Latin America Gender Roles

When people think of gender roles, many things come to mind. We think about gender roles in society and stereotypes. Throughout time, stereotypes have showed us to be true. Men and women are seen and treated way differently. Men are always seen like the stronger person in the house and always working to provide for his family. Women are been secondary to men and are always seen as fragile person that needs to be home cooking and taking care of the kids. All these interpretations are seen around the world specially, in Latin America culture where women and men have been treated differently for centuries. In the book Chronicle of a Death Foretold by Gabriel García Márquez, we see how these gender roles play a very important key element in the …show more content…
A person who is machista reduces the possibility of finding true love and have an open communication with their significant other, but what does it mean to be machista in Latin America? Being born a male in Latin America is seeing as more important and valued than being born a woman. “Woman are raised that one day they will marry a man and he will be in charge of the family, and the family must obey him” (Pigeon 11). Machismo is adapted by males in Latin America and is transmitted from generations to generations. In Latin America the role of a woman reflects a men behavior, both genders are looked and treated differently by society. “The men fallow the standard of macho pattern, while the women suffer sequestered underneath the confines established by machismo” (Pace, …show more content…
Just like Flora’s family, Santiago’s family is rich and his dad is from Arabic decent. Santiago’s marriage is not based on love. His love is based on protecting his families wealth . Santiago and Flora have been engaged since they were kids, and their wedding had been canceled so many times. One of the reason the wedding had been canceled is because Santiago true imaged of love was broken by his father Ibrahim Nasar. Santiago “was the only child of a marriage of convenience without a single moment of happiness” (García Márquez 7). Santiago' parents didn’t have true love and he remembers that very clear. His father machos behavior was the cause of Santiago true imaged of love being broken. Ibrahim Nasar was always seducing Victoria Gúzman. She had a love fair with Ibrahim for years. Ibrahim always used his macho power over her and after he got tired for her took her to his house to be a servant. Woman like Victoria Guzman who are servants are not good for a wife, they are only good to make a men happy for a couple of hours. Because of Ibrahim macho behavior Santiago grew up thinking the same way. Santiago felt for Maria Alejandrina Cervantes a prostitute and a “bad woman” in their town. The men in that town were machistas as well, they all took pride on visitng Maria Alejandrina Cervantes to her brothel, where all used women for sex