Culture, Defiance, and Insignificance

In class the past few days, I have tried to keep a little distance between my personal background and The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao.  I find that the novel is just so powerful in certain ways that I am unable to maintain this distance.

While I do not have Dominican heritage, I am Hispanic (of Mexican descent, label-wise I prefer Latina, since it properly emphasizes the blend of indigenous and european roots, as opposed to Hispanic, which really only emphasizes Spanish roots).  To be honest, reading this novel made me feel so much more Hispanic.  It comes in waves, you know.  I don't think I am as lost as others could possibly be.  I think it is a lot easier for me to accept certain things as cultural and just not over think it because I live it to a certain extent.

I want to make it clear, however, that I am a third generation Mexican-American.  I also do not know any Spanish.  Usually I don't consider my ethnicity as a defining factor in my life, yet when reading Hispanic literature (which I do on occasion, not to often because sometimes the emotions are just too much), I suddenly get so much more of a racial-identity struggle.

However, there is a significant issue concerning "amount" of culture, or degree of ethnicity.  This is reflected in physicality, language, mentality, personality.  Within Oscar Wao, a lot of the cultural conflicts I believe are paradigmatic of a larger diaspora, beyond the Dominican and encompassing a wider range of Latino/a situations.  Really, I say this because I can relate to a lot of the situations in the novel.  It is so easy for me to identify certain elements and motifs as cultural phenomena that just need to be accepted in a different way.  I can give short examples of this (brief, because already this post is going to be way too long, and only a few because there are so many):

Quotes:

1. "The most beautiful girl. You are proof that God is Dominican" (113).
Hispanics are largely categorized as Catholic.  Part of the Catholic religion really has been making it fit different cultures.  Prime example--saints.  Saints are known for their holiness yes, but also for hometowns.  The point of saints is to be relatable, for example, The Virgin of Guadalupe.  It is true that she does represent the Virgin Mary, but a lot of her depiction is rooted in ancient Aztec and indigenous cultures.  In this quote, La Inca is empowering Dominican culture (in this case, physical appearance), relating it to religion, comparing it to the divine, actually describing God as belonging to one particular ethnic group, as supporting that ethnic group.

2. "with an expression and posture that shouted in bold, gothic letters: DEFIANT"(258).
I don't know if you guys know this, but it is a legitimate Hispanic thing to display your last name in giant gothic letters across the rear windshield of your car.  Once I was driving and I saw an entire fleet of cars with the labels: LOPEZ, RODRIGUEZ, and GARCIA.  I really think that Diaz is showing here how that  family pride is defiant.  The fact that they are displaying a last name that will make them targets or racial discrimination and profiling is defying the system.  It is not really "asking for it," it is more like saying "yes we are here, we are Latino/a, we have every right to be as important as you, even if our names don't appear as famous in corporate America." Just as Beli is defiant of her situation (her bad childhood--this quote occurs when first describing her arrival after the burning and the slavery), Hispanics as a whole also can reflect that defiance in a way that is empowering.

3. "But what could she do? Beli was a girl, for fuck's sake; she had no power or beauty (yet) or talent or family that could help her transcend, only La Inca, and La Inca wasn't about to help our girl escape anything" (81). I know I personally have also had to fight somewhat the straight up domesticity that really is just so cultural.  I don't really know if I can explain this.  It is just the way it is that the women are the nurturing ones, the ones with all the emotions, the ones in charge of creating the perfect happy home.  This is oftentimes perpetuated by older female relatives.  Even though they are victims of that domesticity, they perpetuate the system.  Notice La Inca's goal in bringing up Beli is that Beli will become a successful doctor AND mother.  Double duty.  In a certain way, that is even worse than just having  responsibility for one sphere.

Ideas:

4. Last class, we discussed Dominican masculinity thoroughly. I would like to present it that not all Hispanic men are the stereotypical players, which is what I think Diaz is trying to present in the long run.  Oscar and Yunior both do not exactly fit the paradigm.  Oscar because of failure, Yunior because he is narrating, because, yes, he has sex with lots of women, but really, has a certain decency.  He's not a bad person because he is within the cultural stereotype.  Same with Abelard.  Yes he has a mistress and deceives his wife, but in the end, he cares about his wife and children the most.  While Hispanic men may be promiscuous, they still have that "head of the family" mentality.  They have a certain domesticity that is oftentimes overshadowed.

5. One other thing that I don't really think has been addressed has been the different kinds of Dominicans, of Hispanics in the novel.  Specifically, the alterna-Latina, the goth, the athlete, the scholarship student.  There is definitely a focus on Oscar, but by adding in the Sci-Fi, I feel like that is a way for certain other people who are not Hispanic to relate more to the novel.  It is another audience, one that may not be largely defined by one ethnic group.  I like this.  I think it forces people to look outside stereotypes, to be forced to say, wow! I really didn't think that there were a lot of Hispanics who were so ________.  That's why I think it is fantastic that Diaz just threw in the Wiccan school teacher, Lola's athlete clique, and the gothic beauty.  It shows diversity is not based on race or ethnicity, but really based on personality, experience, hobbies, interests, and sense of humor.  Those characters thus also tie back in to that idea of defiance, or at least nonconformity, since those sub-cultures (nerdism, track and field, etc.) do not necessarily originate from the dominant culture.

In general, I believe that this book in certain respects just needs to be accepted as unknowable (i.e Mongoose, obviously just a throwback to ancient relgions/voodoo/animism).  Really, no one on this earth is fully capable of understanding everything, and that might be Diaz' broadest message, a message that could be another golden rule for all individuals--a recommendation that transcends divisions and labels.