Emily Hidalgo ’22
Majors: Spanish, Ethnicity and Migration Studies
Faculty Collaborator: Andreea Marinescu, Spanish & Portuguese
The structure of motherhood is best known through its reference and affiliation to the European ideal of a white family with heterosexual parents. To understand motherhood in Latin America one must take into consideration the factors that only affect Latinx mothers. One such factor is that of mestizaje with its foundation of a family containing a European father and an indigenous mother. Other influences include the religious dynamic of the Catholic Church, where the ideal mother is always contrasted with that of the selfless Virgin Mary. In contrast, you also then have the bastardly figures of motherhood such as the wallowing woman who killed her children and la Malinche the traitor of her culture.My research work aided in the development of the first drafts of the chapters of the book on motherhood in Latin America. Working to create a different lens to which analyze the roles and figures of bad, good, political, domestic, queer, and non-mothers from Latin America. The finalization of this work will be the future publication of this book.
