Rosario Castellanos Rimas: Challenging The Potential Of Women

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The poet Rosario Castellanos challenges the belief of the patriarchal couple as she writes about the potential of women to be more than just a domestic worker. In her poem “Poesía no eres tú”, she counters the idea of women written in the poem by Bécquer “Rimas”. A woman is more than just physical beauty. A woman is valued by her skills and intellect, characteristics that are often oppressed by men.
Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer writes about what is poetry in his poem “Rimas”. The poet interprets poetry to be the beauty of an ideal woman. For instance, he writes “porque al darte la pureza, de que es símbolo celeste, como a ella, te hizo Dios de oro y nieve...en mi pupila tu pupila azul” (Bécquer 5-8, 10). He idolized beauty to a specific type of women …show more content…

Y eso es mentira” (Castellanos 1-3). She proposes that if a man exists, a woman must exist as well to form the ideal couple. In a patriarchal society, however, a woman is never seen as equal to a man therefore, it must not exist. Meanwhile, Rosario Castellanos gives more value to women in her other poems from “Rescate del Mundo”. For instance, in the poem “Escogedoras de Café”, Rosario writes “con una mano apartan los granos más felices, con la otra desechan y sopesan y miden” (Castellanos 5-8). A woman with this job needs to have a certain amount of wisdom to decides which coffee beans are good enough to consume and which need to be disposed of. These women are no longer working inside the house, cooking, cleaning and taking care of the house, like in a patriarchal society. They are now working outside the house, growing in wisdom and …show more content…

For example, in her poem “Lavanderas del Grijalva” Castellanos writes “mujer de la espuma y el ademán que limpia, halladme un río hermoso para lavar mis días” (Castellanos 9-12). Rosario portrays these women to be like priests, a man-only occupation. She is making the women equally important as a man while challenging patriarchy by comparing women's labor to that of a man. Also, women are no longer in the shadows of a man as described in her poem “Poesía no eres tú” when she writes “para no convertir a nadien en un espejo… “El otro, la mudez que pide voz al que tiene la voz y reclama el oído del que escucha”. Poetry is not about silencing women, nor treating them like extensions or images of a man. They are self-governing beings able to act freely without being held back by the patriarchal practice of their society. In her poem “Tejedoras de Zinacanta”, Rosario Castellanos writes “Que misteriosa y hábil su mano entre los hilos: mezcla extraños colores, dibuja raros signos (Castellanos 9-12). Not only are women allowed to express themselves in this type of art, but they also have the skill, ability, and knowledge to create unique pieces of clothing with historical and cultural

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