Growing Up Chicana
Viramontes grew up in East L.A. and thanks to movies and music, most Americans can readily identify that as one of the seminal regions of America producing the mindset of Chicano life for non-Hispanics. But it is not just young men who grow up there to product those stories told on the screen and blasted through the radio. Viramontes belongs to a group of exciting young writers who came of age in the 1980’s who paved the way for the Chicana experience of growing up in America to also be worth learning about. The collection of stories which established her reputation, The Moths and Other Stories paint a vivid portrait of what it means to be a Latina at various stages of youth along the way to maturity with the title story and “Growing” among the standouts pursuing in particular this theme.
Cultural Assimilation
“Miss Clairol” is certainly a very effective example of the exploration of themes related to cultural assimilation in the stories of Viramontes, if not her definitive statement. It is a damning portrait of the power of the consumer industry and the imagery blasted toward early-generation immigrants of what America considers its examples of physical ideals. The ability to change one of the fundamental identifying features associated with the concept of “race” or ethnicity—hair color—becomes a metaphor the pressure placed upon a minority group to change. Other stories take a less direct approach to the issue of cultural assimilation with author preferring to address issues obliquely as part of the larger Chicana experience.
Domestic Tension
Domestic tension as a significant aspect of the experience of growing up among the lower economic strata of the Spanish-speaking cultural minority in America is presented as an issue that is pervasive and multifaceted. Tension is produced for younger females still living at home with parents courtesy of an ingrained patriarchal system of order an authority which Viramontes illustrates effectively in stories where daughters and fathers come into conflict. Maturation brings tension into the domestic forefront in the form of dating and marital complications which also rise in part from the machismo branch of the patriarchal perspective. Thus, the status of being a single mother is also the forefront of “Miss Clairol” and other stories. Family issues also naturally lead to financial burdens and the lower-end job opportunities which are the only one afforded characters throughout these stories inevitably intensify already existing tensions even if they do not directly create new ones. Throughout the body of work of the author, the importance of family as a support system within the community is forwarded as a driving mechanism of the narratives.
