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4 Patriarchal Foundations Contesting Gender/Sexual Paradigms It is not women who have a colonial status, but the colonies that have a woman’s status. —Maria Mies In addition to the principles of harmony/racial democracy and a glorified past that have been the subjects of the two previous chapters, the claim of unity under an authoritarian, yet benevolent , father figure completes la gran familia puertorriqueña. The myth’s reconceptualization of the hacienda economy as one sustained on the principles of justice and fairness has served to justify the perpetuation of patriarchy in Puerto Rican society. Today, the challenge to this system constitutes the most tangible literary contact zone between the literature of women authors on the island and that of the diaspora, and it demonstrates the benefits of applying a transnational comparative approach. However, as we will see through an analysis of selected works by Olga Nolla, Nicholasa Mohr, and Alba Ambert, there are significant divergences in the way that these writers have engaged in their critiques of patriarchy that reflect each group’s unique concerns and experiences. Of course, the androcentrism that is at the center of la gran familia does not exist in a vacuum; it is just another manifestation of what M. Jacqui Alexander and Chandra Talpade Mohanty call “universal patriarchy ,” which operates “in a transhistorical way to subordinate all women” (xix). While the origins and causes of women’s subordination continue to be a source of debate, biological determinism has prevailed as a primary cause despite feminism’s rejection of this concept, which some argue tends to obfuscate the historical, political, economic, and other social factors that have converged at specific junctures to shape inequality between the sexes. Because, as Maria Mies explains, women ’s “share in the creation and maintenance of life is usually defined as a function of their biology or ‘nature,’” many have come to see “social inequalities or exploitative relations as ‘natural’, inborn, and hence, beyond the scope of social change” (68). For Pierre Bourdieu, this is all 131 Patriarchal Foundations precisely at the root of the masculine order, its strength coming “from the fact that it combines and condenses two operations: it legitimates a relationship of domination by embedding it in a biological nature that is itself a naturalized social construction” (23). The challenge therefore lies in moving beyond the discursive trap of biological determinism in order to move toward conscientization (Freire, in Alexander xxxvii) and a more equal and just society. The universal tendency to imagine and articulate the nation as female is grounded in the paradoxical exaltation of women, who are at once expected to reproduce the nation, both literally (birth) and figuratively (national values and traditions), but at the same time are considered its most significant threat (Loomba 1998; Alexander 2005; McClintock 1995).1 More specifically, women’s sexuality is considered dangerous (Craske 203). According to the logic presented by Alexander, women’s sexual agency poses “a challenge to the ideological anchor of an originary nuclear family, a source of legitimation for the state, which perpetuates the fiction that the family is the cornerstone of society. . . . And because loyalty to the nation as citizen is perennially colonized within reproduction and heterosexuality, erotic autonomy brings with it the potential of undoing the nation entirely” (64). The control and discipline exerted over women’s bodies by patriarchal figures in the domestic realm (fathers, brothers, uncles, cousins, husbands, etc.), and the “success” of this operation (of which the glorification of chastity and virginity are its main evidence), is therefore correlative to the nation’s ability to survive. This inextricable relationship between patriarchy and nation that is evident in the centrality of the heteropatriarchal family is further magnified in the context of (neo)colonialism.2 In the case of Puerto Rico, where the construction of the nation has occurred in the context of colonial ties to the United States, this relationship manifests itself in the cult of la gran familia, a key heteropatriarchal unit that is meant to mirror the nation. Departing from the parallelism that has been established between woman and colony—drawn from their respective subordinate positions within the power structure—it follows that the strengthening of patriarchy within colonial society is seen as providing a countermeasure against the feminizing effects of U.S. colonization.3 Thus, given the colonial condition of the island, the veneration of the authoritarian, yet benevolent, father figure that is central to the foundational myth of la gran familia acquires even greater importance...

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