In the provided literature surrounding Mexican American Borderlands and The Caribbean Experience in the United States, there are strong common themes of gender roles. These gender roles include common stereotypical roles as well as the struggles which are caused as a result of the roles. In the following essay, the literature will be discussed as well as how each story surrounds these gender roles.
“Bien Pretty” surrounds the idea of a womanizer, also known as Flavio Manguia. Throughout the story, this young man is compared by the speaker to a trap. She says that as soon as a girl falls for him, “well, you were in for it” (137). The author strategically wrote this story to display to her audience that the speaker was well aware of the trap, but she fell for it in the end anyway. This male antagonist is described more as an object or a disease throughout the story rather than an individual, which is another indication of gender representation as a theme. The speaker, for example, says that he at one point wore her prettiness away. She then discusses her friends and how their beauty has been worn away by men as well. Throughout this short story, she continues to refer to men as disruptors or as mistakes. She also implies that once a girl falls in love with a boy, she has entered into a sort of trance. She explains that her Flavio wasn’t pretty until she was in love with him. This indicates that she as a woman could have been independent and young without a man, but fell into the same trap as most other women do.
Another interesting story was “Anguiano Religious Articles”. This was a very creatively written story which not only utilized a large amount of cultural depictions and imagery, but it was also very religiously humorous. Told from the perspective of a woman, the story describes her hatred toward a store owner. Before journeying to the store, she is told that this store owner is a “crab ass”. The story is very short, but humorous