Don Gerardo's Family (fictional)

THERE: Ticuani is a fictive name given to the town from which both the families are from by the author Robert Courtney Smith.

Don Gerardo wanted to follow his “ranchero masculine” life-style from Ticuani to New York. He followed a strict gendered division between labor and leisure, which had included lots of time for drinking, sports, and discussing politics with his friends. He spent less time with his family or wife. Robert Smith, an Associate Professor of Sociology, Immigration Studies and Public Affairs at Baruch College and the Graduate Center, CUNY also the author of  Mexican New York: Transnational Worlds of New Immigrants (University of California Press, 2006), defines “ranchero masculinity” as “one hegemonic((Hegemony is a situation in which a group or country has more power, control, or importance than others.)) configuration of gender practices that legitimize men’s dominant and women’s subordinate position.” He also continues to say that men can also use physical violence to enforce their will.

The characteristics of an individual practicing “ranchero masculinity” are fearless and even violent when facing issues from other men. They are also expected to accomplish physically demanding work; they also drink alcohol, especially during special events like festivals, and drinking at such occasions is an “essential dimension of male friendship (Smith, 98).

His family was not allowed to attend public events without his presence. They led a separate life and his wife, Dona Talia, remained in the private space of their home and her day-to-day life included just domestic work. She was not allowed to enter public space without his presence. Women and children are allowed to spend their time in public space for household work such as grocery shopping or even just for going to school.  She depended on his income for survival.

Women and Children in Public in Mexico((framinggallery.net))

HERE:

Don Gerardo works in a restaurant during the week-days and is also involved with the Ticuani Solidarity Committee, which is a committee that collects money from the residents in New York, and therefore funds for the building of new schools, better water systems, etc. He continues drinking heavily during the weekends. Don Gerardo continues to spend little time with his wife and children and he does not involve his family with his Committee work. His extensive absence from his family causes problems in his relationship with his family. He returns to Mexico regularly, but never takes his family with him. His children are not given a chance to learn more about their culture, because they are not taken back home for adolescent rituals, such as Antorcha, or even festivals. Don Gerardo does not hit his wife, and Dona Talia believes that he “knows better.”

Dona Talia laments the absence of her husband and the lack of time he spends with her children. Dona Talia and her children ignore Don Gerardo’s sanctions of not going to public or socializing without his presence. She openly displays her anger and is angry that her husband has not adapted his “ranchero masculinity” in the context of his surroundings. The children ask her to leave Don Gerardo, but she believes that it is against her principles and she would rather stay with him. Dona Talia, in this manner, takes on two models of migrant womanhood: the Ticuani “ranchera” when sticking with her husband, but also represents the third model called pionera, that is by socializing in public without Don Gerardo. She also lets her daughter date even though Don Gerarado demands that their daughter date only after she is twenty years old. She acts like a pionera by making her own decisions and lets her daughter date and also hides this from her husband.

She depends on her husband economically and therefore sticks by him even though she believes she is “screwed” in life. She defies her husband and shows lack of “verguenza.” Both her male and female relatives support her actions and this goes along with the predictions of many scholars of migration that women have more leeway in gender behavior. Dona Talia has kind words for Don Gerardo because he is the sole provider for the family and she acknowledges that he has progressed in his work place.