Rewriting myth : breaking paradigms through integration in Josefina Lopez's simply Maria or the American dream

الملخص EN

Josefina Lopez is one of the most prolific Chicana playwrights in America.

Lopez's first play Simply Maria or the American Dream (1996) discusses the dilemma of Chicana generation confronting the Mexican traditions of their parents.

According to the Mexican mythology, women are categorized as good versus bad, and represented as either virgins or whores.

They are viewed as either passive and chaste like Virgen de Guadalupe, the Mexican version of Virgin Mary, or as evil and whorish like La Malinche who is condemned for her sexuality and openness to the foreign.

In her first play, Lopez presents a feminist reinterpretation of the Mexican mythical figures La Virgen de Guadalupe and La Malinche.

In the play, Lopez exposes how the dominant patriarchal order in the Mexican tradition employs mythology to serve specific purposes.

These myths have long been imposed on women to oppress and subjugate them.

Therefore, the patriarchal order helps these certain myths to have their effectiveness and popularity.

Throughout the paper, these mythical figures will be critically analyzed.

The analysis is mainly based on Gloria Anzaldua's theoretical explanations of the aforementioned mythical figures.

Gloria Anzaldua, as a feminist theorist, endeavors to rewrite the long-established myths from a feminist perspective and use them against the oppressor.

Not only does Anzaldua break the old myths, but she also creates a new myth; a mestiza who, through border crossing, gains a hybrid identity and absorbs various cultures.

In Simply Maria or the American Dream, Lopez follows Anzaldua's footsteps and dismantles the old myths La Virgen de Guadalupe and La Malinche.

To do so, Lopez uses Anzaldua's new myth, the mestiza who can compromise the conflicting parts of Maria's identity.

The paper also investigates --how Maria, as a mestiza, breaks herself free from the imposed virgin/whore myth by adopting the acculturation strategy of integration.

According to the theorist John Berry, integration is the most successful among other acculturation strategies that are assimilation, separation and marginalization.

It is worth mentioning that integration is a prerequisite for the creation of the new mestiza.

Through integration, the mestiza gains her hybrid identity and absorbs various cultures.

It is also necessary to find out whether Maria's acculturation strategy corresponds to her parents' and how Maria, by adopting integration, mediates between her parents' cultural expectations and her desire to construct an individual Chicana identity.

As a mestiza, Maria adapts to the new culture and successfully integrates her traditional past to the present needs.