The Telenovela in “Woman Hollering creek” by Sandra Cianeros stands as a blueprint for the life that Cleofilas sought for when she married Juan Pedro. The telenovela functions asher escape and a comparison to her abusive husband. The soap opera conditions her view about romance. It has fixed views on love and life and Cleofilas anticipated this same treatment from her husband. She wanted “passion in its purest crystalline essence. The kind of books and songs and telenovela describe when one finds, finally, the great love of ones life.”(Cisneros 1401)
Before getting married, her life was full of chores and dealing with her family. Getting married she thought her life would be different but it took a different road.she became a victim of domestic violence , “when the moment came, and he slapped her once , and then again and again; until the lip split and bled an orchid of blood.”(1403)
The telenovela also functions as enjoyment to Cleofilas in “Women Hollering creek”. She enjoys watching the soup operas because she knew her life will never be like the beautiful married and happy people she sees. Every time her husband puts his hand on her, she explains a new telenovela she has been watching . The telenovela serves as a friend to Cleofilas and something to confines too. It’s very important to her.
I like that you pointed out the friendship between the telenovelas and Cleofilas. she doesn’t seem to have anyone that she is comfortable talking to and confide in. Yet the soap operas are an escape from her world into another. she doesn’t have to worry about her husband and the house work she has to do because she has an outlet for herself through the shows.
I absolutely agree. The telenovelas were definitely what gave her life inspiration and I do really think that she wanted her life to be just like one. When you live in a place as simple as the one she lived in, you look for inspiration in many things. Her inspiration for everything came from telenovelas. Its actually really sad that her life didn’t turn out the way that she might have expected it too.