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Never Marry A Mexican Analysis

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Never Marry A Mexican Analysis
Sierra Prescott
English 170
Short Paper

“Never Marry a Mexican”

In my analysis of “Never Marry a Mexican” By Sandra Cisneros, I focused mainly on attempting to delve into the complex workings of Clemencia, the narrators, personality and motives. We don’t always think about the “why”. “Why” did she do what she did? Instead, we judge quickly and harshly. In class, Clemencia was quickly written off as a horrible person. Everyone has a back story, everyone has a certain contextual situation that shapes their actions. Clemencia is no different. Clemencia is a character who puts up a front of being very cold and unfeeling, but I believe hides a lot of pain and issues underneath the surface of what she believes to be her true self. …show more content…
“That man she met at work, Owen Lambert, the foreman at the photo-finishing plant, who she was seeing even while my father was sick. Even then. That's what I can't forgive.”(73) Her mother has shown her nothing but the failings of marriage. Just A resentment towards her previous husband, and infidelity that occurred even while he was lying on his sick bed. Clemencia finds it impossible to believe in the happy endings of marriage, when all she has seen is the deceitful side of a marriage vow. The repetition is most powerful when it is repeated at the end by Drew, the man whom Clemencia obviously feels very strongly about. “A young girl like me. Hadn't I understood . . . responsibilities. Besides, he could never marry me. You didn't think . . . ? Never marry a Mexican. Never marry a Mexican . . . No, of course not. I see. I see.” (80) Clemencia is too good for the Mexican men, but not good enough for the white men. So who does she belong with? Where does she fit in and belong? This goes to a struggle with identity, which we see in strands throughout the …show more content…
“I'm amphibious. I'm a person who doesn't belong to any class. The rich like to have me around because they envy my creativity; they know they can't buy that. The poor don't mind if I live in their neighborhood because they know I'm poor like they are, even if my education and the way I dress keeps us worlds apart.”(71) As an artist Clemencia is more cultured and creative so therefore set apart from the working class that surrounds her. The rich except and envy her talent, but pull in a bigger paycheck and live the ritzy lifestyle. Clemencia is once again left without a sense of belonging to a community. Even the root of where we all feel to have originally belonged, our family, has been taken away from Clemencia. Her mother has remarried and wants nothing to do with her daughters. “Because she knew as well as I did there was no home to go home to. Not with our mother. Not with that man she married. After Daddy died, it was like we didn't matter. Like Ma was so busy feeling sorry for herself, I don't know.”(73) This feeling of “not mattering” takes away Clemencia’s sense of belonging and support that should be felt when thinking of ones
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