Sandra Cisneros Never Marry A Mexican

Never Marry a Mexican

The American writer with the Mexican roots Sandra Cisneros often uses Spanish into her writings. She substitutes English words by Spanish when she feels that Spanish better convey meaning. Cisneros’s ability to speak two languages gives her a unique position. She can tell not just her stories but also of those around her. From the words of the author, “if I were asked what it is I write about, I would have to say I write about those ghosts inside that haunt me, that will not let me sleep, of what which even memory does not mention” (Roberson 62). This paper focuses on a short story Never Marry a Mexican and explores the reasons for such a provocative statement.

Never Marry a Mexican became one of the short stories in

the first Cisneros’s collection Woman Hollering Creek in 1991. In this work Sandra Cisneros writes about a woman Clemencia who is constantly told by her mother not to marry a Mexican, “never marry a Mexican, my ma said once and always” (Cisneros 68). The truthfulness of mother’s words Clemencia could see in her own family in the childhood. “Nothing but a big show-off” (Cisneros 71), that is how her mother described the husband. Clemencia’s mother is an example for all the girls how hard can be a life with a man who grew up in Mexico, “having married a Mexican man…Having had to put up with all the grief a Mexican family can put on a girl” (Cisneros 69). Her mother played a really big part in Clemencia’s upbringing because of her cheating on her dad, while he was deadly sick, “that man she met at work…she was seeing even while my father was sick” (Cisneros 73).

Thus, from very young years Clemencia saw that having an affair in not a happy marriage was normal. She turns herself into a strong woman that treats men the way men treat women under the machismo way. Cisneros’s heroine thought she had a control, “you’re nothing without me. I created you from spit and red dust” (Cisneros 75), but, in reality, it was an illusion. The disappointment in the relationships and marriage formed Clemencia’s stereotyped character, “not a man exists who hasn’t disappointed me, whom I could trust” (Cisneros 69). A young woman always became a witness of infidelity. The main reason for that, “I’ve helped them to it” (Cisneros 68). The collapse of hopes for a true love, a happy family provoked Clemencia to disrupt her anger on the masculine. Thus, she started to use men, “borrowed. That’s how I had my men” (Cisneros 69), but she could never find a man, “I could trust to love” (Cisneros 69). Basing on the memories about her family, mother’s behavior and on her personal experience, Clemencia made a decision, “I’ll never marry. Not any man…Not because I couldn’t….Marriage has failed me” (Cisneros 69). From Clemencia’s words, “Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, Chilean, Colombian…I don’t care. Not men I

considered as a potential lovers” (Cisneros 69). One more thing that destroyed all the hopes of young heroine was relationships with Drew. This man was older and married. Therefore, he was another proof of men’s unfaithfulness. The author upraised not only a theme of not marry a Mexican but not marrying in general. Cisneros showed her heroine as a woman that seduces married men but that how Cisneros emphasizes that all men are betrayers. Clemencia was exploited by a love of her heart Drew that in the end decided to stay with his wife. A chain of disappointments made Clemencia feeling crazy, capable of murder or suicide, “I’ve been walking with my head full of images…Suicide” (Cisneros 83).
Cisneros writes in a very real fashion. She is pushing back against the machismo way of life. By showing Clemencia’s life the author carries an idea of not marry a Mexican and marry any man at all. The examples of infidelity point out that there is no trust to men, no true love. Each page of this short novel shows how the relationships destroy the soul of a woman, how from very early age an unhappy family and mother’s words can influence the whole life of a child. In conclusion Never Marry a Mexican is a short story that reveals lots of problems such as family relationships, problems of parents and children, ethical issues. Therefore, it is a manifest of a miserable woman to be free of a fake love that can destroy a life.