SOURCE: "On Not Being La Malinche: Border Negotiations of Gender in Sandra Cisneros's 'Never Marry a Mexican' and 'Woman Hollering Creek'," in Tulsa Studies in Women's Literature, Vol. 14, No. 2, Fall, 1995, pp. 243-71.

In the following essay, Wyatt explores the relationship between the internalized icons of womenhood and the tension between Anglo and Mexican cultures to determine how it affects the female protagonists of Cisneros's stories "Never Marry a Mexican" and "Woman Hollering Creek."

Like many of the stories in Woman Hollering Creek, the title story and "Never Marry a Mexican" describe the advantages and the difficulties of "straddling two countries," as Cisneros describes the condition of living on the border between Anglo and Mexican cultures. In addition, these two stories deal with a problem specific to women: the female protagonists of "Woman Hollering Creek" and "Never Marry a Mexican" wrestle with Mexican icons of sexuality and motherhood that...