Mira Daya Blog Post #4, Topic #4

Sandra Cisneros's “Woman Hollering Creek” describes the life of a woman named Cleofilas who was married off and taken across the border into the United States. As the story progresses, Cisneros describes some of Cleofilas’ fantasies about her future which we are able to compare to how her life actually turns out. We see Cleofilas’ difficult transition into living in this new territory and witness her failure of not being able to live a life similar to the romantic telenovelas she often fantasized about.  As a first generation person living in the United States with more than 80% of my extended family being composed of Indian immigrants, the knowledge I have about their transition into American culture as well as their attitudes before they moved to the U.S., helped me understand and sympathize with Cleofilas’ thoughts and actions as an immigrant. I believe that Cisneros does an exceptional job helping us understand internal conflicts that occur to immigrants in America.

When reading this short story, I greatly sympathized with Cleofilas when we find out how terrible her life is in America. She does not seem to have any friends and she knows little about her neighbors. Worst of all, her husband turns out to be physically and emotionally abusive. In my perspective, immigrants, many of which are uneducated, are originally excited and hopeful to move to the land of great opportunities but are met with disappointment once they arrive just as Cleofilas did. Not too long ago, some relatives of mine moved to America from India. I remember thinking “Why on Earth do they want to move here?” They had been very successful in India before they planned to immigrate. As I reflected on the difficulties my parents faced when they first immigrated here, I knew that my relatives would be going from being well known and successful in India to being at the bottom again looking for completely new careers to begin in America. Just how Cleofilas fantasized about her new life with her husband to be wonderful and romantic with no flaws, my relatives fantasized about one day coming to America and enjoying everything American culture has to offer. Unfortunately, as Cisneros describes, “Cleofilas thought her life would have to be like that, like a telenovela, only now the episodes got sadder and sadder.” Cleofilas fantasies came to a devastating downfall into a pool of abuse and fear caused by her husband. Cleofilas was met with disappointment, just as  my relatives were. They did not like it here in America because it was nothing like they thought it to be.

Another common feeling aside from disappointment faced by immigrants is loneliness. Cisneros describes Cleofilas’ loneliness in the following, “There is no place to go. Unless one counts the neighbor ladies.” Cleofilas is stranded in her small house where there is no one to talk to and no telenovelas to enjoy. Similarly, my relatives did not know many people around the area, which made it very lonely and hard to transition at first. Reflecting the experience of my relatives to Cleofilas, Cisneros does a good job illustrating common problems immigrants face as well as describe the feelings and thoughts they have during their time in transition.

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