Rosario Ferre's "When Women Love Men"

     The story story told in Ferre's "When Women Love Men" was an interesting look at how love, relationships, gender, and culture all come together in Puerto Rico. The story also hits on several other issues like societal class, race, and death, which we have seen become commonalities in the literature in the Caribbean. In this story, we see the relationship and interaction with two women who contrast one another as practically opposites. These two, who share the same first name of Isabel are the wife and mistress of Ambrosio, who has died and forced these two into the interactions we see in this story. From the beginning, there is an awkward tensity here and no punches were being held back, even at the man who had passed away. 

    In a pretty bizarre story at times, the story says, "Because we, Isabel Luberza and Isabel la Negra, in our passion for you, Ambrosio, from the beginning of time had been growing closer; had been blessing each other without realizing it, purifying ourselves of everything that defined us, one as a prostitute and the other as a lady." As this story parallels what was happening in "Elza" with a man and his wife and mistress, I wondered just how common these type of men and relationships were in the Caribbean. Like in "Elza," Ambrosio seemed to have been a dominant male figure, controlling and overpowering the women around him. 

    Another thing prevalent in the story was the open discussion and sexualization of the relationships being discussed. On several occasions, the story gets descriptive in what at times felt like an expose and 'roast' of Ambrosio. The story says, "we can only do it with you, nibbling on them like pieces on quince or guava paste, smacking my cheeks, forehead, mouth,  eyes with their silky penises to excite them." Different from in "Elza," though, I felt like this story does try to have a sense of empowering by saying what kind of person Ambrosio was. Though it seems odd, the Isabel's seem to feel connected and stronger by now not having to worry about the man who had been between them, hurting their lives in different ways.

-cs

Comments

  1. BryceF112November 22, 2020 at 12:36 PM

    I feel that your analysis of the story was very on point. I do feel that the summarization and story of Ambrosio could've been touched on more. He hurt the two women in different yet unique ways. Ambrosio was a person who made the relationship harder for these two women. In many of the stories we analyze about relationships we see the man always flee or leave to start a new life with something he perceives as better. With that said i think the Ambrosio we see in the story represents a small arc of what we see in other Caribbean narratives. A wife and a mistress caught up between one man and both treated unfairly but differently in that unfairness is where the complexity of the story is.

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