Hispanic Immigrant Literature: El Sueño del Retorno

6. Immigration and Gender: Male Perspectives

cHapter 6 immigRaTion and gendeR: maLe peRspecTives Si los hombres casados quieren ser menos felices, . . . no deben venir, con sus consortes, a los Estados Unidos. Pueden cruzar la frontera solos, dejando a sus respectivas mitades allende el Bravo, lo más “allende” que puedan, a muy respetuosa distancia. Porque aquí andan las cosas muy mal y el género masculino va perdiendo, a pasos agigantados, “sus sagradas prerrogativas y sus inalienables derechos. —JoRge uLica, “inacio y mengiLda,” fRom “cRónicas diaBóLicas” as we saw in chapters 3 and 4, the genre of the novel served male authors well in their efforts to deconstruct American society and its myths while writing their version of their own nation and, in most cases, defining the role of women in that imaginary. As I demonstrated in chapter 5, the few women who gained access to the printed word were able to create interstices and develop strategies from which to write themselves into the public sphere, the nation, the world. Some were able to go beyond male-directed nationalist projects in order to construct a world not divided by class, nation, and gender, at times attempting even to establish an international sisterhood of Hispanic women. Male authors were more concerned with the themes and issues discussed in this book by manipulating the image of the female, whom they consistently elevated as the symbol of the nation and the homeland and, because of that, foisted upon her the traditional role of generating the nation from within the domestic sphere. From there, they were assigned to preserve national values and history and pass them on to their children, who would grow up to duplicate the gender roles of their parents as the bulwark of the imagined community. 124 Hispanic immigRanT LiTeRaTuRe THe image of women pRomoTed By THe CronisTas Owing to limited publishing resources, including scarce financial investment as well as the problems associated with distributing foreignlanguage works within the United States, the novel among Hispanic transmigrants was very limited in its reach. Very few publishing houses and bookstores served immigrant communities—as is the case even today—and most novelists relied on other means of employ to make a living. Laborers, however, when they did have access to fiction between two covers, often had it read to them by more literate companions. In the early twentieth century the medium with the most reach in transmigrant communities was the newspaper; its pages included a broad variety of genres and writing styles, including entire novels, usually published in serialized versions. Robert Park (51–52) in his study of the immigrant press (1922) and Benedict Anderson’s analysis of print capitalism in Imaginary Communities (46–49) emphasized the role of newspapers in constructing the nation because of their standardization of language and their wide distribution and economic accessibility . Among the various types of writing published in newspapers was a genre traditionally identified with and central to Hispanic newspapers everywhere and essential in forming and reinforcing community attitudes, imagining the community, as it were. I am referring to the crónica, or chronicle, a short, weekly column that through humor and satire commented on current topics and social habits. Rife with local color and inspired by the oral lore of the immigrants, the crónica had its origins in Joseph Addison and Richard Steele in England and arrived in Spain via France, where the flâneur also became part of its optical view of society. The leading costumbristas, or chroniclers of customs , were Ramón de Mesonero Romanos and José Mariano de Larra in Spain; costumbristas and cronistas existed in Mexico since the writings of Joaquín Fernández de Lizardi in the early nineteenth century.1 In Mexico, the crónica was cultivated extensively and evolved further. The crónica helped to define and develop Mexican identity over the course of the nineteenth century. According to Carlos Monsiváis, De principios del siglo XX hasta casi nuestros días, a la crónica mexicana se le encomienda verificar o consagrar cambios y maneras sociales y describir lo cotidiano elevándolo al rango de lo ideosincrático (aquello sin lo cual los mexicanos serían, por ejemplo, paraguayos). En el tránsito de la mentalidad colonial a la independiente . . . una colec- immigRaTion and gendeR: maLe peRspecTives 125 tividad pequeña, insegura de sus logros, incierta en su nacionalismo, ve en la crónica el espejo refulgente (ideal...