Should A Wife Cook And Clean Hispanic Culture

Caroline Victoria Raynor and Dr. Doug Weatherford, Spanish and Portuguese

The gender roles of Mexican women seem rather obvious to most people. You lot envision submissive women, cooking, cleaning and raising children. While this is in well-nigh function true, life is changing in the rural villages well-nigh Irapuato, Guanajuato, United mexican states. As I began this inquiry, I intended to define what the roles of these women consisted of. I found that the roles are not as rigid as one would imagine, and the women are not equally docile as I had thought.

Every year, the Mexico Literacy program sends students down to rural villages in Guanajuato, Mexico. They piece of work with a authorities bureau called INEA (National Instituted of Adult Education). In concert with this system, they help the people in learning to read and write, as well as complete their main and secondary education certificates. The students live with families in the village; they have classes studying their culture and enquiry their mode of life.

Truly, in this situation the students enjoy day-to-twenty-four hours interaction with the people and become part of their daily lives. But, this is not where I began my research. I started here in the Harold B. Lee library. I read manufactures and books that discussed typical, traditional, roles of rural Mexican Women. Through this research I gained a good understanding of their lives. This preliminary research led me to the hypothesis that rural women did indeed adhere to the strictly defined gender roles that are and then often associated with underdeveloped communities. Furthermore, I came to believe that these roles were propagated by the men of the community, instilling in their sons a strong desire to assert their dominance in the bread-winning activities of the home. It seemed as though I would prove the articles and books to be correct. But I still believed that there was a change to be observed.

The shut interaction I enjoyed with the people as I participated in the Mexico Literacy programme during the wintertime of 2002, assisted me in edifice a large repertoire of reliable informants, and facilitated in close participant observation. That is to say, I developed stiff relationships through which I was able to discover daily activities with the noesis that the people were non acting differently as a result of my presence. In this state of affairs, non only did I discover, but I had enlightening conversations with the people apropos the women's roles in the hamlet. Ironically the one method that I plant to exist ineffective was the employ of formal interviews and surveys. It seemed that the people tried to paint an ideal motion-picture show rather than reality.

The women of these villages do much more than housework, during the planting and harvesting seasons, they work right aslope their husbands, sons and fathers. These women accept care of animals, some owning herds of goats that they utilize to make cheese. In the village in which I lived, in that location were three tiendas or stores, all of which were owned by women. The women are also involved with a government organization chosen Progressa, which promotes health education. During these meetings, the women organize themselves to reach tasks, such equally measuring and weighing the children to run into if they are undernourished. The women also gather to sweep the streets, the Church k, and make clean the school.

Interestingly enough, the women are not the simply ones who are get-go to involve themselves in tasks that were formerly ascribed to the reverse gender. The men are crossing boundaries besides. They do primarily work in the field and with animal maintenance, merely they have been known to help out with household chores at present and so. The men will assistance bring h2o to the abode. They will accept the corn to the manufacturing plant to be ground for tortillas. One adult female emphatically alleged that her husband knew how to wash, sweep and even make tortillas. I never in one case saw a man serve his own food, then I am a fiddling skeptical of the idea of a man making tortillas. Yet, the times are changing.

The boondocks meetings seem to be one domain that is even so exclusively male, or so it appears. These meetings take place well-nigh once a week. It is a strictly male affair. Upwards until the last ii weeks earlier I left, I tried to observe out why just the men made the decisions for the town. Then, I learned a key piece of data; there is ane woman who goes to the meetings. This woman is 1 of the oldest women in the village. She is related to over three-fourths of the people in the closest 3 villages. She has been known to frequent the meetings. Her stance and input is held in high esteem. Peradventure in time all the women will be included in this meeting.

The affair that I found well-nigh interesting in this inquiry is the way in which these gender roles are propagated. It is non the men telling their boys to be tough and leave the housework to the women; information technology is the women telling their sons that they are incapable of doing the housework. I vividly remember one twenty-four hour period talking to ane of my students. She was washing apparel in the river. Ironically nosotros were talking about men and women and their respective roles in gild. Her ten twelvemonth quondam son came over and picked up the soap. She rapidly snatched it out of his hands and said, "Yous don't know how!" She turned to me and said, "Men are huevon (lazy)!" Memories came flooding back of the many times I had seen similar occurrences; a boy trying to turn a tortilla or serve some beans and existence smacked or yelled at. Through further investigation I discovered the women's attitude toward men; they are lazy and tin can't take care of themselves. The clincher is they don't know how to take care of themselves because their mothers refuse to teach them.

In conclusion, the gender roles are changing and soon plenty so will the articles and books about them. As society progresses so will the people. Interestingly enough, information technology is the women that seem to be opposed to change. Why? I believe that by knowing that the men literally can not live with out women gives them a sense of value and pride. Just, this besides is changing as they begin to discover that they are capable of many valuable activities.

I believe that through studying others we come to know ourselves ameliorate. This experience taught me a lot about women and about a civilisation and a society. More anything, information technology taught me more than about who I am. The knowledge I take gained will be fabricated bachelor to time to come participants in the Mexico Literacy program, equally well as to my time to come students.