what her position is in this society and would not make an objection to the union, no matter how dead set her heart was against this marriage. Cle-filas' father, Don Seraf-n, gives her to Juan Pedro Mart-nez Sanchez. It is said that the father knew when he did this that she would be unbearably unhappy. The union was based on financial agreement, not any expectation of happiness on the part of his daughter.

Don Serafin predicts that she would "dream of returning to the chores that never ended, six good-for-nothing brothers, and one old man's complaints" (Cisneros 1). Don Serain knows that the life he is providing for his daughter will be a grueling and miserable one. Still, none of these things are taken into consideration about the union. Her father had promised that he would never abandon his child, but that promise did not come to anything.

This is the only thing that Cle-filas seems to mourn, the loss of the belief that she could rely on her father. His broken promise is symbolic of a broken innocence within the woman. When this man she has married, Juan Pedro Martinez Sanchez, becomes unfaithful and eventually abusive, she has no way out of her situation. Even though she is disgusted by her husband's actions, there is nothing she can do about her predicament.

The first time she is struck by her husband in an act of violence, she cannot comprehend what has happened to her. "When it happened the first time, when they were barely man and wife, she had been so stunned, it left her speechless, motionless, numb. She had done nothing but reach up to the heat on her mouth and stare at the blood on her hand as if even then she didn't understand" (Cisneros 2).

The injury that has been done to her cannot be comprehended in the grander scheme of her role in the marriage. All Cle-filas can possibly hope to understand is the fact that she is in pain and her husband has caused that pain. Her role in the home is one of passivity and acceptance and, most importantly, unquestioning obedience. If her husband is disloyal to the fidelity of their marriage and violent with his bride, then that is just something she has to deal with.

This was the general belief of the day, that if the wife got injured by the husband, it was between the two of them and no one outside of this dichotomy should have the information or be anyway involved in the dispute. Either that or it was believed that the little woman has inevitably caused her husband's dissatisfaction and so it is her fault that her husband is mistreating her.

Each time her husband strikes her or cheats on her, it is Cle-filas's job to forgive him and to never bring it up to him again. She would comfort him through "his tears of repentance and shame, this time and each" (2). Although she knows that this is not the end of her misery, it is her job to put on a happy, simpering face and continue on.

Cle-filas lives in a perpetual daze, with someone always yelling at her that she is doing the wrong thing with regard to her housework or her hair or her parenting. The neighbors surrounding Cle-filas, Soledad and Dolores, are elderly versions of herself. Being likewise trapped, the two women feel no duty to Cle-filas or any inclination to help her in any way. They are who Cle-filas will eventually become if she continues living this life of quiet desperation.

Cle-filas is only saved when she meets two women who are stronger than she is; the characters of Felice and Graciela. Rather than rely on men to take care of them, they work and take care of themselves both emotionally and financially. They become role models for Cle-filas and, through their influences she is finally able to break free from her husband. Graciela determines to save Cle-filas when the young pregnant woman comes to have a sonogram performed. Cle-filas is alone at her appointment;.