Citizen Rex

“Citizen Rex” is a graphic novel written by Mario and Gilbert Hernandez.  The highly stylized graphic novel takes place in the future and focuses on the anti-robot movement currently going on.  This is a direct response to the scandals that involved Citizen Rex, the most famous and realistic robot ever created. 

Anti-robot protestors are first seen on page 33.  They are picketing outside of Maxx’s store because he has just signed a deal with a large corporation to sell prosthetic limbs.  The limbs are not intended for people who have lost parts of their body in accidents, but for people who desire to change their appearance.  It is not necessity, but vanity that drives the sales of these prosthetic limbs.

The protestors’ physical appearance makes their complaints ironic.  All of the ones depicted are heavily tattooed and unconventionally pierced while they picket against prosthetic limbs.  One protestor even shouts, “No mutilation for beauty’s sake!” while supporting an erupting volcano on her face.  In their minds, it is ok to permanently ink and poke holes in their flesh, but not cut off limbs and replace them.  Granted, cutting off a limb is much more extreme than a single piercing, but body mutilation is body mutilation. 

Reading Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics helped explain stylistic measures taken and explains how the reader is able to understand the comic, but doesn’t necessarily further the irony of the paneled-sequence. The movement of the protestors and Sergio with Hazel is portrayed through closure and an action-to-action sequence.  Sergio and Hazel are first observing the mass bodies of protestors in front of Maxx’s store, then they are being confronted by the protestors, and finally they are talking to Maxx, presumably after forcing their way through the crowd.  The reader is able to deduce this movement of Sergio and Hazel because the gutter separating each panel suggests that they are moving closer and closer towards their final destination, Maxx’s storefront. 

This three-paneled sequence stuck out in my mind because of the irony of accepted vanity and unaccepted vanity in the graphic novel.  There is a group protesting against humans cutting off limbs in order to replace them with prosthetic ones because body mutilation is bad.  Yet, people of this same group are tattooed and pierced and don’t see any problem with it.  This randomly drawn line between what’s allowed and what isn’t exists in many aspects of society and the absurdity of it is pointed out superbly in this sequence.

What is the significance of the robot protestors’ mantra of “Water! Electricity! Meat!”?  

Layered Questions

1. What is the only way that Champ knows her mother's true hair color? Why does Champ's mother dye her hair? What does the ceaseless hair dying suggest about Mexican-American women living in the United States and the strength of their ties to their heritage?

2. What was the name of the guy who Arlene first slept with? Why will she lie about his name and the situation? How does the lie further the theme that Mexican-American women are envious of their white counterparts?

Rivera and Rodriguez: A Search for Identity

            Tomas Rivera’s novella “And the Earth Did Not Devour Him” is a powerful semi-autobiographical story that explores the lives of migrant workers.  Even though Rivera’s novella was published a decade before Richard Rodriguez’s essay Aria, found in the biographical book The Hunger of Memory which explores Rodriguez’s educational background, both stories explore some of the same issues that non-native Hispanic-Americans face in the United States.  The most prevalent problem addressed in both was the struggle with identity the young narrators faced.

            In both books what sets the narrators apart is their race.  Both narrators are Mexican-Americans living in a nation that is predominantly white people.  Rivera’s novel focuses more on life as a migrant worker than interactions between Mexicans and white Americans, but when they do occur, there is a strong portrayal of discrimination.  A single incident that sticks out was when the Mexican woman who unknowingly steals toys during a panic attack was handled more roughly than necessary to get the toys back.  

In Rodriguez’s short essay Aria he focuses on the feeling that language is how he knew he was different from those around him.  He heard the English language spoken in the world as sounds and inflections, but never noticed any actual meaning.  On the other hand, the exclusive speaking of Spanish in his home formed the warm feeling of acceptance.

This noticeable difference between cultures is a source of shame for both young narrators.  The narrator in Rivera’s novel is humiliated by being different in school.  He is singled out by the school nurse to be checked for lice and is bullied by a boy in his class just because he is Mexican.  Rodriguez’s shame is in his parents’ and his own inability to speak fluent English.  His most embarrassing memory is of his father stumbling over words in order to talk to a white adolescent who is able to respond without difficulty.  Because of the shame associated with being Mexican, neither narrator feels comfortable in his cultural identity.

  In both stories there is a moment where each narrator comes to a realization that allows them to start to form their identity.  In the novella the narrator questions the existence of Devil and, consequently, God.  He realizes that the Earth will not devour him for asking such questions and starts to define himself.  He starts to understand he does not have to hold himself to the rigid beliefs of past generations, but is able to form his own conclusions about religion.

Rodriguez has his moment of clarity when he is required to speak English at home.  His family only spoke Spanish at home until the nuns from school told his parents that their children needed to practice English.  The family treats it as an inside joke until Rodriguez observes his parents switch from Spanish to English when they notice him listening.  After this moment Rodriguez starts to embrace English and his American side, though not without a feeling of loss of the closeness speaking Spanish brought.  As he slowly becomes more and more fluent in English, Rodriguez starts to form his own identity apart from the family.

Rivera’s novella “And the Earth Did Not Devour Him” and Rodriguez’s essay Aria deal with the concept of finding your own identity as a child.  This process’s difficulty is magnified by the added factor of both narrators being Mexican in white America.  In the end, both narrators are able to establish some sort of self, but not until they are able to resolve their shame and break away from the thinking of past generations.

Culture identity seems to be a large part of how Mexican-Americans define themselves. I was brought up in America, as an American, and don’t posses any sort of really strong cultural ties, nor do I consider that a part of my identity.  Are white American’s missing out? Or are these cultural identities constricting to who you can be as an individual? 

Never Marry a Mexican

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?

I am Joaquín

            “I Am Joaquín” is a poem written in 1965 by Rodolfo Gonzales.  He was a Mexican American devoted to fighting for equal rights for Mexican Americans in the United States.  “I Am Joaquín” came out around the same time that the United States passed the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 and which suggests the feelings of hospitality towards Mexicans, even those that were Mexican Americans and legal citizens, were dwindling. 

The poem is entirely free verse containing very long lines, like the lines towards the first part of the second stanza, and very short lines consisting of singular words, like the lines towards the end of the final stanza.  The tone of the entire piece is defiant.  Joaquín is defiant against white America and its attempt to disrespect Mexican culture by evoking imagery of “proud and noble” (line 21) Mexican rulers that he identifies himself with.  He doesn’t let society make him forget his culture.  Joaquín is also defiant when he talks about how he “dissolves into the melting pot” (line 163).  He recognizes that he isn’t always able to stay true to himself or the culture that he comes from, but doesn’t let those moments where he falters overcome him.  Joaquín doesn’t give up and integrate himself in American society because he is a Mexican American that proclaims “I WILL ENDURE” for his final line.

The first two stanzas of “I Am Joaquín” evoke powerful imagery of great Mexican rulers and revolutionaries.  The lines are longer and use figurative language like “I am the sword and flame of Cortes the despot” (line 27).  References to swords, eagles, crowns, blood, as well as, the integrated knowledge of past rulers and historical events, immerse readers in Joaquín’s passion for his cultural history.  Even without the figurative language, the length of the lines in the first two stanzas suggests that Joaquín wanted to stress the importance that his heritage means to him.

The third stanza’s lines are much shorter in length in order to punctuate the contradictions that Joaquín sees in himself.  He is both “The victor.” (line 102) and “The vanquished.” (line 103). Joaquín faces an internal struggle because he knows his cultural history, but lives in a world that doesn’t respect that.  He is torn between trying to survive in society and being true to all the history that made up his heritage.  The shorter lines also speed up the rhythm of the stanza.  The speed is important because it suggests the whirlwind of emotions that Joaquín is facing.  He has this idealistic view of who he wants to be and is bummed out by the reality of what he faces.  He keeps arguing back and forth and the rhythm of the third stanza reflects that inner conflict.

In the final stanza Joaquín takes on an assertive, defiant, almost angry tone.  He is upset at America for breaking the Treaty of Hidalgo, for raping his culture.  Figurative language is used, but it’s fairly straightforward.  It reads almost like a rant and fully expresses the disdain Joaquín feels towards America for not acknowledging Mexican culture.  Joaquín is not only upset, but he speaks out against the unfair treatment.  He says that Mexican Americans need to fight back and show their culture with pride. 

Throughout the poem Joaquín struggles with grandiose dreams of old Mexican rulers and his place in American society.  The pacing of each stanza reflects the importance of the topic in the stanza and the tone of his voice.  By the end of the poem, Joaquín is encouraging Mexican Americans to take pride in their culture.