The story ‘Woman Hollering Creek’ is a narrative by Sandra Cisneros with a focus on the toxicity of relationships within a patriarchal society. For the women in Seguin, there are many expectations of the perfect wife. Their husbands and male family members expect them to care for the home, clean after their husbands, and stay primarily silent. In the case of Cleofilas, these duties go as far as taking her husband's abuse and consoling him after his physical attacks. It is only when she sees an example of how much more her life could be in a new friend, that Cleofilas realizes how dangerous her current relationship really is. The narrative reveals how difficult it can be to realize how a loving marriage can turn into a precarious living situation with an abusive partner, as well as depicting some important cultural points where patriarchal society is concerned.
At the beginning of the narrative, Cleofilas gets married with high expectations of what her marriage will be like. In her mind, marriage is an idolized construct and when her father reassures her during her wedding that he would never abandon her, she does not quite understand why he would say something along those lines until after she has lived with her partner. Cleofilas envisions her marriage as an amazing love affair, similar to the ones on her favorite telenovelas. She quickly realizes that marriage is a much more complicated concept than she first thought, but because she is already across the border, contacting her family becomes difficult. Cleofilas is thrown into a life of heavy expectations when she reaches Texas. She is expected to keep a clean house, cook for her family, follow her husband to the bar he frequents and sit quietly while dealing with the taunts of his friends, and when he is violent with her she is expected to take the abuse. When Cleofilas has her first experience with her husband's abuse, readers can see that she is also expected to control her husband's emotional state. This imagery points to one fatal flaw of patriarchal society, that women have no room to voice their own arguments, and opinions, and more importantly, they do not have the room to care for their own mental and physical states.
Culturally, the story also depicts strong references to Latinx culture. While adjusting to her life in Texas, Cleofilas starts to observe the women in her new home. She appears to be surrounded by women whose men have left them in one way or another and are thus plagued either by intense anger or sorrow. In an interesting way, the story almost resembles an old Mexican ghost story. ‘La Llorona’ is a story about a scorned woman whose anger at her cheating spouse drives her to kill her own children and then herself. Some people believe that she walks the earth as a spirit searching for the lost souls of her children out of guilt. The neighboring women who live by Cleofilas resemble this story in two important ways. The first is Dolores, whose husband and children are all dead. Dolores is understandably depressed as she spends the majority of her time grieving for her family. The second woman is Soledad, who is overcome with anger at her husband, who left her to be with another woman. Like La Llorona, she is also dealing with the betrayal of a partner.
At another point in the story, there is a description of the sudden death of one of the men's wives. When her widow talks about killing his own spouse the man is confident and describes himself as the protagonist in the situation. Rather than grieve for his spouse he depicts her as an armed enemy and explains that he was only “defending himself” after being attacked. This scene represents the concept of “Machismo” in the Latinx community. This concept is very similar to toxic masculinity. Juan Pedro's way of showing off his masculinity is beating his wife into submission as an outlet for the stressful conditions of his job. When his guilt overcomes him and his Machismo fails, Juan is left crying in his bruised wife's arms, expecting her to deal with the emotions he himself has been taught to push down. In another world, Juan would go to therapy for his anger issues, unfortunately in the world of ‘Woman Hollering Creek,’ he is surrounded by men who would likely shame him for considering treatment as an option. When Cleofilas expresses that Juan, and the concept of marriage, is what she's waited her whole life for readers get the sense that he has started to wake up from her fantasy of married life.
When Cleofilas finally meets Felice, there is a feeling of hope for her and a tease of change for the situation she and her children are in. Though the reader never reads a scene after her escape from her husband, the existence of scenes where Cleofilas is observing Felice shows a change in the overall tone of the narrative. Felice shows Cleofilas a future of possible independence and happiness, without the requirement of a husband. To her, it is both amazing and insane. By creating Felice, the author gives an example of how cultural pride can evolve with time. Rather than rely on men in her life, Felice makes a point to be independent. Her strength comes from her ability to adapt to her circumstances. More than this, her ability to create joy where her own culture has tried to imply sorrow. When she drives across the bridge, she hollers to resemble its namesake. This action frightens Cleofilas, but after an explanation, actually serves as a rare glimpse of bliss in the story.
When ‘Woman Hollering Creek’ is analyzed from a cultural perspective, it shows the importance of pride in heritage both in negative and positive ways. The Latinx community, which traditionally has values that gravitate towards a patriarchal society, has managed to evolve into one that recognizes the importance of granting women the spaces they need to express themselves successfully. Traditionally, themes of toxic masculinity and misogyny have left women in Latinx communities without outlets for their own issues or safe places to go in cases of abuse. Cleofilas, and the women she lives with in Texas, represent the past, while Felice represents progress. At the end of the story, Cleofilas is able to escape her own abusive situation and find some peace in the possibility of a future where both she and her children are happy and safe. Felice has found a way to gain independence without leaving behind her pride in her own culture and language. This behavior depicts the potential for gender equality in the Latinx community. By cutting her story just short of a fairytale ending, Sandra Cisneros adds a degree of reality to the narrative, as well as giving the reader details to ponder on in the interest of progress. The reader never truly knows what happens to Cleofilas and her children, causing uncertainty in the ending of the story. The power of literature is its ability to show readers things in current society that should be questioned, while also serving as a form of entertainment.
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