Maria Cristina Mena facts for kids

María Cristina Mena (who later used the name María Cristina Chambers) was a talented writer born in Mexico. She lived from April 3, 1893, to August 3, 1965. She wrote many short stories, five children's books, and one non-fiction article. She is most famous for her short stories, which were published in popular magazines like The Century Magazine and American Magazine between 1913 and 1916. Today, people are showing more interest in her work, especially as part of the history of Chicano literature. All her short stories have been collected in a book called The Collected Stories of María Cristina Mena.

About María Cristina Mena's Life

Mena was born in Mexico City when Porfirio Díaz was president. She went to an English boarding school where she learned to speak Spanish, English, French, and Italian very well. Later in her life, Mena learned Braille, which is a reading system for blind people. She translated books, including her own children's stories, into Braille to help blind people.

Her family was important and powerful in politics. In 1907, she was sent to New York City to escape political problems that led to the Mexican Revolution. Six years later, in 1913, Mena published her first short stories. She kept writing for magazines until 1916, when she married a writer named Henry Kellet Chambers.

Mena didn't publish much between 1916 and 1942. In 1942, she started publishing children's books under her married name, Maria Cristina Chambers. She wrote five children's books, with the last one coming out in 1953. Her last published work was an article called “Afternoons in Italy with D.H. Lawrence,” which came out in The Texas Quarterly the year before she passed away at age seventy-two.

Writing for The Century Magazine

Mena wrote for The Century Magazine, which was a very popular magazine at the time. This magazine reached many middle- and upper-class white Americans. In the early 1900s, many people were moving to the U.S. from other countries. Century Magazine sometimes published stories that showed foreign cultures in a negative or stereotypical way.

However, Mena didn't agree with these views. She used her short stories to subtly comment on society. She also wrote letters to the editors of the magazine, fighting to include real parts of Mexican culture in her work. This shows she wanted to share authentic Mexican traditions with her readers.

Main Ideas in Mena's Stories

Challenging Stereotypes in Stories

María Cristina Mena often used stereotypes in her stories, but she did it to make a point. She wrote about Mexican Indians, white Mexicans, and American tourists. During her time, many people saw Mexican Indians as "picturesque" or "serene," almost like a cure for the fast-paced modern world. Mena sometimes described Mexican people as childlike or animal-like, like when she called Dolores a "chattering little squirrel of a wife" in “John of God.”

However, Mena used these stereotypes to actually criticize them. For example, in “The Gold Vanity Set,” a character named Don Ramon says of the Indians, "We use the diminutive because we love them." This sounds nice, but it actually shows how he stereotypes them as uncivilized or childish. Mena showed that characters who held these views, like Alicia Cherry in “The Education of Popo,” were often narrow-minded or silly themselves.

Mena's characters often refused to fit into these simple boxes. Popo, in “The Education of Popo,” doesn't act like Alicia Cherry expects him to. Petra, in “The Gold Vanity Set,” refuses to be photographed, showing she won't be treated as just a "picturesque" object. The Senorita in “The Vine Leaf” even smudges her face in a painting, making it clear she won't be "framed" or defined by others. Mena showed that images and stereotypes often fail to truly describe real people.

Mena also used stereotypes to criticize how foreign countries, especially the U.S., tried to control Mexico through business. In “The Gold Vanity Set,” the idea that "business in the Mexican mind is dominated by sentiment" suggests Mexicans are against the cold, hard world of capitalism. When American tourists "invade" an inn, it shows how they push out local people. Mena supported keeping Mexican culture strong against foreign influences. For example, in “John of God, Water-Carrier,” John represents traditional Mexican ways, while his brother Tiburcio embraces American business. John, whose name has a moral meaning, stands against the idea of capitalism that could destroy traditional life.

Beauty and Identity in Mena's Work

The idea of beauty is very important in Mena's short stories, especially her earlier ones. This was a time when plastic surgery was becoming more popular in the Americas. Mena included these new procedures in her stories.

For example, in “Marriage by Miracle,” a character named Ernestina uses plastic surgery to remove wrinkles and change her nose and eyes. She does this so her younger sister can get married, because beauty was seen as important for a family's financial success. Ernestina's family, who were part of Mexico's "old elite," tried hard to keep up appearances, even if it meant faking wealth. Ernestina's surgery is a big effort to maintain these appearances.

However, Ernestina finds she can no longer smile after her surgery. She doesn't marry but instead becomes very religious, using her new appearance for spiritual reasons. This shows how she escapes the usual expectations for women.

Similarly, other characters use surgery to protect who they are. In “The Vine-Leaf,” the marquesa removes a birthmark that looks like a vine leaf. This might be to hide a secret or to protect her unique identity. She doesn't let her face be fully seen in a portrait or by others, which stops them from fully understanding or controlling her. Mena's female characters often rebel against social rules. Ernestina escapes marriage, Carmelita in “The Sorcerer and General Bisco” runs away to become a revolutionary, and Tula in “A Son of the Tropics” even makes bombs. Mena's later stories show women becoming revolutionaries instead of just wanting to be beautiful.

Women, Love, and Power

Mena often used romance to show how her female characters gained power in a feminine way. In “The Sorcerer and General Bisco,” Carmelita rebels against marriage. This shows how women from different backgrounds became more active in the Mexican Revolution. Carmelita says that women gain power through love, even if they seem "little and weak."

Mena used the actions of women to share her views on the relationship between the United States and Mexico. As her female characters became more rebellious and challenged social rules, Mena used them to criticize Mexico's class system and the relationship between the U.S. and Mexico.

A clear example is in “The Emotions of Maria Concepcion.” The main character, Maria Concepcion, falls in love with a Spanish bullfighter. This helps her slowly break free from her father's control. She eventually rebels against the idea that she should stay home and care for her aging father. This change starts subtly and ends with her deciding to go against her father's wishes to attend a bullfight. Like many of Mena's stories, the character's ability to rebel is linked to her falling in love.

“The Emotions of Maria Concepcion” also explores cultural misunderstandings in romance. Mena criticized the American idea that Latino people are always passionate lovers. She showed that American characters, like Alicia Cherry in “The Education of Popo,” had wrong ideas about Mexican culture and romance. Mena used humor and satire to challenge these common beliefs held by her American readers.

Mena also showed Mexican women as a new ideal during the Progressive Era in the U.S. In “The Gold Vanity Set,” the main character admires an American tourist's beauty, but the tourist is shown as culturally insensitive. The "beauty set" in the story represents the American idea that white beauty is superior. Mena used clever language, irony, and satire to push back against the idea that white women were superior. She also showed how characters like Dolores in “John of God, the Water Carrier” challenged the control of men in Mexican society.

The Power of Language

Critics have noticed that in many of Mena's stories, she made English sound like Spanish. She did this by using Spanish sentence structures and common phrases. For example, in “The Birth of the War God,” the narrator starts and ends the story using very formal English. This makes the American reader feel connected to the narrator's culture.

However, when the narrator tells an ancient Aztec legend from her grandmother, the language changes to a more Spanish style. Verbs might come first in sentences, like "Arrived the autumn, and the afternoons became painted with rich reds." Mena also put Spanish phrases directly into the story. The narrator explains that she does this because it "seems to carry more of the perfume that came with those phrases as I heard them."

This mix of formal English and Spanish-like language creates a unique atmosphere. Some critics say this shows Mena trying to connect two different cultures. The narrator even suggests she might not be fully happy with the translation, saying, "The sonorous imagery of those well-remembered phrases loses much in my attempt to render them in sober English." By showing how the story is told, Mena highlights the differences between the reader's culture and the foreignness of Mexico.

Mena was also very good at using different ways of speaking, or dialects. In “The Education of Popo,” she gives an American girl, Alicia Cherry, a funny, very "American" way of talking: "I rag-timed up in my best tra-la-la style." This helps Mena create characters that readers can easily recognize as a certain type of person. Sometimes, this could border on stereotypes, like when she gave her Native American characters slow, simple speech. However, critics suggest that Mena used a technique called "double voicing." This means she would exaggerate certain ways of speaking to show how wrong or limited stereotypical ideas about Mexicans were.