This happened, too. I swear I’m not making this up. It’s all true. It was the last time I was going to be with your father. We had agreed. All for the best. Surely I could see that, couldn’t I? My own good. A good sport. A young girl like me. Hadn’t I understood…responsiblities. Besides, he could never marry me. You didn’t think…? Never marry a Mexican. Never marry a Mexican… No, of course not. I see. I see.
From the beginning of “Never Marry a Mexican” by Sandra Cisneros readers are led to believe that the narrator is only against marrying men of her own ethnicity. It isn’t until towards the end of the short story and the quoted paragraph that readers realize that she is also referring to herself. She believes that no one should ever marry a Mexican and since she also resides in this category, no one should ever marry her.
“Never Marry a Mexican” is written in a first person point of view. Everything is from the perspective of the narrator and depicts exactly how she feels about the events unfolding around her. The first person point of view allows readers to hone in on the narrator’s tone, which is indecisive and dejected in this paragraph. The syntax of the short sentences, consisting of just a few words, shows that she is unsatisfied with how things were supposed to end with Drew. She wants to be able to accept the decision they supposedly made together, but deep down she really desires more of a relationship with him.
The dejected part of the tone stems from the line “Besides, he could never marry me.” The narrator has taken the mantra “Never marry a Mexican” and morphed it into “Never marry me.” This mantra is no longer a general statement that applies to a whole group of people, but one that singles her out and tells her that she is unworthy of being married. Being denied that essential human desire to love and be loved leads her to despair.
The diction of the line “It was the last time I was going to be with your father.” suggests that the protagonist is stuck in a web of an affair. The two had agreed to end the relationship, with this most likely being his imposed decision, only to hook up again later. The narrator has no willpower to deny the closest thing to love that she feels. She has resigned herself to only being an affair when Drew has time and feels like sleeping with her.
This apathy leads readers to a prevalent theme of marginalized females that slowly appears in the foreground. This seems to be a reflection of Mexican culture and how women are seen as subservient to men. The narrator of “Never Marry a Mexican” continues a love affair with a man she knows will never be hers. She allows him to call the shots and sees the decisions he makes about her as, “For my own good.” It is hard to imagine a culture that brings women up to believe that they are not as strong, as smart, or as entitled to anything that men are.
“Never Marry a Mexican” is a short story where the narrator believes that Mexican men are not worthy of marrying her. Instead of becoming an independent, strong woman, she becomes a part of a long affair with a married man named Drew. She defers to him in every aspect of the relationship and comes to the conclusion that she is not good enough to be married to him. Her outlook reflects the theme of oppressed women in Mexican culture. She was able to escape the injustice of Mexican culture, only to fall victim to another man and his desires.
What do you think the culture shock for a white woman would be if she were immersed in a typical Mexican household? How would you feel if your only feelings self-worth and love was dependent on a person you were having an affair with?
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