Sandra Cisneros Woman Hollering Creek

The female quest for autonomy is not uncommon in literature, and Sandra Cisneros’s Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories is no exception. Throughout her novel, Cisneros connects each of her female characters to a Mexican or Chicana historical figure and then works to recreate that character, to pull her from the patriarchal structure in which all women live. The historical characters of Chicana and Mexican history include La Llorona, La Malinche, and the Virgin of Guadalupe, each representing a female type under the thumb of male oppression. La Llorona, the weeping mother, represents the mother gone wrong. La Malinche, Cortez’ infamous courtesan, embodies sexuality and treachery, and the Virgin of Guadalupe is the most innocent, the most …show more content…
Through her actions in the doctor’s office, Cleofilas “prevents the destruction of the maternal self in the first place by leaving her physical and emotionally abusive husband” (Carbonell 65). She knows that the pain she feels by being trapped in an abusive marriage only aids in a growing hatred of herself and her children, but by asking for help she prevents the infanticide that would completely connect her to La Llorona. Felice is unlike any woman Cleofilas has known before; she “drove a pickup” that she owned alone and speaks in a crass way that “amaze[s]” Cleofilas (55). Felice is the physical embodiment of the women from Cleofilas’s beloved telenovelas and that is why she sees the woman as such an inspiration of sorts. And as Felice hollers as they drive over the river La Gritona, Cleofilas finds herself laughing; she says, “it gurgled out of her own throat, a long ribbon of laughter, like water” (56). Cisneros compares the laughter to water as a last connection of Cleofilas to La Llorona, often associated with water due to drowning her children; however, in this connection the water is not destructive. Instead, Cleofilas water-like laughter flows like it was never stopped, like she never knew what life was like without laughter. That is La Gritona within Cleofilas. As she makes the move to save herself and her children from a life of neglect and abuse, Cleofilas demands to be in control of her life. As she and Felice holler as they drive over La Gritona, “they reclaim their voice by transforming themselves from Llorona figures who wail at their loss into Gritonas who holler at their oppressors” ( Carbonell 58). Cleofilas is no longer a woman subject to her surroundings, but an autonomous woman daring anyone to stand in the way of her and her children’s health and happiness. Through Cleofilas’s transformation from La Llorono to La Gritona,