When it comes to marriage, everyone in their life, regardless of the belief, wants or needs someone special made for them. I choose to write about “Never Marry a Mexican” by Sandra Cisneros. After reading a bit about the author, I found many similarities about how she grew up around many men, and again, her family is originally from Mexico. I can sense her urgency for immigrant stories and how she was affected as a Mexican. She grew up in a sequence of dingy apartments in Chicago, which tends to predict in this writing masterpiece.
The narrator gives a descriptive revelation about the idealistic of marriage, Love, and sex. In this annotation pitch, I want to investigate how the narrator uses sex as a power to deceive men and make them powerless by her intent to satisfy herself. Is she talking about Mexicans or all races of men?
The main idea of “Never Marry a Mexican” focuses on the internal struggle of a young woman who negatively stereotypes Mexican’s on drug relationships, which betrays her lack of self-confidence and self-worth.
The protagonist Clemencia turns resentful as she discovers men she describes as sex objects. She uses them and leaves them, then on to the next. She uses her womanhood as power and a weapon to win at being fulfilled and not taken for granted. She also imposes that “white men” would impossibly be intimate with a Mexican American but never intend to marry them (race marriage). Clemencia was not interested in marriage, but she loved the attention of married white men. On page 114, she states, “And he took me under his wing and in his bed, this man, this teacher, your father. I was honored that he’d done me a favor” (Cisneros), and this quote tells the readers that the narrator admired the attention of a white man because it made her feel special. Additionally, Clemencia wants to be accepted by the white community to benefit from white privilege.
The tone of “Never Marry a Mexican “stereotypes mainly on the influence of drug relationships, which makes her choices of relationships lack self-worth and Love.
The beginning of the story by the narrator sets forth an adventure.
The author uses events to describe how Clemencia grew up to draw the reader into the scene and where the event occurred. “Not the sneaking around I did in different bars that all looked the same, red carpets with a black grillwork design, flocked wallpaper, wooden wagon wheel light fixtures with hurricane lampshades, dark bars, dark restaurants,” etc. (Page 101). This context gives the reader to analyze her surroundings and way of living. It also gave me an instinct of a chaotic life, leading to how she described men in this quote. “I’ll never marry. Not any man. I’ve known men too intimately. I’ve witnessed their infidelities, and I’ve helped them to it. What is the author trying to say?
From my perspective, she describes men as trauma, pain, and affliction, feeling no guilt of hurting other women as she too is being hurt in the process. She would never marry as her satisfaction of failed Love, just like her mother warned her. “Never marry a Mexican, my ma once said once and always?” Or was she referring to all men in general?
The story’s plot gives the reader a sense of guilt and empathy towards the protagonist. “How I make my living depends; sometimes, I work as a translator. Sometimes I get paid by the word and by the hour, depending on the job. I do this in the day, and at night I paint, (Page 111).
This passage speaks an irony. The reader doesn’t know what she means until you get deeper into the story and why she paints at night to clear her guilt and shame. What does she feel when she is painting? It must be one hell of a great imagination painting, I would say. Does she draw her pain in a way that satisfies the men, or she makes them look bad?
“That man she met at work, Owen Lambert, the foreman at the photofinishing plant, who she saw even while my father was sick, Even then. That’s what I can’t forgive (Page 113). This passage refers back to the book’s main idea, the theme, and the focus. Her surroundings, as mentioned earlier, were predicted in the way she witnessed and experienced men around her. Not only is this happening around her, but it also impacted her life. Was it her fault, or her mother’s or fathers? Could it be that, after all, all men are the same and women are never satisfied?
(Page 119) Oh, Love, there. I’ve gone and done it. What good is it? Good or bad, I’ve done what I had to do and needed to.
As a reader, I can relate to this passage as it ties to my past relationships’ trauma. For how long do you know if it’s Love, lust, or never. It is until you do the right thing that it does not become a sin to your eyes. “Never Marry A Mexican” is a book that intends truth in many ways as immigrants to a country when dating outside your race or the expectations of having a family. You never know what to expect. There is never a single story to a culture; marriage, Love, lust, it comes from somewhere internal.
