Do the traditions of our parents affect us nowadays?

 

By, Karen Carrillo, 11th grade- Washington Prep. High School

Many people nowadays are still facing most of the traditions that their parents taught them when they were young. Some of these traditions include: men controlling women, children obeying their parents-no questions asked, and women remaining docile and subservient. Even though we have progressed a long way as a country, we still have a lot more to do.

To begin with, in Hispanic culture men have control over the women regardless of whether they want to or not. According to the Yasmin Davidds Garridos' article, "Facing the Truth about Our Traditions," “men want to be able to control the income, independence, and outspokenness of their women.” I conclude that there isn’t any justification for men to have control over what a woman should or should not be able to do. In the movie, Real Women have Curves, Ana, the protagonist’s, dad has complete control over her mother. He tells Carmen when she can or cannot talk. Just because you are married to a person doesn’t give them the authority to control women.

Just as the men have control over the women, they both also expect their kids to follow their rules. In the article, Norberto’s mother tells him that what he is doing is wrong... that he’s the man of the family and it should stay that way. Just because "he’s the man of the family" doesn’t mean that he should follow their traditions. In the movie, even though Ana wants to go to college, Carmen, her mother wants her to work in the factory. In my opinion, Ana's mother should let her go to college and have a brighter future than the one she lived.

Several factors contribute to children not talking back to their parents. In the movie, when Ana contradicts her mother about not being pregnant, Carmen slapped her. Why does the mom get so angry when Ana tells her that she's hallucinating about being pregnant? She gets angry because the children that she has are grown up which probably makes her feel lonely. She might also have the desire of having another child to keep herself busy and distracted from realizing that she’s aging.

In the article “Facing the Truth about Our Traditions,” Yasmin talks back to Norberto’s mother about him taking her last name. The dad tells her to not disrespect their family like that. Only because the fiancé was telling the lady that she wanted to keep her maiden name, they took that as disrespecting their family, or talking back.

I partially don’t relate to Ana because my mom is open minded about things. For example, I can sit down with her and talk about something I see wrong in my house and figure out a way in which we can fix it. In contrast, Ana’s mom is demanding about things that she wants done and constantly argues with Ana.

In other words, Carmen tells Ana not to go to college but instead worry about becoming La Buena Mujer.  My mom is the opposite of Carmen, she tells me to go to college and get a better life than the one she had. Lastly, my mom thinks like Yasmin: of keeping my maiden name if I get married one day. In my perspective women should not tolerate the “machismo” that men have towards women.