Leonor Park

            Both Nash Candelaria's Leonor Park and Americo Paredes" "Rebeca" feature women at the center of their narratives. In Leonor Park it shows how Hispanic culture in New Mexico was male-oriented and macho during the early part of the twentieth century and before. In a very similar way, the short story "Rebeca" shows how the lives of women are played down towards the power of the man and their words. Both stories have the women as being protagonists and having a strong strength of character to them.
             In Americo Paredes" short story, the main character Rebeca lived a hard and very depressing life. She started to cook for her family at a young age and had no other job but to be in the kitchen. She woke up every morning at five to make coffee for her father. This life started to grow on her and soon after she married Beto her life went in a downhill direction. The kitchen was her favorite room in the house, but cooking gave her no pleasure or satisfaction. There were too many problems that went with keeping the family going. She welcomed the birth of her children but that brought about more problems. Her husband, Beto, was a strict father and would slap around the children, including the girls. The life of women at this time was very hard. The man had pretty much all the power in the household and gave orders to everyone including the wife. No questions were asked and his orders were followed. Rebeca's character is a strong woman who knows she has had a rough life that only consists of working in the kitchen and around the house. Rebeca's mother can be seen as the same character that she is because of her being in the kitchen all the time as well. In Rebeca's childhood all the girls have certain chores to do and had no free time to just relax and be by themselves. This lifestyle of this family is not anything different from other families around the same time. The culture of the Hispanic family always had the man being the most powerful person in the family with the females being the members that took care of things around the house.