OG18-RC-89 - ChaseDream - Powered by Discuz!

Antonia Castañeda has utilized scholarship from women`s studiesand Mexican-American history to examine nineteenth-century literary portrayalsof Mexican women. As Castañeda notes, scholars of women`s history observe thatin the United States, male novelists of the period-during which, according tothese scholars, women`s traditional economic role in home-based agriculture wasthreatened by the transition to a factory-based industrial economy- definewomen solely in their domestic roles of wife and mother. Castañeda finds thatduring the same period that saw non-Hispanic women being economically displacedby industrialization, Hispanic law in territorial California protected theeconomic position of "Californianas" (the Mexican women of theterritory) by ensuring them property rights and inheritance rights equal tothose of males. For Castañeda, the laws explain a stereotypical plot createdprimarily by male, non-Hispanic novelists: the story of an ambitiousnon-Hispanic merchant or trader desirous of marrying an elite Californiana.These novels` favorable portrayal of such women is noteworthy, sinceMexican-American historians have concluded that unflattering literary depictionsof Mexicans were vital in rallying the United States public`s support for theMexican-American War (1846–1848). The importance of economic alliances forgedthrough marriages with Californianas explains this apparent contradiction.Because of their real- life economic significance, the Californianas wereportrayed more favorably than were others of the same nationality.