Machismo Culture and Female Oppression in Columbia

In Columbia, machismo is an important cultural aspect, but it limits women from making their own decisions and determining their future. Machismo is society's expectation for men to be powerful, demanding, and aggressive. Chronicle of a Death Foretold takes place in Columbia, twenty-seven years after Santiago Nasar was murdered for taking Angela Vicario's virginity. Santiago is portrayed as the victim, but the real victims of the story are the women. Angela is oppressed from the time she is born until she is forced to marry Bayardo San Román. In Chronicle of a Death Foretold by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, the author illustrates a Machismo culture where women are silenced and powerless, in order to demonstrate the double standard between men and women.

There has always been something in her life holding her back from being her true self and following her heart. The start of Angela's restricted life was when she was born with the umbilical cord wrapped around her neck. The narrator says, "Angela Vicario was the prettiest of the four, and my mother said that she had been born like the great queens of history, with the umbilical cord wrapped around her neck" (Marquez 32). Not only was Angela born with the umbilical cord around her neck, but the great queens of history were as well. Even the most important women in history have been silenced or treated unfairly. The source of this oppression on women comes directly from the machismo expectations Society creates certain restriction for women, men do not have to abide by. In fact, men are expected to act the opposite way. Women are restricted from making their own decisions and speaking their mind, while men are expected to make decisions for the women, say whatever they please, and take what they want even at the expense of the