The Revision of the Myths and the Creation of Heroins

8/13/2019 The Revision of the Myths and the Creation of Heroins

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The revision of the myths and the creation of heroines

The literature is connected to the readers desires and needs: the sociocultural context is

always changing and people need to discover these changes in what they read; another influence

of literature is that it may modify the persons perception about ideas, events, cultural symbols,

etc. The revision of these paradigms appear when there is a social crisis and the individuals need

to identify themselves with a strong figure in order to reinvent their identity and to understand

the world and to give it a new meaning. A kind of crisis and a revision of the paradigms appear

in hicana literature; some topoi in hicana literature refer to the !panish con"uest of the

fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the indirect coloni#ation of $exico and other %atin American

countries by the &nited !tates of America and the internal coloni#ation of $exicans in the

&nited !tates of America.La Llorona, La Virgen de GuadalupeandLa Malinche are cultural

symbols that are constantly present in the literature of %atin America and the %atino &nited

!tates. The transfer of influence between literature' myths and life is in both directions: (As

Chicanas and Mexicanas write their experience into history, their literature depicts this

corrected history.) !o, one features of this literature is the use and the redefining of archetypes.

The essay will present the revision of the legend ofLa Llorona in !andra isneross short

story Woman Hollering Creek. This author uses a series of symbols in her works in order to

illustrate womens changes in lifestyle and mentality. *n Women Hollering Creek, the author

uses La Lloronas legend and symbol to show that she becomes a metaphor for women

independence; women in this story are people that are needed to adapt to their new life and they

need to fight for their independence +linguistic, economical, spiritual. This revision of the

legend suggests that the perception about a cultural symbol may change and this metamorphosis

indicates the changes of a society and it is a sign of the influence of coloni#ing cultures. The

legend ofLa Llorona, !panish for the Weeping Woman, has been a part of -ispanic culture in

the !outhwest since the days of con"uistadores. This woman' spirit is said to be blessed with


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natural beauty and long flowing black hair; wearing a white gown, she roams the rivers and

creeks, wailing into the night and searching for her children. !o, the one common thread of the

legend refers to +the legend has several variations a beautiful woman by the name of $aria who

drowns her children in order to be with the man that she loved. The man would not have her,

which devastated her. !he would not take no for an answer, so she drowned herself in a river in

$exico ity. hallenged at the gates of heaven as to the whereabouts of her children, she is not

permitted to enter the afterlife until she has found them. $aria is forced to wander the /arth for

all eternity, searching in vain for her drowned offspring, with her constant weeping giving her

the name 0La Llorona0; she is trapped in between the living world and the spirit world. 1ut the

Weeping Woman is much more than a ghost or an apparition, La Lloronais a woman both

faceless and ageless, a compendium of many symbols and pre2-ispanic deities. !hes both a

condemned woman and at the same time, a goddess bearing an ominous message. $ore, the

story serves as a cautionary taleon several levels: parents will warn their children that bad

behavior will causeLa Lloronato abduct them, and that being outside after dark will result in her

visitation; the tale also warns young women not to be enticed by status, wealth, material goods,

or by men who make declarations of love or lavish promises. !o, we observe that the rewriting of

myth necessarily entails rewriting ideology and cultural norms. These stories +in their original

forms limit a woman identity and hopes; hicana feminist writers interrogate' rewrite these

myths in order to reconceive the role of women in hicano culture 3 these cultural figures are

turned into symbols of resistance.

The works of authors such as !andra isneros, 4loria An#ald5a, herr6e $oraga and

Ana astillo illustrate this effort in cultural revision; each address the figures of $alinche, %a

%lorona, and %a 7irgen de 4uadalupe in different literary forms, ranging from critical essays to

plays, poetry, novels, and short stories. !andra isneros in Woman Hollering Creekchanges the

meaning of the La Lloronasymbol to illustrate some problems: womens economic dependence

on their husbands and violence against women. The story starts when leofilas father +8on

!erafin accepts like her to get married with 9uan edro and the newly married couple goes to

live into a city, in Texas; the dream of leofilas starts to become reality: she loves her husband

and believes that she will live happily ever after, but always it is a big difference between

dreamsand reality.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cautionary_talehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cautionary_tale


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The protagonist comes from a family formed from six brothers and their father; so, she has

no mother who to protects and to advice her. leofilas created an illusion about the family life near

her husband on basis of what she saw in telenovelas +it is a popular form of television; leust that and she discovers the violent behavior of her man and his lack of

interest in family problems, butsheneed to remind why she lo$es himwhen: 0she changes the

%a%y*s 1ampers, or when she mops the %athroom #loor, or tries to ma'e the curtains #or the

doorways without doors, or whiten the linen. 2r wonder a little when he 'ic's the re#rigerator and

says he hates this shitty house and is going out where he won*t %e %othered with the %a%y*s

howling and her suspicious 3uestions, and her re3uests to #ix this and this and this %ecause i# she

had any %rains in her head she*d reali&e he*s %een up %e#ore the rooster earning his li$ing to pay

#or the #ood in her %elly and the roo# o$er her head and would ha$e to wa'e up again early the

next day so why can*t you 4ust lea$e me in peace, woman. 5$ore, this young married woman

changes her idea about violence because she believed that when' if a man will beat her, she will

strike him beak, but in that moment+s she didnt fight back, she didnt break into tears and she

didnt runaway as such she had hypothetically imagined. !o, the protagonist of this story, le


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break out of rigid gender norms; unlike leoy. *n conclusion, the author revision a cultural symbol in order to help the

hicana women to revision their existence.

Bibliography

. Allison Amend, Sandra Cisnerosin Hispanic - American writers D +$ulticultural

voices, An imprint of *nfobase ublishing

. Eeading !piritualities, /dited by 8A=F %%/=/%%F and 8/1GEA- B. !A=/E,

An imprint of Ashhate ublishing

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The Revision of the Myths and the Creation of Heroins