Mama Chona [10]
The mind has never been
diagnosed so evidently culturally schizophrenic as it was with Mama Chona. As
the elder to the family, Mama Chona carries so much influence and continuously
reminds us all how the conquistador colonized our minds to view indigeneity as
less than. The common theme with Mama Chona is that she wants the younger
generation to remember their roots in Spanish and to learn English. Just as
much as she refuses to touch the sun, Mama Chona also refuses to touch the
indigeneity in her Mestiza Ancestry. She was the oppressed body possessed by
the Colonizer Spirit.
Angie [6]
Angie is a timid spirit
that taps into her roots through spirituality. We can see just how the rest of
her family sees her as a joke because of her behavior but all the same she
defies norms. While she does defy what’s expected as a colonized mind It’s
evident that she suffers from historical amnesia. Another sign of a colonized
mind with this character is the acceptance of abuse. Angie acknowledges the bad
behaviors but accepts them because of her perceptions of what a housewife is
supposed to do.
Felix [9]
Felix scores high on the
conditions for the colonized mind checklist. Dying as a queer closeted man
while he was in a marriage signaled a complex situation. While there is nothing
wrong with being in the closet, in fact the true queer soldiers are the ones
battling with themselves in the closet, but the fact that he chose to
complicate his life with marriage and then having affairs became problematic.
On top of the deception, Felix also sexually harassed and coerced his migrant
workers into exploitative physicals.
Miguel Grande [9]
Miguel Grande was also a
high ranking colonized mind because of the hate he directed towards his son who
he also loved. And because this character was conflicted between two muxeres in
the novel it hinted at the fact that he felt self-entitled to womyn’s bodies.
It was also interesting to see that while he was sexist he was also tuned
emotionally to himself during the complicated romance. A point that also
pointed to having a colonized mind was his internalized racism that was evident
when we called the domestic workers wetbacks.
Miguel Chico [7]
Miguel Chico is an
interesting character in that while he’s expected to have deconstructed so much
of a colonized mind, I’ve interpreted his escape to academia as more a form of
escape from his identity. Through reading the text I’ve understood that he
dislikes everything of his family and more so has chosen to assimilate into
higher education. And I say assimilate because he’s distanced himself than
bringing the things he’s learned back to his community.
Juanita [6.5]
Juanita
was an extremely conflicted character. She highly valued her friendship with
her friend Lola and also refused to call things off with her husband. A
somewhat scored point on the Colonized Mind guidelines was that Juanita refused
to acknowledge her pains by remaining silent during the affair. This character
also played a strong role in tuning herself into her husband’s emotional
feelings regardless of what her family would tell her.
Lola [5]
Lola la
homegirl y la sancha. I admire this character in a bittersweet way. She
embodies a sexually liberated womyn and a figure of self-initiated happiness. While
she may have damaged her friendships with Juanita she continued to hold respect
for her friend. I had a difficult time trying to analyze what aspects of this
character were colonized but I did see that her notions of death were more
untraditional and as a widow she really did move on fast. Not sure if it was a
result of her accepting loss or a lack of emotional attachment to her husband
that passed.
JoEl [2]
JoEl didn’t get enough “air-time”
in my opinion. I wish we could have had more insight as to how he felt about
his father and his sentiments on the rest of his family. Following the
guidelines of the colonized mind I would say that he doesn’t score too high on
the list.
Nina [4]
Nina was a maybe hinted
at a small level of being a colonized figure. Being a caregiver she carried strong
influenced as to what she could of have passed onto the younger generations and
I saw that she really emphasized that she only wanted them to learn english
hinted at having internalized racism.
Lena [1]
Lena
scores really low on the list of the colonized mind because she transgressed
the expectations. She did what she wanted and she was a part of non comforming spaces
which hinted not at rejection but at the integration of her culture duality.
Being both a latina and American she chose to create a third space with her
peers. She became a part of a band and hung out with Pachucos.
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