HIJAS DE LA TIERRA MEXICANA

Abstract

The aim of this essay is to analyze the ideologies that appears in the novel Ladydi by Jennifer Clement. In addition we also examine how ideologies are negotiated by the characters in the book. The novel was published in 2014 and portrays how rural women in Mexico are affected by the violence related to the drug war. We define and analyze the ideologies in the book conferring with different theoretical perspectives from cultural studies. Our method is hermeneutical and we carry out our investigation following the three categories of social construction commonly studied within Latin-American cultural studies: class, gender and ethnicity. In the novel there is a correlation between these three categories. The hegemonic ideas which we identify are formed around a macho ideology and a racism which is seen as a prolongation from the colonial time. The subordination of the women in the story therefore is doubled. We also conclude that the women negotiate their identities with these ideologies, at the same time as they filter the dominant ideologies through their personal experiences and create their own meanings and ideologies.