"I am your father."
When you hear that phrase, what does it mean to you? I don't know about you, but when i first read that, this is what I thought of . . .
To Octavio Paz, that statement "has no paternal flavor and is not said in order to protect or to guide another, but rather to impose one's superiority, that is, to humiliate." (The Labyrinth of Solitude, 81)
(gremlindog.com)
After watching that clip of Luke's reaction to finding out that he is the son of Darth Vader, I would have to say that there is DEFINITELY some humiliation shown on his face!
Paz states that "Power" ist he one word that can sum up what is is/ means to be macho. "It is force without the discipline of any notion of order: arbitrary power, the will without reins and without set course. . . macho -- power -- almost always reveals itself as a capacity for wounding, humiliatiing, annihilating." (The Labyrinth of Solitude, 81-82)
I had heard a little bit about machismo in Spanish classes that i had taken in school, but never really understood it until i served a mission among many Mexicans and Latin Americans. One Sunday while in the Principios del Evangelio class, a lesson about family was presented. The teacher reviewed the Proclamation to the family and as a class, we discussed the role of husbands, wives, and children in the family. That day, there was a couple there who was taking the lessons from the elders. The husband was very stand off-ish and didn't say much. His wife participated and was loving the idea of husband and wife working together in the home. After she made a comment about this, her husband raised his hand; the teacher called on him and he said in his wife's direction,
"YO MANDO."
Basically he said to his wife that HE was the one who wore the pants in the relationship,called all the shots and had control in the house and their marriage. An extremely awkward silence filled the room and this man's wife immediately looked down at the floor as her face turned bright red. Again, there was that humiliation.
It is with this same sense of machismo that I'm sure Cortes conquered these great civilizations. He surely annhiliated everything about them. I know that sometime Mexicans and Latin Americans get a bad rap for this sense of "machismo" that seems to exist in the culture, but its honestly in all cultures. I think it is extremely interesting that this still exists today, seeming to have been passes down from generation to generation. Maybe its not quite as intense, but we still see it in today's society.
(xtimeline.com)
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