Machismo… An Empty Boast of a Tragic Weakness

(Click here for Spanish translation) This week I had the opportunity to participate in a retreat of Hispanic men. Sixteen of us met in a distant lake-side resort to address issues specific to men: love, sex and marriage from a Christian perspective. Naturally, I had the opportunity to reflect on what true manhood is, in contrast to something that passes for "manhood" and which our popular Hispanic culture boasts in. I am referring to what’s called "machismo," a deep-rooted attitude that has become a caricature of our culture. In its most exaggerated form, machismo manifests itself in violent men who mistreat their women and fight among themselves for their "love," or in the smooth “Don Juan” types who attract and deceive young ladies. Other expressions of this are less extreme like the "Latin lovers" of our soap operas and movies, celebrated by pop ballads from all regions of Latin America, about passionate men “desperately in love” with some woman.

The reality behind these stereotypes is less grandiose than it sounds, but unfortunately it is not as rare as it should be! There is certainly a caricature of the Hispanic male that is widespread throughout the world, thanks to Hollywood, Broadway and Madison Avenue, i.e. to movies, entertainment and the marketing industry through mass media. This tendency to stereotype the Hispanic male is the continuation of the Black Legend that historically painted Spain with very dark strokes, as a result of the Anglo-European jealousy of Spain’s colonial empire in the XVI to XVIII centuries. Like all caricatures, it is an exaggeration designed to make people laugh at the expense of ridiculing the weaknesses of another.

But unfortunately there is no denying that in the Hispanic soul there is a tendency to place the identity of the men in their sexual prowess and ability to conquer, and to attribute to them a false superiority over women. These assumptions are widespread, especially among Latin men. The modern machismo  measure their manhood in “conquests”.  And in too many couples, the man is considered more important than his woman, viewing her as a mere complement to him rather than as a person with her own worth, calling, vision and vocation. The economic inequality between the sexes, which is universally widespread, finds a strong footing in our culture in another form:  an implicit inequality of human worth.

Male prepotency is a universal phenomenon. That abusive power which man unconsciously exerts over his wife is the result of the fall, as God told Eve: "He will rule over you" (i.e. will want to dominate you, Genesis 3:16). But “machismo”, which gets its name from our language because it is so characteristic of us, goes beyond that.  Too many Hispanics measure our manhood by how we dominate our women, socially, emotionally or sexually. This inequality destroys happiness, reducing many women to a secondary role and robbing the men of their counsel, their counter-balance as equals, and their support as their "soul mate." God gave us a “suitable helper” because we need them! But, unduly subordinated, many women are denied the cultivation of their talents and thus are only able to exert their influence to the few areas allotted to them.

 
Machismo is a social evil. It brings sadness to millions of women and children vulnerable to the fickleness and prepotency of men, and thus it weakens, divides and impoverishes society. In contrast, the Gospel dignifies women, beginning with Eve, the mother of all the living, to whom God promised that her offspring would defeat the seed of the one who deceived her. It is time for us to abandon the fleeting pleasures of machismo, whose price has been the secret tears of generations of women and mistreated children.

I welcome your comments to jose.gonzalez@blog.com and invite you to explore over 100 articles covering a wide spectrum of issues on Hispanic culture at www.semilla.org. We’ll talk more next week. J