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Melissa Calderon Allison Green

Melissa Calderon Allison Green . Mayra Santos- Febres. Born in Carolina, Puerto Rico 1966 Novelist, poet, Essayist, Professor at UPR, Río Piedras (Humanities Department) Receives PhD from Cornell University and poetry collections well received 1991 Anamú y manigua El orden escapada

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Melissa Calderon Allison Green

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  1. Melissa Calderon Allison Green

  2. Mayra Santos-Febres • Born in Carolina, Puerto Rico 1966 • Novelist, poet, Essayist, Professor at UPR, Río Piedras (Humanities Department) • Receives PhD from Cornell University and poetry collections well received 1991 • Anamúymanigua • El ordenescapada • Juan Rulfo Award for short story “Oso Blanco” 1996 • Discusses many of same themes throughout “Sirena Selena” • Sirena Selena 2000 • First novel • Highly successful (subsequently translated into English) • Finalist for 2001 RómuloGallego’s Prize for the Novel • PEN Club of Puerto Rico Prize for Best Novel • Author's Blog

  3. Caribbean Social Climate • Puerto Rico • Commonwealth of United States • Early 2000’s poverty rate on island aprx 45% • 1999 median income $14,412 • 58% of Puerto Rican children live below poverty line • Highest in rural areas • 3x higher than in the United States • Declining family population • Migration to mainland • 27% families with children female runs the household • Prevalent practice of grandparents as primary caregivers

  4. Caribbean Social Climate • Dominican Republic • Highly stratified social classes • Tiny upper class, medium middle class, massive working class • Majority of “working class” lives in absolute poverty • Santo Domingo one of poorest areas in country • 1/3 people 15-24 are unemployed • Illicit drugs • High prostitution rate per capita • Technically legal practice in DR • Human trafficking • Source/transit/destination country for commercial sex and labor trafficking • Men, women, children • Government does not comply with minimum standards for “elimination of trafficking victims”

  5. Main Characters • Sirena Selena • 15 years old • Gay/transvestite • Prostitute • Boleros, “sings like the angels in heaven” • Only family was his Abuela but she died • Martha Divine • Drag Queen/transvestite • Owns the “Blue Danube” • Businesswoman • Was once married • Breast implants, hormones • “rest in single body” • “liberate worst fears” • Retired performer • Selena’s mentor and “mother figure”

  6. Main Characters (cont) • Leocadio • Side story • Life parallels with Selena’s • Poor family • “Different” from other boys, “delicate” • Hugo Graubel • Rich and successful • Unhappy marriage • Infatuated with Selena • Schemer

  7. Main Characters (cont.) • Solange • Wife of Hugo • Has three children, back to back • Lonely • Passive, “handling my rear end…pretend not to notice” • “Everything must be perfect” • “Hugo will realize what he has at his side” • Valentina Frenesi • Met Selena while prostituting • Took Selena in and acted as “big sister” • Drugs • Protector • Caring

  8. Key Plot Developments • Traveling to Dominican Republic for business • Federal laws prohibit child labor…we’ll go to Dominican Republic, where they don’t care about such things.” • Selena and Hugo meet at the audition for the hotel • Selena gets offered a job to perform privately for a party • She accepts, leaves Martha a note and leaves • Wants to prove self to Martha, independent and businesswoman • Introduced to Leocadio as a side story • Valentina • Selena meets her “first mother” but more like an older sister • Takes Selena in when she finds out she is homeless • Selena is gone for hours one night while prostituting • Valentina finds her all bloodied up • In hospital for days, runs from Social Services • Valentina takes care of her • Chapter on Solange

  9. Plot: Context of Homosexuality • “Even at the Beach those men would not leave him alone. He didn’t know how they found him, how they tracked him down everywhere, how they saw something in him…” (40) • “Well, her father was angry as the devil, but her mother and aunts defended her: ‘Don’t you see, Damaso, he’s just playing theater. Leave the boy alone, he doesn’t mean any harm.’ The father kept grumbling from the balcony. ‘You keep on laughing at how cute the boy is, but don’t come crying to me when you have to face the consequences.’ He must have had some idea of what was to come…You know how parents are.” (23) • “But that’s the way it’s been from early on. He was born that way, I’m sure of it. Maybe because he grew up without a father…I don’t know what this child has that makes men crazy. They follow him...” (57)

  10. Transvestitism: Drag as a Metaphor • Santos-Febres: “Cities are transvestites dressed up to look like First World, taking on gestures and habits that do no belong to them in order to try and “escape” their reality and move closer to something that just gets further and further away: progress and civilization” • Transvestites (i.e. Sirena Selena) as a metaphor for volatile Caribbean social climate • “A Caribbean locatrying to be something else. We all wanted to be something else, to be somewhere else, Studio 54, Xenon, walking down Fifth Avenue in Manhattan without anyone noticing the dark blotches from the mosquito bites on our legs. The thing was always about denying our miserable reality, to disguise it with … glitter. Or, better still, to invent a new past, dress ourselves up to the hilt, head out, and be someone new, among the spotlights and the dry ice, mirrors and strings of lights, to start out fresh, newly born” (pg. 20-21)

  11. Transvestitism: Drag and Gender Identity • A combination of the monstrous and beautiful • “If they felt somewhere between frightened and seduced, between dying for more and crazy to get away from that overwhelming gaze, then success would be hers and Selena’s, she felt it, success, money, and respect for both of them, for her Miss Martha Divine, who deserved it so utterly (pg. 28) • “Loca, that’s not where a young lady is supposed to have her first period” (pg 7) • “Oh yes, her body, this disguise that was her body. She trembled just thinking that someone, in the middle of takeoff, might point a finger at her and shout, “Look at that. That is not a woman.” And they would turn the aircraft around and force her from it, throwing her suitcases to the ground. Her bags would open, suddenly spewing high heels, gauze and tape, depilatory creams, and thousands of other cosmetic items, lending themselves, the bitches, as evidence. The captain himself would deplane to insist that she had no right to enjoy the comfort, the airborne luxury, the dream of raveling to other shores. Not her, she’s an imposter.” (pg. 13) • Interchangeable use of masculine and feminine identity terms • Importance of “operation” for Martha

  12. Transvestitism: Conflict with Traditional Masculinity • Undermines traditional masculine ideals (i.e. power and strength) • Physical manifestation of “war against nature” • Use of makeup (pg. 28) • Ritual of binding genitalia for drag • Humiliating or empowering? • Homoerotic • “It’s not that Sirena wanted to boast, but she had enough down there to share and then some. Every time they got to this point Miss Martha laughed and said, “Ah, mija, I can’t wait for you to start taking hormones to see if that thing shrinks a little, “I’m going to have to start charging you more, to cover the cost of extra tape.” … “Sirena’s penis was immense, a little grotesque because it was so disproportionate to the rest of her body. If Martha hadn’t been looking at it through the eyes of a mother and a businesswoman, she would not have hesitated to find a place to put that hunk of meat, just to satisfy her curiosity about feeling it inside, in all its magnitude” (pg 30).

  13. Musical Influence • La Lupe • Born in Santiago de Cuba, December 23,1939 • Died in the Bronx, NY 29 February 1992 • Cuban-American singer of several musical genres including boleros, but more salsa • Active 1958–1980 • Bolero

  14. Musical Influence (cont.) • Sylvia Rexach • Bolero • Jan 22, 1922 – Oct 20, 1961 • Singer and composer of boleros • Boleros • “one of the great traditional forms of the love song, the bolero.” • "Boleros are love songs at their core, but they are so much more. They deal in death, religion, despair, hope and la lucha: the struggle of living."

  15. Sources • Santos-Febres, Mayra, and Stephen A. Lytle. Sirena Selena. New York: Picador USA, 2000. Print. • http://as.americas-society.org/files/images/event_622.jpg • http://repeatingislands.files.wordpress.com/2009/07/sirena21.jpg?w=500 • http://www.gf.org/fellows/16676-mayra-santos-febres • http://www.yourchildlearns.com/online-atlas/images/dominican-republic-map.gif • http://www.nationsencyclopedia.com/economies/Americas/Dominican-Republic-POVERTY-AND-WEALTH.html • http://www.topuertorico.org/economy.shtml • http://www.prb.org/pdf/childreninpuertorico_eng.pdf • http://gocaribbean.about.com/od/healthandsafety/a/Caribbeansex_2.htm • https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/dr.html • http://books.google.com/books?id=l0KA5n4Gm9UC&pg=PA104&lpg=PA104&dq=transvestites+%2B+caribbean+culture&source=bl&ots=OK0WrXl5uR&sig=07vcW3l7tGU6TIY_SPd3t6iksaI&hl=en&sa=X&ei=bXyVT8fXI6Gf6QHzq7nYCw&ved=0CFUQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=transvestites%20%2B%20caribbean%20culture&f=false • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Lupe • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sylvia_Rexach • http://www.npr.org/2012/02/05/146398291/the-romantic-and-still-relevant-sound-of-bolero • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v81W-MwG9U8 • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Z5OU03AviU&feature=relmfu

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