Find the part of "Mexican Masks" that resonates the most with you, or that expresses something you might have once thought or experienced. In writing explain what it was in those words that resonated and why.
"Viejo o adolescente, criollo o mestizo, general, obrero o licenciado, el mexicano se me aparece como un ser que se encierra y se preserva: máscara el rostro y máscara la sonrisa". —Octavio Paz
It is funny because this is the first sentence of Paz's essay, but I really related this part with the perspective that I have of a Mexican's life.This quote basically says that no matter who you are, there is a possibility of hiding the "real you" from other people. I consider Mexicans as working people who worries about everyone who surround them, and I am talking about "worries" in the sense of almost prioritizing to other people instead of his/her own and I think it is really a problem. We like hiding our problems from everyone and keep them to our selves. Also, is like we were trained to fake emotions, as Paz says, most of Mexican males do not express their feelings because is something a man is not allowed to do, he has to be strong enough and he never demonstrates weaknesses. I could easily give an example for this problems: I am from Culiacán, Sinaloa, so I live like 10 hours away from the rest of my family (I live with my parents and siblings), and it means that in holidays we go there to visit them and celebrate with them. The Christmas dinner is made by the women of my family, no man colaborates in something but on buying the beverages; they work so hard so everything turns out the best way, the food, the decoration, everything. Even though they feel so tired, they never show the fatigue to anyone, not even me, being a woman, they never let me help them and their argument is that is their work to do it. And this takes me to another point that the author mentions a lot: machismo. In my opinion, Mexican culture and traditions are based on this concept. ¿How? ¿Why? In my 17 years of living, I have been carefully observing this behavior in my surroundings because I'm interested in this topic, and I have realized that, at least in my family, old men were raised with the idea in which women only belong in the kitchen. Listening comments like "serve me more food", "this is not the food I wanted", "you can't fix ...", "prepare the children", "clean this", "clean that", "you can't talk infront of my friends", "¿how do you know this if you are a woman?", "you are weak", "¿why are you wearing short skirts?", "don't talk to other men"; makes me feel so angry about the situation, because even though I do something about it, whoever the woman is (in my family), she will never say I am right, because that is their way of living since along time ago or because it could be bad if they do not agree with their husband. I know this is not only happening in my family, and that is why I am so worried, because wehave to stop this, we women are not objects, we are human beings and so are men.
"Como casi todos los pueblos, los mexicanos consideran a la mujer como un instrumento, ya de los deseos del hombre, ya de los fines que le asignan la ley, la sociedad o la moral". —Octavio Paz
This is 100% real. This is still happening in Mexico. I think this is unfair to all of us who are women, by knowing that we are in the 21st centhury and nobody is doing something to change this situation. That is why here in Mexico there are a lot of feminist movements, because we are living with fear of failing in life, just because we are women. Or by the fact that maybe someday I will be taken as joke/object and not as a person. That is why we take very seriously all of this events, because we are tired of being seen as weak and dependent people, we are tired of not letting us have an oportunity, we are tired of being seen as an object to please men. During the reading, the author mentions things like "en un mundo hecho a la imagen de los hombres, la mujer es sólo un reflejo de la voluntad y querer masculinos", "el secreto debe acompañar a la mujer", "la mujer en casa y con la pata rota", "la mujer es una fiera doméstica, lujuriosa y pecadora de nacimiento, a quien hay que someter con el palo y conducir con el freno de la religión", and so many machista comments that made me reflect about the actuality. The situation that we are living the 21st century women is hard, because it had not changed a lot and we are finally being heard and we are fighting for our rights, but it will time to reach our objective, that is the equality between men and women.
In Mexico, most of the half of housekeeper women have another job (because they "should" be in charge of the house and the family).
In Mexico, 3 out of 10 entrepeneurs are women.
In Mexico, 169 out of 500 deputies are women.
In Mexico, all of its presidents have been men.
In Mexico, the 66.1% of +15 year old girls have experienced some type of violence in their life (According to INEGI 2016).
In Mexico, on average, 35 girls are raped every day (Acoording to the Comisión Nacional de Derechos Humanos - CNDH).
In Mexico, 9 girls are murdered every day (According to ONU).
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