Argument and CounterArgument

 

Within my overall paper, my main point revolves around the positive and negative perspectives of the folklore figure, La Llorona. My overall question revolved around how a positive transformation of La Llorona can possibly create changes within society as well as effect women. Slowly I came to the conclusion that La Llorona works as a symbolic figure for proactive action in regards to bringing down social norms when specifically relating to issues of the oppressed, specifically women. 

When it came to finding a counter argument, I had an idea that it was going to revolve around the oppressive nature of La Llorona's original reputation. However something I did not expect to find came from a dissertation by Beth Lee-Herbert titled, "The Fertile Abyss: La Llorona, La Malinche, and the Role of the Terrible Mother Archetype in Transcending Oppression". Herbert expresses an interesting concept known as Transcendent function, which expresses, "Not relieving the unbearable tension with repetitive action allows the natural capacity for healing to arise from the unconscious of the psyche"  (Lee-Herbert 33). (this concept originated from Carl Jung). Lee-Herbert uses La Llorona as an example of someone who does not let go of her guilt thus leading her to continue with her same evil actions. I find this to be significantly interesting considering the fact that throughout most of my sources, we see literary and film representations that demonstrate La Llorona actively working against oppressors. Does it all relate back to her overall negative reputation? This is relevant for future interpretations of La Llorona because there are two completely opposite spectrums.

Works Cited:

Lee-Herbert, Beth. The Fertile Abyss: La Llorona, La Malinche, and the Role of the Terrible Mother Archetype in Transcending Oppression. ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 2018.

Theoretical Frame

                   

Coming up with a theoretical frame for my paper took time as it was difficult to try to combine the cultural ideas of La Llorona into a specific topic. Ultimately, the key words that I narrowed down to were the words "feminism" and "transformation". Both of these words combined with helpful terms such as "control device" and "Latin Woman" come to help build the research paper on the basis that through her transformation, La Llorona has become a source of symbolism that challenges the social norm by promoting proactive changes in the perspective of individuals. This specifically correlates to the ideas that La Llorona is not just a woman who takes children. Ideas about her can start changing. I specifically include a quote from Fernando Gomez's piece to fully explore more into the act of feminism and the correlation to the Latin woman by specifically identifying that, "Tradition has written her as a destructive and malevolent ancestral figure that has transgressed the indisputable role of the Latin woman" (Gomez 111). Setting this idea off into an important basis for the paper allows me to further explore this idea of a transformation. When I further look into a piece from Larissa Mercado-Lopez "From Lost Woman to Third Space Mestiza Maternal Subject: La Llorona as a Metaphor of Transformation", I find that through the transformation of metaphors, women, are allowed to further explore their identities. These terms allow me to fully grasp on the changes of La Llorona while at the same time exploring the reasons as to why each is so important.

Literature Review #4

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Author: Larissa Mercado-Lopez

Citation:

C. Herrera, L.M. Mercado-Lopez (eds.), (Re)mapping the Latina/o Literary Landscape, DOI 10.1057 / 978-1-349-94901-4_13

Summary:

Larissa Mercado-Lopez's piece "From Lost Woman to Third Space Mestiza Maternal Subject: La Llorona as a Metaphor of Transformation" discusses the importance of metaphors in regards to La Llorona through the use of Gloria Anzaldua's interpretations of the figure. Within the piece, Mercado-Lopez discusses the use of finding female identities. Specifically there is a discussion on the Latina mother as we come to learn more about the negative interpretations La Llorona encourages in regards to overall patriarchal ideals.

Author:

Larissa Mercado-Lopez is an Associates Professor at the University of California in Fresno. She is a professor of Women's Studies. She teaches a variety of topics ranging from immigration to Latina Health, and included within the topics she teaches, is the topic of Latina Feminism. In regards to her research, Chicana Feminism is a significant topic she focuses on. Dr. Mercado-Lopez has a PhD in English and Latina Literature.

Link to Full Bio: Larissa Mercado-Lopez

Key Terms:

Metaphors: a comparison of an object that is symbolic of something else/ has different meanings, while still being unrelated to the original object of comparison.

Motherhood: the lifestyle women take part in that particularly includes taking care of children. (Usually has a traditional role)

Three Quotes:

"The language of invasion, conquest, and violence clearly attempts to vilify Mexican women, their sexuality, their wombs, and even their children" (Mercado-Lopez 214).

"La Llorona was re-envisioned by Anzaldua as a figure that compelled Chicanas to find voice through writing and theorizing" (Mercado-Lopez 218).

“Metaphors in Chicana studies also function as linguistic spaces in which decolonizing theories, methodologies, and paradigms can be produced” (Mercado-Lopez 210)

Value:

This article is of significant value for my paper because here is where we get significant interpretations of the word " transformation" in order to describe La Llorona. Within this article we not only dive into the literary implications of metaphors and how important La Llorona truly is as a symbol, but we also see talks of indigenous concerns which overall comes to not only highlight the typical "Latin Woman" more. It also highlights the negative outcomes of what a negative interpretation of La Llorona could entail. 

Case: La Llorona (2020 Film)

 

For my case, I decided to utilize Guatemalan film maker Jayro Bustamante's 2020 film "La Llorona". The film of La Llorona tells the story of a Guatemalan general who is under trail for a mass genocide of Guatemala's citizens, more specifically Indigenous groups. La Llorona comes to be our unexpected hero as we see her(represented through one of the general's maids), work her way into haunting the general for his evil doings while at the same time, working to garner sympathy from the General's family whom of which have yet to admit their family member's wrong doings. This film is based off of true events in the 1980s with the villainous General named Enrique Monteverde being based off of the real dictator Efrain Rios Montt. 

What made this film significant for my paper was the fact that we had the opportunity to see La Llorona in a heroine role, regardless of her unfortunate background. This film in regards towards feminism and indigenous culture provides details based on the actions of La Llorona herself. Jaryo Bustamante describes his intentions, "I wanted to transform La Llorona's sexist leanings and remove the idea that she weeps because a man left her" (La Llorona is more Horrifying than Ever in Jayro Bustamante's Subversive Retelling). Bustamante enthralls viewers to such ideas, with La Llornoa's powerful connection to the General's wife through the form of dreams. The General's wife becomes a visible representation of the traditional "Latin Woman", while at the same time, she becomes the woman who breaks the mold. 

Works Cited:

La Llorona. Dir. Jayro Bustamante.La Casa de las Producciones, 2020. Shutter. Web. 28 March 2021. Watch La Llorona | Prime Video (amazon.com)

Burstein, Sergio. “'La Llorona' Is More Horrifying than Ever in Jayro Bustamante's Subversive Retelling.” Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 10 Mar. 2021, www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/movies/story/2021-03-09/la-llorona-jayro-bustamante-subversive-retelling.

Visual

 

This is an image included in my presentation that in fact, I specifically chose for the cover of the presentation. Overall, the major issue that I have been trying to discuss within my overall paper is the negative interpretations of La Llorona as a myth within society and the negative effects such an interpretation tells. Considering I have been trying to talk about the importance of a positive interpretation of La Llorona, something that I found significant about this image is the fact that even though we see La Llorona in her usual negative visualization, in this image we see her holding a baby. She is not taking the baby, she is cradling the baby. Throughout my presentation, I made it a point to emphasize the negative images about her because it shows first hand how La Llorona is interpreted. Having her in this image with a baby, while it may be reminiscent of the children she killed, it also opens her to womanhood as a mother, which then allows me to further discuss the value La Llorona has within feminism. 

Revised Research Question

Question:

How can the folklore figure, La Llorona, transcend positive lessons into modern issues today? What solutions or reflections does this figure provide? What effects does La Llorona have on women? 

                                                                        Works Cited

Delgado, Richard, and Jean Stefancic. “Lessons From Mexican Folklore: An Essay on U.S.                  Immigration Policy, Child Separation, and La Llorona.” University of Pittsburgh Law Review, vol. 81,   no. 2, University of Pittsburgh, 2019, p. 287–, doi:10.5195/lawreview.2019.675

Hall, Anne-Marie. “Keeping La Llorona Alive in the Shadow of Cortés: What an Examination of Literacy in Two Mexican Schools Can Teach U.S. Educators.” Bilingual Research Journal, vol. 30, no. 2, Taylor & Francis Group, 2006, pp. 385–406, doi:10.1080/15235882.2006.10162882.

Joann Furlow Allen. “SEEKING SAFE SISTERS: SANDRA CISNEROS’S USE OF THE SOURCE OF THE MYTH LA LLORONA AS SISTER FIGURE.” Journal of Intercultural Disciplines, vol. 7, National Association of African American Studies, 2007, p. 9–.

Lee-Herbert, Beth. The Fertile Abyss: La Llorona, La Malinche, and the Role of the Terrible Mother Archetype in Transcending Oppression. ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 2018.

Luis fernando Gómez R. “Cleófilas and La Llorona: Latin Heroines Against Patriarchal Marginalisation in ‘El Arroyo de La Llorona’, a Short Story by Sandra Cisneros.” Universitas Humanística, vol. 74, no. 74, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, 2012, pp. 98–119.

Michael T. Taussig. The Devil and Commodity Fetishism in South America. The University of North Carolina Press, 2010, doi:10.5149/9780807898413_taussig.

Literature Review #3

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Authors:

The author of this article, Luis Fernando Gomez R., is a professor and researcher at the National Pedagogic University of Colombia. Through his work as a researcher and as a professor of English as a foreign language, he has garnered experience in Intercultural competence and incorporation of literature into education, as well as many other areas.

Link: Luis Fernando Gomez

Citation:

Luis fernando Gómez R. “Cleófilas and La Llorona: Latin Heroines Against Patriarchal Marginalisation in ‘El Arroyo de La Llorona’, a Short Story by Sandra Cisneros.” Universitas Humanística, vol. 74, no. 74, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, 2012, pp. 98–119.

Link: Cleofilas and La Llorona

Summary:

The article “Cleófilas and La Llorona: Latin Heroines Against Patriarchal Marginalisation in ‘El Arroyo de La Llorona’, a Short Story by Sandra Cisneros.” examines author Sandra Cisneros' character named Cleófilas. Known to dislike her life as a wife to an abusive husband, Cleofilas comes to be an example of the product of patriarchal traditions within culture. Gomez comes to analyze the eventual association Cleofilas makes to La Llorona through the negative connotations La Llorona represents within society (revenge). "The figure of La Llorona is used as a way to explore the marginal conditions of the Latin woman" (Gomez 99). Through an overall analysis of the historical context of La Llorona, Gomez is able to justify Cleofilas connection to the figure as a symbol of searching for freedom.

Key Terms:

Patriarchy: a culture/government in which men hold all power and women are left inferior to their counterparts.

Romanticism: in the article's case, romanticism here means to legitimize the inferiority women face

Three Quotes:

1. "La Llorona es acusada y maldecida por haber infringido las normas establecidas de su cultura" (Gomez 112).

Translation: "La Llorona is accused and ... for having infringed the norms her culture established" (Gomez 112).

2. "La tradición la ha descrito como una figura ancestral malvada y destructiva, quien ha trasgredido el indiscutible papel establecido de la mujer latina" (Gomez 111).

Translation: "Tradition has written her as a destructive and malevolent ancestral figure that has transgressed the indisputable role of the Latin woman" (Gomez 111).

3. "El hombre logra imponer su autoridad como la única legítima porque es considerado como el dueño de todos los instrumentos de poder" (Gomez 100)

Translation: " The man is able to achieve his goal of being considered the only legitimate authority because he is the owner of all sources of power" (Gomez 100).

Note: All translations were made by me.

Value:

This article holds significant value for my research because as an analysis of La Llorona's use in a short story, we are given the social realities of patriarchy, which is a relevant social issue that I can develop in research. Expanding on the vengeful perspective of La Llorona's lesson, the article provides another paradigm to build on. The article provides a positive view of La Llorona from the already negative perspective she represents.