Cries, Lies, and some Zapata Guy's Eyes

This compilation was difficult for me to relate to, because the majority of the stories conveyed more negative emotion and romantic sadness individually than I have experienced in the total emotional compilation of my life. As a result, I'm hesitant to even criticize the tales of these women when I have little experience of romantic abandonment or heartbreak. But I will attempt to nonetheless.

Eyes of Zapata begins with a description of woman doting over a man, confessing her intimate habits, both sexual and plainly affectionate, who somehow can remember every detail of a lover who she, in a way, barely knows. He clearly does not have respect for women, is disloyal; and as the story proceeds I stay completely confused as to what this relationship ever meant as she dwells further into a shroud of poetic abandonment. Does this reinforce the age-old theory that women fall for bad men? Or were the only men around at that time bad ones? This story does not arouse our sympathy in the way that Woman Hollering Creek indubitably does, as Inés was warned by her father to not get involved with the man. Alas, she rebels against her father's will and, like he promised, suffers as a result of her relationship with this man.

Cisnero's writing here is poetic, but whether or not it's intended to be romantic is unclear; romance usually attempts to balance a certain amount of positive energy with negative, and there's certainly none of that here. Ultimately the protagonist fancied herself different from other women (p.109) but suffered the same romantic death that so many did by the hands of this Zapata character, whose eyes are spread as sparsely as the heartbreak he's caused. Wistful, worn-out and withered, the narrator speaks with nostalgia and hopeless romance about someone who deserves probably to die or at least be forced into celibacy forever. An excellent warning for anyone who is prone to confuse unconditional love with conditional sexual encounters.

I find Cisnero's fragmented language and stream-of-consciousness writing style more enjoyable to read when the subjects are not so heavily wrought with emotion. "There was a Man, There was a Woman" utilizes her poetic style quite nicely, and much is left to the imagination, whereas "Eyes of Zapata" is probably the least concise thing I've ever read. I'm sorry to admit that I found it rather redundant in its endless reminiscence and mind-wandering. I'm also getting really hungry after all these mentions of tasty Mexican cuisine.

We get somewhat of an explanation for the infidelity of Mexican/Mexican-American men on pg 156 of "Bien Pretty" where Flavio states "Loving one person doesn't take away from loving another. It's that way with me with love. One has nothing to do with the other. In all seriousness and with all my heart I tell you this, Lupe." One could discern that men perhaps can love more than one person at once, while women are doomed to be stricken with "one-itis" or obsession of the idea of a significant other. This character of Flavio is the most human of the men in the book, and perhaps that's why the story ends with the woman's sense of optimism; not necessarily as a woman but as an individual, which is what the book should strive for, in my opinion. A nice break from the men destroying the individuality of women.

Too often in the book did we see women seeking revenge and growing disdain for the other women their men were sleeping with, when likely they were all sharing similar states of emotion. If there is one important lesson that should be learned from Cisnero's stories, that is to not depend on a man for happiness, and certainly not relinquish one's sense of self-fulfillment for an idealistic/futile form of love.