Personally, placing a numerical value to a person's qualities and experiential context, in this case, cultural schizophrenia, is somewhat of a difficult task, as I think that a number hardly encompasses the contradictions and dilemmas each character represents. But if I must, here is my best attempt. Honestly, I could not but feel sad and reflected on each character, as I too have experienced and shown different symptoms of cultural schizophrenia, especially those evidenced in the queer, female, and "Mexican" characters. So, because of my personal bias, I would have to give a 10 to Félix Ángel. 9-8 to Mamá Chona, Tía Cuca, and Miguel Grande; 8-7 Juanita, Lola, and Angie; a solid 7 to Miguel Chico; 6-5 Lena and Nina; and finally, a solid 5 to JoEl.
This form of grading, where nobody earned a 1or 2, may seem impartial, but I do not see any of the character's free from cultural schizophrenia. That is why the lowest grade was a 5, and granted, paradoxically, to the mentally, yet consciously culturally schizophrenic JoEl. As for the rest of the characters, hers is my explanation. I think Felix, a closeted-gay man, head of the household with incestuous pedophillic desires towards his youngest son, and externalizing those desires outward, usually with infantilized (ether by migration, socioeconomic, or age status) men, makes him the most culturally schizophrenic to my view. It was no secret, that Felix had homoerotic desires since his early years. Yet, being the oldest and the in-situ pater de familias for the widowed Mamá Chona, he was forced by hetero-patriarchal Mexican and Anglo-Saxon gender norms to closet his desires and behave like "el hombre de la casa." Perhaps a reason why he would chose to marry an "India," and not a "Mexicana de buena estirpe," was probably because Felix felt he could only be with a person that was as undesirable (to his culturally schizophrenic mind) as a pinche joto.
Mama Grande, Tia Cuca, and Miguel Grande, well what can I say about the "Grandes," other than they are as oppressed as they are oppressive. That is, even though Mama Grande and Miguel Grande give us the impression that they are tyrannical violent machistas, the truth of the matter is that they suffer more internally from that inner fear, race/class/ethnic/linguistic/gendered oppression, Catholic guilt; and all they do is portray their internalized schizophrenia unto others, like Juanita, Lola, and Angie.
These three women are part of what Emma Perez calls the women-against-women vicious cycle that erupts from a long-chain of heteropatriarchal ruling against women in favor of the Law of the Father. In Perez's understanding, women under ruled under the Law of the Father, can see no other way around the patriarchal problem but to fall victim of it, and re-create that same cycle. In other words, the oppressed become oppressors, just like the pyramid of the petty tyrants of a colonized mind. These three women see no other avenue than to continue to please the Master, in an effort to gain his approval at best, or to not fall out of his grace. Yet, this women are not just passive victims, they are also closeted resisters, and it becomes very evident, especially between Lola and Juanita's sealing-the-Miguel-deal and agreement. Unlike what Miguel Grande had predicted, these women did not do as the Law of the Father expects them to do, but they came into an agreement as to what they were going to do about their two-time lying macho lover. Miguel, felt disempowered, and Juanita and Lola empowered. So, there is a way out of the woman-against-woman heteropatriarchal cycle, thank Yemayá!
Mama Grande, Tia Cuca, and Miguel Grande, well what can I say about the "Grandes," other than they are as oppressed as they are oppressive. That is, even though Mama Grande and Miguel Grande give us the impression that they are tyrannical violent machistas, the truth of the matter is that they suffer more internally from that inner fear, race/class/ethnic/linguistic/gendered oppression, Catholic guilt; and all they do is portray their internalized schizophrenia unto others, like Juanita, Lola, and Angie.
These three women are part of what Emma Perez calls the women-against-women vicious cycle that erupts from a long-chain of heteropatriarchal ruling against women in favor of the Law of the Father. In Perez's understanding, women under ruled under the Law of the Father, can see no other way around the patriarchal problem but to fall victim of it, and re-create that same cycle. In other words, the oppressed become oppressors, just like the pyramid of the petty tyrants of a colonized mind. These three women see no other avenue than to continue to please the Master, in an effort to gain his approval at best, or to not fall out of his grace. Yet, this women are not just passive victims, they are also closeted resisters, and it becomes very evident, especially between Lola and Juanita's sealing-the-Miguel-deal and agreement. Unlike what Miguel Grande had predicted, these women did not do as the Law of the Father expects them to do, but they came into an agreement as to what they were going to do about their two-time lying macho lover. Miguel, felt disempowered, and Juanita and Lola empowered. So, there is a way out of the woman-against-woman heteropatriarchal cycle, thank Yemayá!
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