Week 2 – Mama Blanca’s Memoirs

Week 2 – Mama Blanca’s Memoirs

Overall I really enjoyed this first week. Although I will admit it was tough a first to hop back into such detailed writing after a break from reading, I quickly started to become more at ease and invested in this story. Right from the start, the line “She poked gentle fun at everything because her wise heart knew that kindness and gaiety are the sugar and salt with which life must be seasoned” on page 17 stood out to me lots. I thought that it was a beautiful way to encapsulate life’s inevitable ups and down. As well as the line “That door which was almost always ajar and seemed to smile on the street out of the gloom of the hall, was a constant reflection of her hospitality, a natural sign of her love for the poor…” I just found this very warm to read, and openness like this is a beautiful quality.


One moment in the text that stood out to me was the fight between Blanca and her sister Violeta. Violeta being the older sister, had a much different personality that was not shy and thrived off controlling the other sisters around. Of course, as all siblings do, they got into an argument where they were throwing names around and making fun of each other which eventually ended up in a physical fight where they were biting each other and scratching their ears. As the fight progressed, the girls ended up sliding down into mud where they dirtied their clean dresses. 


When their mother eventually came to intervene, it wasn't until she heard that Violeta was insulting Blanca’s hair that she decided punishment was needed. Blanca’s hair was unlike the other sister’s as it was pin-straight. This meant that her mother made huge efforts to cover this and would treat her hair daily in hopes of it appearing curly. I think that it speaks volumes about the importance of the girl's appearance to the mother. As well as how this could be both a blessing and a curse to Blanca. A blessing in that it gave her more time to bond with her mother, yet a curse in how that must’ve affected her self-esteem (feeling like an outsider and a hassle to deal with).  It also stood out to me that there was mention that the mother never punished the girls, but yet this time she did. 


The scene where Violeta was to sit up high in (from what I envisioned a chapel-like room) felt intense and certainly reminded me of my childhood and the battles between my brothers and I. The line where its described as an “Epidemic of tears” on page 33 reminds me of this domino effect of children beginning to cry one after the other, ultimately leading the mother to call quits on the whole punishment. My question to the class is while growing up, was there something that made you feel like an outsider whether with siblings or friends? And how that might continue to impact you today. 

Comments

  1. Elisabeth HerringtonJanuary 16, 2023 at 10:52 PM

    Hi Daisy!
    Thank you for all of your thoughts on this weeks reading! I also found that quote to be a wholesome statement on the inevitabilities of life. It reminded me of something my grandmother would say or someone who has lived long life of experiences and lessons. I also appreciated how you wrote about some of the key moments in the story that stood out to you and especially on the relationship between Blanca and her sister Violeta. I almost felt like given the nature of how this writing came to be published, we got a very up close and personal perspective on their relationship that may have been different from how either them wanted it to be shared. This part of the memoir speaks to both the vulnerability of the piece and provides an inside view on her insecurities on her hair.

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  2. David PeckhamJanuary 18, 2023 at 10:35 PM

    Hi Daisy, I really liked your analysis of Mama Blanca and her past! I definitely agree with you that the way the Blanca Nieve was treated as a child directly impacted the way that she viewed herself as Mama Blanca. Perhaps the way that her mother viewed her when she was just a child, was the reason why she viewed her current life with contempt and did not want her book to be published? To answer your question, I definitely struggled tryin to relate to all the interests and hobbies of my friends when I was a kid, and I did feel left out sometimes when my interests did not line up perfectly with my friends.

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