The Hidden Politics of Home: Crash Course Latin American Literature #8

0:00 What makes a house a home?

0:01 For me, it's photos of my ancestors,

0:03 anything to do with La Gualupe, and of course, food.

0:06 Busas, mano, yukafita.

0:09 But I go off topic.

0:10 Houses can be more than just a place to decorate,

0:12 sleep, and eat your mom's and bananas.

0:14 Hi, I'm Krilly Velasquez, and this is Crash Course Latin American literature.

0:19 [music] A person's home can tell you a lot about them.

0:26 Their art, their knickknacks, the way they arrange the furniture.

0:29 It can all give you hints about their innermost self.

0:32 So, it makes sense that in literature,

0:34 where characters live can be key to who they are.

0:37 But not only that, houses in Latin

0:39 American literature are portals into diverse identities,

0:42 cultures, and even political conflicts.

0:45 The trick is knowing how to read them that way.

0:48 Let's look at Sandra Cisneros's 1984 novel, The House on Mango Street.

0:53 It tells the story of a 12-year-old Esparanza

0:56 Cordiero and her family in a working-class Chicago neighborhood.

1:00 Having grown up in an apartment,

1:01 Espiranza is thrilled to put down her roots in her family's new home.

1:05 I knew then I had to have a house, she says.

1:08 A real house, one I could point to.

1:11 But her family's dilapidated house is not the vibe.

1:14 And also, it's not really about the house.

1:17 Or at least not only.

1:18 See, Esparanza's discomfort in her house

1:21 mirrors her discomfort with her own identity.

1:24 Like Cisnerto herself, Espiranza Chicana,

1:27 which means she comes from a Mexican family but was born in the US.

1:32 So her identity exists somewhere between the two places and cultures.

1:36 She tells us at school they say my name funny as if

1:39 the syllables were made out of tin and hurt the roof of your mouth.

1:43 Like the house on Mango Street, Esparansza's Spanish name feels like the wrong

1:47 fit for the person she wants to be.

1:49 On top of all that, Esparansza

1:50 inherited her name from her great-g grandandmother,

1:53 but she doesn't want to inherit the life her great-g grandandmother lived.

1:56 She was married against her will as a teenager,

1:59 [music] a lack of agency based on her gender.

2:01 And when Esparansza imagines this, she pictures her ancestor

2:05 trapped [music] within the walls of her home.

2:07 She looked out the window her whole life,

2:10 the way so many women sit their sadness on an elbow.

2:13 Notice how Esparansza makes the connection between her great-g

2:16 grandandmother and countless other women looking out their windows.

2:20 With this inside looking out image,

2:22 [music] she's evoking a long-standing association between

2:26 houses and homes with women and femininity.

2:30 And by rejecting her house,

2:32 Esparansa is also rejecting her picture of traditional femininity.

2:36 Throughout the book,

2:36 the house on Mango Street literally hangs over Esparanza's head as she

2:41 contemplates all the pieces of her identity and who she wishes to become.

2:45 By the end of the novel,

2:46 a now 14-year-old Esparanza finds a new way to define herself as a storyteller.

2:52 Her writing lets her escape from the house's grasp and creates a new,

2:56 more comfortable home in the heart.

2:59 She knows someday she'll grow up and leave for real,

3:02 but she also recognizes that the house will always be a part of her story.

3:06 Now, houses in literature don't only represent our personal identities.

3:10 They can also represent larger political and national identities, too.

3:14 And I'm not just talking about sticking a sign

3:16 in your yard to endorse Dolly Parton for president.

3:18 Though, anyone who gives free books to kids has my vote.

3:22 Let's get the curly notes on Isabella's 1982 novel Laasa de los Espiritus,

3:27 the house of the spirits,

3:29 which uses the house as a symbol to address the politics of her native Chile.

3:34 Isaende is no stranger to politics.

3:37 Her father's cousin, Sarvadorende,

3:39 was the president of Chile until he was assassinated by Agusto

3:42 Pinoes coup and her family was forced to flee the country.

3:46 So, she knew firsthand the challenges of sharing this house we call a nation,

3:50 especially when our fellow citizens

3:51 and leaders aren't always the best roommates.

3:54 The House of the Spirits focuses on the Troyba family who

3:58 live in an unnamed country usually understood to be Aendis own Chile

4:02 and the action moves between not just one house but two

4:06 as a way of portraying the conflicting

4:08 political perspectives in Chile at the time.

4:10 The big house on the corner is built

4:12 for the threa matriarch by her husband Estean.

4:16 Glara represents the liberal left-wing preaching ideals of equality,

4:21 justice, and respect for everyone.

4:24 She presides over the big house, which is filled with students,

4:27 artists, [music] spiritualists, and even a few literal spirits.

4:31 Sounds kind of like my house, to be honest.

4:33 Estan, on the other hand,

4:35 is a wealthy right-wing senator who exploits his workers, hits his wife,

4:40 rigs elections through threats and coercion,

4:42 [music] and is just generally an all-around bummer of a guy.

4:45 While his wife presides over the family home,

4:47 [music] Estan's domain is Tres Maras,

4:51 a hienda in the countryside, [music] which he runs like a dictator.

4:55 So, the vibes of both houses are very different, even down to the design.

5:00 GL [music] constructs a world of freedom

5:02 and imagination with long twisting passageways [music] and whimsical

5:07 stairways to nowhere while Estimon furnishes the thres

5:11 with heavy severe furniture that mirrors his politics.

5:14 [music] But the family drama doesn't stop

5:16 with the blueprints and let me tell you it's juicy.

5:19 Just like houses are often handed down through

5:21 generations for the threases are [music] handed down too.

5:26 Estivon's grandson inherits his grandfather's politics and violent tendencies.

5:31 He goes on to become a police officer and [music] later a colonel,

5:34 playing a key role in torturing liberal revolutionaries,

5:38 including his own cousin, Alba.

5:40 And you thought you and your primos had beef.

5:41 Alba, in contrast, carries on her grandmother Clara's liberal traditions.

5:46 [music] After the Conservative Party seizes control

5:49 of the government through a military coup,

5:51 [music] Alba uses the twisting passageways and secret

5:54 doors of her grandmother's house to harbor socialist fugitives.

5:58 Notice how purposeful Aenda is about placing her female

6:01 characters right in the middle of the nation's political drama.

6:04 She even starts off the novel by introducing us to Clara's older sister,

6:07 Rosa, [music] who is all things traditionally feminine,

6:11 graceful, beautiful, obsessed with romance novels,

6:13 and on her way to embroider the largest tablecloth known to man, as you do.

6:18 But then tragedy strikes.

6:19 Rosa dies after drinking poisoned brandy meant for her politician father.

6:24 From that moment on, Aenda shows us

6:26 that despite their exclusion from form of political leadership,

6:30 women affect and are [music] affected by politics

6:33 in the sphere of the home and beyond.

6:35 I won't spoil the book's ending for you,

6:37 but let's just say there's hope for the TBA family and for Chile.

6:41 Now, that focus on family.

6:43 Oh.

6:45 Oh, it's my mom.

6:48 Mom.

6:49 See?

6:52 No, that was good and juicy.

6:57 Like I was saying, that focus on family brings me to my last example.

7:01 Families aren't always a husband, a wife, and 2.5 kids.

7:05 They can look a lot of different ways,

7:08 and literature helps to broaden the picture of what home and family life can be.

7:12 Argentine writer Camila Soaviada explores a broad

7:16 view of family in her 2019 [music] novel, Las Malas, Bad Girls.

7:20 It follows a group of trans women who find community in a large

7:24 pink two-story building that looked a little

7:27 rundown but welcome them with open arms.

7:30 This fabled [music] pink house in Cordoba,

7:32 Argentina is run by 178-year-old Thea and Cara,

7:37 picking up on some magical realism vibes,

7:39 and it serves as a landing place for young

7:42 women who have been turned away by their biological families.

7:45 At the pink house, the women find sisters

7:47 in their housemates and an auntie in Theia and Garna.

7:50 And when Thea Garna finds an abandoned infant

7:52 [music] in the park and brings him home, he too becomes a part of the family.

7:56 But despite the safety they find in each [music] other,

7:58 the residents still face the dangers

8:00 of the AIDS epidemic and their transphobic society.

8:03 As the novel goes on, the condition

8:05 of the Angadana's pink house mirrors their own,

8:07 becoming vandalized, choked by vegetation, and falling into disrepair.

8:11 In this way, the house itself becomes

8:13 a reflection of the women's ongoing plight.

8:16 In Saviada's words, the pink house is

8:18 the queerest boarding house in the [music] world,

8:20 one that complicates our preconceived notions about home, family, and belonging.

8:25 In literature, like in life,

8:27 houses can hold all the nooks and crannies of who you are as people,

8:31 cultures, and nations.

8:32 And in some ways, sitting down to read a book

8:34 is a little like an invitation into an author's home.

8:37 So, we can all become chisos.

8:39 You can peer out the window of Sandra Cisneros's childhood home.

8:43 Meet Isabel Aende's family of politicians and revolutionaries,

8:47 or stay up late talking with Saviada and her friends.

8:50 And when you're done visiting, you can say your goodbyes, close the book,

8:54 and return to your own house with your own family drama,

8:57 but also a new perspective about how other people live.

9:01 Personally, I can't wait to get back to my mom's bananas.

9:03 Next time, we're diving even deeper into family bonds.

9:06 See you then.

9:06 Thanks for watching this episode of Crash Course Latin American Literature,

9:10 which was filmed at the Gardlo Hernandez studio in Indianapolis

9:14 and was made with the help of all of these home bodies.

9:16 If you want to help keep Crash Course free for everyone forever,

9:20 you can join our community on Patreon.

9:22 Oh, and if you're interested in learning about

9:24 some of the topics covered in this episode,

9:26 we pulled together a playlist you can dig into.