Zapata Chicana Identity in \"Eyes of Zapata\"

Zapata

Chicana Identity in "Eyes of Zapata"

In her 1991 collection of stories entitled Woman Hollering Creek and Other Short Stories, Sandra Cisneros offers some compelling insights into the cultural lives, personal experiences and romantic endeavors of an unrelated selection of Mexican-Americans. Cisneros' compilation of narratives are unrelated in plot but linked together by common themes, specifically themes concerning the female experience in this cultural context. The story entitled "Eyes of Zapata" is especially engaging on this subject, depicting the trials faced by Ines as she attempts to reconcile her love for a man with this man's responsibility to his revolutionary cause. In doing so, this story that revolves around the actions of a Mexican cultural hero paints a portrait of woman whose sacrifices made her no less heroic.

The relationship between Ines and Zapata is perhaps only secondary in this story to the relationship between Ines and herself. A story emblematic of the themes throughout the collection, "Eyes of Zapata" finds a woman isolated by her devotion to a man whose stature makes him a poor and absent partner. And yet, this role is the which comes to define her. For Cisneros, the notion of a woman being defined by her relationship to a man is central. The author writes frankly and unflinchingly about the gender inequalities that permeate Mexican and Mexican-American society, exploring the various female archetypes that are forged in this setting. Among these archetypes, Ines is a martyr for love, partnership and recognition in much the same way that Zapata will become a martyr for the people of Mexico.

Indeed, Ines is verily defined by Zapata, not just in his life or even just his death but also in the maternal role that she comes to play for his child. In every respect, her life is given meaning by the very same man that deprives it from achieving any kind of true or lasting happiness. According to the commentary provided by Todorova (2007), "Cisneros' characters evaluate the way they relate to men's psyche and look for answers to their own existential questions in erotic relationships. For these fictional Chicanas, man is the primary other, playing destruction to their creation and separateness to their oneness, but also man is the path for self-exploration and the key to the desire because man defines woman in the patriarchal structures of Mexican-American culture. Ironically, woman comes to know herself and her potential through man." (Todorova, p. 21)

Most specifically, Ines will come to find great strength in herself both as a mother and as the secret muse for a revolutionary. This strength is best demonstrated as she reconciles the sacrifice of her lover to a cause that was certainly greater than themselves but perhaps futile in its ambition. For Ines, overcoming this contradiction is a tremendous show of personal fortitude.