Multiculturalism, Telenovelas and Ideology in Woman Hollering Creek

Abstract

The following paper discusses the notion of multiculturalism as a violent process in which immigrants, specifically Mexican, have to live without showing their conflicts because they might be considered ‘fundamentalist.’ Žižek’s notion of the arbitrariness of multiculturalism and McCracken’s theory of commodities as forms of cultural insertion are confronted in relation to two short stories that appear in Sandra Cisneros’ Woman Hollering Creek. I will finally support the idea that multiculturalism (accepting other cultures) is a form of hegemony because U.S. society ‘selects’ those who can belong to it. Cisneros’ stories which are analyzed in this essay are “Remember the Alamo” and “Woman Hollering Creek,” which present two characters, Tristán and Cleófilas, respectively, who give up every possibility of defending their rights as a gay man and an abused wife, because this defense might be seen by U.S. society as a subversive discourse. Then, Tristán prefers to live as a transvestite who is loved by his audience and Cleófilas lives in silence, watching soap operas in order not to bother anyone, not even her husband who beats her. If they defended their rights as a homosexual and woman, they would have an ‘ideology’ according to the U.S. society, so they would never be heard as they are ‘unfaithful’ to those who have accepted them in their country; Tristán and Cleófilas remain quiet to be accepted.