Méxicana novel start me the life of 1985
To what extent the presence of a despotic and macho attitude changed the way of thinking of Catalina?
The novel Arráncame Life was published in 1985 by the Mexican writer Ángeles Mastretta, who represents in her works, several political and social issues that reflect the modus operandi of a society committed to living in countless acts of corruption and machismo, which leftIn evidence the role that each man and woman starred in this atavistic scheme, however, it was in this environment in which Catalina Guzmán grows and develops as one of the most transcendental characters throughout the work;She showing from the beginning as a curious and inexperienced young woman to knowledge that were limited to lead to a theme beyond the carnal desire and the false identity of those who called governors.
Despite this, there is a point where Catalina’s innocent mentality is disturbed by knowing the true demon;considered as her husband;that he would be tormenting her most of her life;realizing the sophistic world in which she lives and the immense abyss she had immersed for moving from fantasy to the sad and cruel reality. Despite being beaten several times by the falocratic ideologies and infidelities that her own husband caused, they were the necessary impulse for the creation of a totally different and calculating Catalina that sought freedom. It is in this way that the main protagonist is in a situation that requires a total change to her personality and the image of being a woman, reaching the point of breaking with the ancient macho stereotypes that had dominated the thought of Mexican society,In full renewal.
That year many things happened in this country. Among others, Andrés and I got married. I met him in a coffee from the portals. On what other part was going to be if in Puebla everything passed in the portals: from the courtships to the murders, as if there were no other place … (Mastretta, 1985, p. 1)
This is how one of the most successful novels of Ángeles Mastretta begins, which describes us;through a protagonist narrator;A first scenario wrapped in a society full of hypocrisy, where its inhabitants are faithful witnesses of an infinity of atrocities that occurred in the city of Puebla, but that I am not able to denounce them for the fear of being annihilated at the hands of the cruel tyrants whoThey exercised a false democracy, it is in this way that the author transmits a first impression of the birthplace of Catalina, introducing us to a romance that would become the trigger for the awakening of all sexual desires and passions that the main figure would discover at the time at the timeof feeling a woman, winged of a proud and ruthless being, who would bear as name Andrés Ascencio;The demon who frequented to submit her to the only role of a submissive woman of her in a sexist society of the twentieth century. There is so much the cunning that Andrés possessed, that in the words of Catalina express:
We were hit by all. Even my older sisters, Teresa, who began by describing him as an old concupiscent, and Barbara, who had an atrocious fear, ended up having fun with him almost as much as the youngest. My brothers bought them forever leading them to take a walk in their car. (Mastretta, 1985, p. 4)
Mentioning the previous appointment, this is a clear parallel of the general’s attitude with that of a demon who presented himself as a blue prince towards Catalina’s eyes and as a great friend for each of the members of the Guzmán family,but that hid a true despotic and false identity;of which his wife would regret some time later;qualifying him as an ambitious man of power, capable of performing any barbarity to achieve his goals and get to command, a womanizer who disappears for a while and returns with children so that his spouse exercises his role as a mother, but above all, a greatExample of realistic character by capturing the average attitude of men, when treating women as decoration objects that were only useful to please man libidinously and exercise certain trades that the condition of female had formed.
This situation can be evidence. It is more difficult to take with you than a virgin poblana. Remove them ”(Mastretta, 1985, p. 37) thus demonstrating a vulgar and oppressive language that is incorporated with that overwhelming environment, which represented those times where the rib of man, had no voice and vote to decide on his own life and that was only constrained to the role of the home.
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