I didn’t exactly like “Las Memorias de Mama Blanca” by Teresa de la Parra as I found it very boring, rather tedious and confusing to follow. I didn’t find it exciting or interesting at all and wouldn’t recommend it to others. But, on the upside, I did learn more about the culture and upbringing of Parra and her family on their hacienda and their life as an upper-class, privileged family.
I liked how this book was realistic and showed different sides of Mama Blanca. From the first Chapter, I got the impression that Mama Blanca was a very caring and harmonious individual as “su trato hospitalario, [es] una muestra natural de su amor a los humildes.” Although poetic and emotional in character, in the later chapters, her strict, rather narracistic and beauty-consiencious side was reaveled by Parra.
This family was not a typical family as non-relatives played a large role in the family’s life. Evelyn seemed to engage the most with the girls, caring for them and she was favoured by Mama Blanca due to her love for order and strictness. I found it rather sad the mom left for Caracas often and the Dad was not very warm to his children as he hoped for a son to begin with.
The children seemed rather spoiled, as Mama Blanca says “no sean tan desobedientes!” and since they played games and had a lot of leisure time, which I suspect was not the commonality of children at that age at that time, but I’m not quite sure.
I liked the character of Vincente because I found it gave the book a different dynamic and showed the life of the servants and other less-privileged workers on the Hacienda and their interaction with the family. Parra describes him to be passionate, full of heroism, faithful and basically an individual of excellence. The dad’s character was revealed when Parra made a parallel of his interaction with Vincente with a Christian persecution, since the father was cruel and intolerable. Parra uses rather harsh words and descriptions when addressing her father; “se abrio la puerta con violencia y lleno de arrogancia,” “cruel” “[el] dijo terrible” are examples of words and phrases associated with her father.
On a whole, I did not enjoy “Las Memorias de Mama Blanca” as it was boring, somewhat hard to understand and follow, and tedious to get through. Hopefully the next book will be better and more eventful!
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3 comments:
Stacey, just one clarification: it's important to note (as we discussed in class) that this is a novel, and that the book is therefore not, at least in any simple way, about "Parra and her family."
I think you may also be confused about Mamá Blanca: Mamá Blanca is not the mother in the main part of the story, but is the girl who we know there as "Blanca Nieves."
Meanwhile, it might be interesting to think though the question of "boredom." Teresa de la Parra conjures up a world in which not much happens, but in which everything is of interest. The girls are fascinated by the most mundane of details, however many times they'd seen them. Think for instance of the descriptions of the mill or of the cows.
Stacey,
I too did not like this book all that much. I found it confusing, and rather uneventful, which I think casued me to miss some important points and/or the essence of what Parra was trying to get at.
To comment on the issue of boredom...if indeed that was Parra's intention (to show the mundane life of the girls) that kind of makes sense, but it still does not necessarily make for a good read.
Kerry
Oh, and one more thing on boredom... Note also the (translated) title of de la Parra's other novel. Again, I think that this suggests that the question of boredom, and what it means, should be interrogated rather than taken for granted.
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