The Female Fight for Freedom
Feliciano 1
Nina Feliciano
Professor Hilda Fernandez
English 1B
20 May 2015
Word Count: 1,588
The Female Fight for Freedom
Author Helena María Viramontes is known in the literary world as a prominent advocate for,
and member of, Chicana culture. In her book The Moths and Other Stories, Viramontes conveys a
multitude of Chicana issues in a mere eight short stories, one of the most prominent being the
difficulties Chicana women face compared to men in their culture. An interview with the author from
2000 explains this important impetus in her writing: “I remember raging against the patriarchal
system, raging against the world and its injustices. I felt as if I had to write out of some type of
understanding of what was going on and what I was feeling,” (Viramontes). In the final story entitled
“Neighbors,” the author offers her intimate take on the issue by associating the unconventional
female character of Aura with certain places that designate where Chicano culture assigns Chicana
women in society. Aura is atypical in that she is a seventy-three-year-old woman who lives alone,
which is unusual in Chicano culture. Though seemingly independent, Aura is unable to break free
from her societal position under men, which is true of many Chicanas. Viramontes employs the
literary element of setting in “Neighbors” to portray the struggles of being a woman in the patriarchal
Chicano culture.
The first sentence in “Neighbors” sets the tone for Aura’s location, and state of mind. It reads,
“Aura Rodríguez always stayed within her perimeters, both personal and otherwise, and expected the
same of her neighbors,” (Viramontes 109). The character of Aura does not leave the confines of her
plot of land for the entirety of the story. Aura remaining “within her perimeters” not only refers to the
perimeter of the wrought-iron fence surrounding her property, but also conveys how trapped she feels
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in her own mind due to the patriarchy of Chicano culture (Viramontes 109). The fact that Aura never
crosses the threshold of the gate that encloses her yard also speaks to how women are not allowed to
do as they please like men are, and that she feels completely disrespected and humiliated by the naïve
teenage boys who imprison her by hanging out right outside of her house. The adolescent boys
represent Chicano men’s superiority over Chicana women. Chicanas feel imprisoned by the
frustration that arises from being part of a society that allows men to torment women with no real
repercussions. Though Aura is many years older than them, the young men do not acknowledge her
seniority because the unspoken rules of Chicano society do not require them to. Aura feels that if she
and her neighbors stay within her perimeters, she can live out the remainder of her lonely life without
being bothered by the patriarchal society that oppresses her. Aura represents the real world gender
norms that Chicanas experience on a daily basis, which have Chicanas to have a much less open mind
in terms of what their options are in life. In Viramontes’ interview, she describes breaking out of
gender norms that seclude her as a writer: “To be alone with your hurt and insecurity is not a good
thing, and yet these are companions of writers. Just when I think I’m sinking into hopelessness, I
begin to think about the stories of the mujeres out there…the brutalities that continue to exist, and
then I become inspired and I am no longer afraid of confronting and sitting with these
companions…” Through the character of Aura, Viramontes wants Chicanas to recognize their
oppression from the male-dominant society of which they belong. The author also wants Chicana
women to break free from the walls they have erected in their minds by reminding themselves that
they are not alone, just as Viramontes is not alone in her writing because of their courageous stories.
Aura is enamored with her garden that she has spent years cultivating. The setting of Aura’s
garden represents her extended comfort zone past her home, which she has slowly accumulated
during her life. Her bravery is greatly diminished following the vandalism of her beloved garden by
the neighborhood boys, which symbolizes the significant and detrimental effects that Chicano men
have on Chicanas’ lives. Viramontes writes, “She rushed over to the chayote vine and made a feeble
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attempt to replant it, but everything, her flowers, chayotes, gardenias, rose bushes, were uprooted and
cast aside,” (118). When Aura finally stands up for her self, she is quickly chastised for her actions
and put back in her place as an elderly woman with no power in her culture. Once the teenage boys
destroy her garden in retaliation for reporting them to the police, Aura is left with a sole chinaberry
tree, symbolic of one shred of dignity. Viramontes also makes sure to mention that these are plants
grown from cuttings from her mother’s garden, showing the passage of female strength through
generations. She retreats to her home and remains there for the remainder of the story, showing how
she no longer has the courage to surpass her comfort zone. In the same token that the author wants
Chicana women to remember that they are not alone, she also realizes the weight of this issue and
that some women are unable to escape their situation. In her interview, Viramontes asserts, “I needed
to recognize that these women were very much silenced in the United States because people were not
covering this type of material.” Though this quote is referring to a different short story from Moths, it
reinforces the fact that Viramontes’ most significant topic in her writing is to break the silence of
Chicana women. Hopefully, bringing up this topic will raise awareness of Chicana issues and, in turn,
give these women more options and support to become free from harrowing situations due to their
lower status in Chicano culture.
With her one shred of dignity, Aura descends to the basement of her home out of fear and
frustration for her lack of power as a Chicana woman. The narrative voice describes her decision to
do so, stating, “She lit the candlestick and opened the cellar door because she refused to be helpless,”
(Viramontes 119). The location of Aura’s basement represents her retreating to the lowest, most
morbid depths of her soul, feeling that doing so is her only option. She finally feels as though she
must do something drastic to change her circumstances. It is not an empowering frustration, however,
as she continues to not push out of the confines of her home. In the cellar, she retrieves a gun from
one of the many boxes in the depths of the dark room. The gun is Aura’s final plea for peace in the
patriarchal Chicano society. When Aura’s fear of death reaches it’s highest point at the end of the
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story, she pulls the trigger behind a closed door, without even being able to see what is frightening
her. This placement of Aura is the ultimate feeling of Chicana women who are desperate to have even
an ounce of power in their situation and, their own minds. They are too blinded by the patriarchy of
their culture to see any other way out. This is Viramontes’ way of showing what horrible actions
Chicanas must resort to when they feel overpowered and that all of their options have run out. In
Viramontes’ interview, she says of Chicana writers, “We are knocking at the door demanding
change.” This is a very powerful statement in juxtaposition with “Neighbors” as the only other
woman character knocking on Aura’s door is what causes her to pull the trigger on her gun. When
this woman asks for change, or help, another woman is too afraid to give it to her. Viramontes wants
to break this cycle of terrified women by getting them to help each other find strength instead of
hurting each other out of fear due to their dwindling power compared to Chicano men.
The various spaces of the character Aura in “Neighbors” portray Chicana women’s struggles
in a patriarchal society. Viramontes, however, also wants to empower them with the knowledge that
they are not alone. She encountered the same feelings as a Chicana female writer, which can feel like
a very solitary venture. The author articulates, “But when it came to the point that I started sharing
my work with other people, they pointed out that this story was theirs as well… Then I realized that I
was not writing personally about myself, but I was writing about a community of people. That’s
when I decided that I had to write the best that I could because I was not writing only for myself,”
(Viramontes). If Chicana women speak up about their troubles, they can join together to represent
their entire community, who all feel similarly oppressed. This feeling of solidarity can give Chicanas
the support and drive to be stronger than they think they are capable of, because they are now are a
part of something bigger. They have a responsibility to fellow Chicana women everywhere not to
back down in order to gain freedom from their patriarchal culture. All women can relate to the
struggle of Chicanas as we live in a patriarchal culture every day. Each one of us can follow the sage
advice of Viramontes to have our voices be heard. Viramontes’ immense literary expertise and
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experience as a Chicana woman allow her to employ setting to effectively articulate Chicana issues,
which are struggles that all women face. The passion she has for change for women is clear in her
writing, and it is contagious.
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Works Cited
Heredia, Juanita and Bridget Kevane. Interview with Helena María Viramontes. Latina Self
Portraits: Interviews with Contemporary Women Writers. By Juanita Heredia and Bridget
Kevane. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2000. Print.
Viramontes, Helena María. “Neighbors.” The Moths and Other Stories. 2nd ed. Houston: Arte Público
Press, 1995. 109-125. Print.