The Old Gringo Gender Roles

Within The Old Gringo, an elderly American writer, who lost both his sons due to suicide, decides to leave his old life behind to seek death in the middle of the Mexican revolution. He comes across the army of Pancho Villa which is led by General Arroyo. General Arroyo and his group had just freed land from the wealthy Miranda family. At the hacienda, the old man meets Harriet Winslow, who is hired to tutor the young Miranda children. However, when she arrives, the family had already fled with their parents from Arroyo's army. As the book continues, Harriett appreciates the Mexican culture she finds around her. By the end of the novel, she decides that instead of changing Mexico, she wants to learn to live with Mexico. Harriet illustrates

some themes that we have talked about in class: her character plays part in a gender role and symbolizes what would be considered a social class.
Harriet was an unmarried woman who left her mother in Washington D.C. She agreed to go to Mexico and teach English to the Miranda family and their three children. When she arrives in Mexico, she finds out that the Miranda hacienda is now in ruins and she is “used” by revolutionary leaders. Tomas Arroyo uses her to gain entry in to the Miranda hacienda, a large estate or plantation with a dwelling house. After being involved with Arroyo, she eventually betrays him.
Gender roles are cultural and personal.

They determine how males and females should think, speak, dress, and interact within society. Within this book, Harriet expresses these types of roles. Women are usually portrayed as a teacher or a nanny. Harriet Winslow is a perfect example of this. When duty called, Harriett had to save a little girl. She had to press her mouth to the sick child’s mouth, suck, kiss, air, in and out, receive, spit out, the obstruction, the child’s phlegm, tell herself, it doesn’t matter… and the child cried, strong and clear, as if she were newborn. Nannies have to put up with tragedies each and every day which goes to show how Harriett portrays that job and by doing so, she saved a little girl’s life. Another good example of a gender role is when Harriett states, “What these people need is education, not rifles. A good scrubbing, followed by a few lessons on how we do things in the United States, and you'd see an end to this chaos.” She talks about how the children need a good education, something important unlike learning how to shoot a gun. Men used her to get close to the Miranda family, which is the only reason why they kept her around for so long. In Revisiting the Green Prison, it stated, “During the first half of the twentieth century, women seldom, if ever, worked on the banana farms of the U.S. fruit companies” , meaning that these jobs were hard work and women were not to be out in such harsh conditions. The men would be in charge of these jobs and instead women were expected to have dinner prepared when the men came home from a long day. Harriet was upset because no one allowed her to live up to her full potential and showing them that she is capable of doing a man’s

job.
Social class, a division of a society based on social and economic status, is another theme that appeared throughout the book frequently. Whites usually occupied the most prestigious ranks, followed by, in descending order, mestizos, free mulattos, Indians, and slaves. From one of the readings, the Haitian Revolution, which mentioned, “These caste divisions overshadowed a complex system of class and corresponding internal class antagonisms,” meaning social class can be determined by race, gender, ethnicity, etc. But you can overcome all these things by being wealthy, skilled, or powerful. Harriet Winslow was a middle class woman but that didn’t mean she had to stay that way. Some classes back in the day considered themselves to be above others. Now that is still true today but most of us have adapted to accept others for who they really are and not who we want them to be. Another topic that has to do with social class is from lecture one day. As Professor Murphy stated, The Mexican Constitution in 1917, a piece of writing that established individual rights, gave workers’ and peasants’ rights. There was freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, and the right to bear arms. It also got rid of cruel and unusual punishment and the death penalty. Men and women had better working conditions and were able to create unions and labor strikes. When the Mexican Constitution was created, it allowed others to stand up for themselves so people weren’t treated as badly, just like Harriett did with Arroyo.
Harriet Winslow represented the themes of gender and social class throughout The Old Gringo. While working for the Miranda family, she was acting as a teacher and a house wife, which is what women were known to do. Being part of a social class, she had to follow the rules being given to her by the owners. Harriet symbolized the female role and signified what most women did back in the day. Soon enough there won’t be specific jobs that women have to do or are “known” to do. Men and women will be treated equally within society.