Professor likens "machismo" to the state of Mexico

On Friday, the Women’s and Gender Studies department hosted a lunchtime lecture by Visting Professor of Spanish and Portugese Giannina Reyes-Giardiello.

Sitting with fellow students and faculty in the living room of the Chellis House, she spoke on machismo in Mexico, her native country.

This week marks the anniversary of the 200th anniversary of Mexican independence, which is celebrated on November 20th. As a part of the anniversary festivities, the Mexican government commissioned a statue fashioned to portray a revolutionary soldier called “The Colossus.” Shaped with a moustache, a fierce expression and traditionally manly characteristics, he is a representation of the stereotypical Mexican man. Reyes-Giardiello’s presentation used this characterization as a springboard.

The ideas of the masculine Mexican man and the Mexican state are in the minds of the people of Mexico, according to Reyes-Giardiello. After the Mexican revolution, the state created an idealistic image of the Mexican man to engender feelings of unity and nationalism. Muralists and cinematographers portrayed a masculine, independent man as the standard of the country.

All of this led to the creation of the national male symbol in modern Mexico as the state itself.

This image was then exported to the rest of the world. Thus, the image of the typical Mexican man is not reality. Instead, it is the enduring government-created symbol intended to unite the nation, said Reyes-Giardiello.

“I could definitely relate to [the talk],” said Daniela Bajaras ’14. “That other identities exist besides the machos in Mexico, especially people who identify themselves as gay, is true.”

In recent years, this image has begun to change. In the 1960s, Mexicans began to write literature with homosexual characters, and new views of gender roles began. And, with this, cracks appeared in the foundations of the traditional representation of males.

In the 1990s, and even more so in the past decade, Mexican people have become more widely accepting of changing gender roles. Movies, books and popular culture have all contributed to hastening the decline of the machismo image.

While Mexico still has progress make, Reyes-Giardiello thinks that the future is bright.

“If the image of the Mexican state and the image of the Mexican man are one and the same,” said Reyes-Giardiello. “One cannot change without the other. A change in the view of the men of Mexico is a change in the nation itself.”