Machismo: Root of Women's Exploitation in Latin America

“Poverty and exploitation of women in Latin America can never be alleviated because they are rooted in machismo,” meaning that because of the way society was run in Latin American, women can’t advance from the ancient state of mind that they belong in the private sphere and should stay there, because only men are good enough to be out in the public sphere. The reason why society was run in this manner, was because of the machismo feeling engraved in the minds of men and, in some cases, women in society. Alicia, Carolina, and Nancy don’t really have any other choice, than try to survive on their own by doing acts that are not “approved” by the society they live in. Even now, because of their actions, we could even disagree with the way they decided to approach their situation, because even now a day, we could think that selling one’s body or being involved in “off the book”

businesses is not their best alternative.
Living in a society run by machismo means that women are only good for a handful of things, such as; being pure, taking care of their kids, doing chores, and being good wives.

According to machismo, the only ones with the “right” to be in the work field, economy, and politics should be men. They know what’s best and are led by their desires. Women should just listen and do what they’re told. Because of these reasons, I agree with the statement above, women are not going to have the opportunity to economically advance if they keep living in a society run by and for the needs of men. Throughout both books and the movie, we can see the living situation of these women and the reasons why they’re living that life. Even during the clips we watched in class, most of the women portrayed in them didn’t really have a choice but to follow what society has set for them. Example, the women working in the maquilas. They’re exploited because they don’t have any other way to gain money in order to survive. They need to accept lower wages and harsh working conditions because they don’t have any other

option.
In the beginning of the book, Chavarria explains about how Alicia and her mother gain money to keep their decent lifestyle. With the help of her mom, Alicia got her “business” together. The plan was simple, she would just make it seem as she was falling from her old bicycle in front of a prospective “good Samaritan,” which happens to have a lot of money. After taking him home, she would seduce him with food, drinks, dancing and other stuff in order to get them have sexual relations with her. Along the way, she would complain about how her air conditioning or fridge stopped working when they need it the most. Without a fail, proceeding the night spent together, they would return to Alicia’s house with whatever she complained about the previous night. After succeeding in her plan, Alicia would have her mother sell the items on the black market, thus gaining profit from the gifts her “clients” gave her. What lead Alicia to live this kind of life, was the little opportunities that were available for women in Cuba. When we first read about Alicia and her business, and how her mom supports her, we learn that many young girls decide to sell their bodies because there’s nothing else that they can do. It’s either sell your body to someone with money, or just live in poverty. This is why Alicia wants to find someone rich that she can marry and then leave Cuba with. When Victor proposes her to proceed with the kidnapping plan, she complies with it, because as she said, she prefers to risk it all rather than go back to her days of pedaling her bicycle down the streets of the Havana. When things didn’t work out with the plan, Alicia decided to marry one of her clients which later took to Argentina. By doing this, she hoped to finally escape the life that she hated so much, but in the end, things didn’t turn out the way she wanted and she had to go back to her old methods, trying to find someone that was rich enough for her to live a good life with. It didn’t matter if it was in Cuba or Argentina, Alicia didn’t have any other option, but to sell her body in order to have a decent life.
In Child of the Dark, Carolina is a very independent woman, not caring about what happens to her, she would do anything in her power to provide her family with what they need. However, her efforts alone are not enough to sustain a family of four in one of the poorest parts of the city, the Favela. Throughout the book, she’s constantly emphasizing the thought that she won’t get married to any man, because it would be a distraction from her trying to find a better life for her kids. She just doesn’t want to be like every other woman in the favela. Her ideal life is not one that she has to go beg for food while her husband is lying in bed, either too sick or drunk to get up. Carolina wants get out of the Favela by working hard. However, her “hard work” is not good enough to survive. In the after word, we learned how Carolina ended up in the Favela. Before moving there, she was a maid at a rich household, but because she got pregnant, she was fired from her job. She had to keep quiet about the identity of the father because he didn’t want it to damage his reputation in society. Because of this, it can be said that it was a man that led her to her downfall. Even after publishing her book and gaining some income for her and her family, Carolina couldn’t escape her fate and the loss of most of the revenue that she gained with the publication of her novels. After a while, people just lost interest about what she wrote and were not as interested anymore in her story.
Based on the female characters that we’re introduced to in the movie, we can see that women didn’t have a lot of opportunity to have a stable income in the public sphere. Vivian decides to marry another guy that is not David, because she saw an opportunity for her to leave the country, so she took it. Nancy, the main female character that we see throughout the movie, doesn’t have any other option than to sell merchandise on the black market. Because of this, she sees herself as “impure” and not worthy of a man. This is shown in the scene where she’s talking to the santero. She tells him to not judge her because she has reasons why she’s selling stuff on the black market, even if it could get her in trouble, and that David would understand why she’s doing that. The more we saw her in the film, the more we learned about her business. All the bottles of imported alcohol that David saw in Diego’s house were sold to him by Nancy. Likewise, at some point, we see Nancy selling some merchandise to a woman that lives in the same apartment complex as her and Diego. Selling stuff on the black market is the only alternative that Nancy has in order to sustain herself.
In a world where machismo is one of the building blocks of society, women don’t have a lot of chances to better themselves. As long as there is machismo, the standards held towards women won’t disappear. Because of this, women don’t have a lot of options to choose from. In Adios Muchachos, Alicia’s only option was to sell her body to the highest bidder in order to get out of her current living style. Likewise, Nancy from the film Strawberry and Chocolate didn’t have a lot of choices either. Her only alternative was to get involve on the black market. Lastly, Carolina had to work night and day to at least be able to buy bread for her children. In every scenario, these women were kind of forced to their current lifestyles because of the tendency in society to limit women’s opportunities. This is not only reflected in Latin American through fictional books or movies, but also through different works based on real life events, like the book Child of the Dark and he documentaries about the maquiladoras. As long as machismo is one of the main components of society, women won’t be able to advance by their own.