Woman Hollering Creek
Woman Hollering Creek
“Woman Hollering Creek” is the title story of a book of short stories written by Sandra Cisneros in 1991. Each story in the book deals with women’s dreams, aspiration, disappointment and realities. Some stories deal with these issues when the women are young girls, some when they are adolescent and some as adults. The main character in “Woman Hollering Creek” is a young bride that quickly learns that what she has seen on TV and read in magazines is not the reality of her situation.
The main character is named Cleofilas Enriqueta DeLeon Hernandez. She is about to be married to Juan Pedro Martinez Sanchez. A man who came into Mexico from a town called Sequin, Texas. From “en al otro lado, the other side” (Cisneros) She was caught up the business of getting married that she barely heard her father tell her “I am your father. I will never abandon you.” She remembered him saying this to her after she became a mother as was often alone at home with her son. She thought that the love of between a man and woman can dissolve, but the love between a parent and child is binding. (Cisneros)
As a young bride she quickly came to realize that her marriage was not that of the telenovelas that her and her girlfriends watched religiously. Her marriage didn’t have the passion she craved as a young girl and that her husband was not the dashing man of her dreams.
She was speechless the first time he hit her. It appeared that she may have been in shock that a man who was supposed to love and protect her would hurt her in this manner. She also came to realize that her husband would not come home some nights. That he was keeping company with other women. She was alone and very lonely.
She was embarrassed to tell her family in Mexico about her circumstances for fear that they would not understand or be ashamed of her. She was also fearful of the gossips back home and what they would think of her if she were to go back to daddy.
Cleofilas
“Woman Hollering Creek” is the title story of a book of short stories written by Sandra Cisneros in 1991. Each story in the book deals with women’s dreams, aspiration, disappointment and realities. Some stories deal with these issues when the women are young girls, some when they are adolescent and some as adults. The main character in “Woman Hollering Creek” is a young bride that quickly learns that what she has seen on TV and read in magazines is not the reality of her situation.
The main character is named Cleofilas Enriqueta DeLeon Hernandez. She is about to be married to Juan Pedro Martinez Sanchez. A man who came into Mexico from a town called Sequin, Texas. From “en al otro lado, the other side” (Cisneros) She was caught up the business of getting married that she barely heard her father tell her “I am your father. I will never abandon you.” She remembered him saying this to her after she became a mother as was often alone at home with her son. She thought that the love of between a man and woman can dissolve, but the love between a parent and child is binding. (Cisneros)
As a young bride she quickly came to realize that her marriage was not that of the telenovelas that her and her girlfriends watched religiously. Her marriage didn’t have the passion she craved as a young girl and that her husband was not the dashing man of her dreams.
She was speechless the first time he hit her. It appeared that she may have been in shock that a man who was supposed to love and protect her would hurt her in this manner. She also came to realize that her husband would not come home some nights. That he was keeping company with other women. She was alone and very lonely.
She was embarrassed to tell her family in Mexico about her circumstances for fear that they would not understand or be ashamed of her. She was also fearful of the gossips back home and what they would think of her if she were to go back to daddy.
Cleofilas
Cited: Cisneros, Sandra. "Woman Hollering Creek." Olmos, Harold Augenbraum and Margarite Fernandez. The Latino Reader. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1997. 457-468. —. Women Hollering Creek. New York: Vintage Books, 1991. Hayes, Joe. "Teachings from a Hispanic Perspective." n.d. Literacynet.cor. 21 September 2012 <http://www.literacynet.org/lp/hperspectives/llorona.html>.