You Can’t Turn a Whore into a Housewife Professor Ramos Blog

You Can’t Turn a Whore into a Housewife Have you ever been cheated on; or help another cheat on their significant other? I’m sure most people who read that will answer my question with a â€Å"yes†. We hear about cheating everywhere we go, and it always come down to the same three thoughts. First: Oh, I feel bad for the spouse. Second: What a terrible husband/wife for cheating on their spouse. Lastly, What a home-wrecking whore! Now, I believe that cheating is more then that. Do we ever analyze why someone may have cheated, or why someone may have been a â€Å"homewrecker†? Sandra Cisneros brings to light the mistresses’ point of view in her story â€Å"Never Marry a Mexican†. Her story is told in the first-person style by a woman named Clemencia. She is the mistress to her former high school teacher. It is revealed or rather, hinted at, that Clemencia was being taken advantage of instead of her taking advantage of her previous teacher. Clemencia does seem to be obsessed with this man, wh ose name is Drew. She eventually starts to sleep with his son many years down the line. Clemencia tells us that she knows what she does is wrong, but she does not care. She comes across as a little crazy, but in the end, she was just a broken woman. The story starts off with words of wisdom from Clemencia’s mother. She says, â€Å"never marry a Mexican† (Cisneros 68). Clemencia decides that she will never marry, she stats that she has â€Å"known men too intimately. I’ve witnessed their infidelities, and I’ve helped them to it†. This was her way of telling us she helps men cheat on their wives and that it is frequent. In the first bit of the story we learn a little bit about why she does this. She grew up in a â€Å"broken home† Her mother married her father when she was 17. Her father’s family was extremely disappointed with his decision, although she was Mexican, she was from north of the border. We learn that the relationship wasn’t as great as we would think it was. Her mother was a serial cheater and cheated on Clemencia’s father until the day he died. Clemencia knew what her mother was doing, and she seen it every step of the way. She holds a lot of anger and r esentment toward her mother for what she did, and I think it was part of the reason her and her mother had a bad relationship as she got older. Clemencia even stats that her mother â€Å"stopped being my mother† and that she was to worry about herself to be worried about her daughters (Cisneros 73). After her father died, her mother did seem â€Å"lost† in the sense of her losing the man she had been with for many years. Alas, this did not stop her from marrying the man she was cheating on her husband with. This man eventually moved into Clemencia’s father house and brought his 2 sons with him. This caused Clemencia to further spite what happened between her mother and father. Clemencia tells us a little bit about how her life went as she got older; she did move out at a fairly young age. She makes a living in any way possible, ultimately, she is an artist. She doesn’t have a steady career and considered herself to belong to no class. She is her own socio-economic class. It comes across that she feels superior or above other people. There is one instance that this shows especially well, she says that Drew is â€Å"nothing without me† She created him from nothing and can destroy him with ease. Her is just a small piece of her painting and she has recreated him. (Cisneros 75). She comes across that she thinks she is all powerful, but if we jump forward to the end of the book we know otherwise. Clemencia is talking to us saying that she doesn’t see any of Drews attributes in his son. She is attempting to get Drew’s son to â€Å"love her the way I love his father† (Cisneros 82). This shows us that Clemencia was secretly in lo ve with drew and very jealous of his wife. Could this be why Clemencia is the way she is? I believe Clemencia is the way she is, because she is a product of her environment growing up. In a study conducted by Ana Nogales, PHD. It was concluded that â€Å"55% of children what have parents who cheat end up being cheaters themselves† (Nogales). It was also concluded that â€Å"80% of the children changed their perspective on love and relationships† (Nogales). We know that Clemencia’s mother cheated on her dad for a long time. She seen this growing up and then once her dad died. Her mother married the man she was having an affair with. If the statistics hold true, Clemencia most likely had trust issues and did not see relationships as something that would â€Å"workout† In her relationship with Drew we can see that she was taken advantage of as a child. He seduced her while she was 17. From, here they had a lasting affair. This also showed Clemencia that people cheat frequently. I think that between her mother and Drew, Clemencia never had a fair c hance of having a real relationship. I feel it influenced her to want to be with married men because that was the only way she was able to feel in control. She wanted to be in control, so that she could not be hurt by another. We do see that Clemencia is not all there mentally as well. Near the end of her affair with Drew, she stuffed gummy bears into many places that his wife would find them. I think she secretly wanted Drew to get caught because she knew she was going to lose him. Therefore, she sought out his son many years down the line. She needed to feel â€Å"Drew† back in her life. She couldn’t do that exactly, so she found the next best thing. In conclusion I think Clemencia had a very rough life and her experiences growing up shaped her life in the future. She dealt with infidelity as a child and again as an adult. She was on both sides of the fence, so she decided to get off the fence and forge her own path. This was a path of no marriage and sleeping with married men whom she could feel in control of. Cisneros, Sandra. â€Å"Never Marry a Mexican† Woman Hollering Creek, Random House, 1991, pp. 68-83. Nogales, Ana â€Å"Parents who Cheat† Hci Publishing, 2009.