Sy 5 Lit13 R39 September 15, 2009 How My Aunt Mei Lu Brings Home Racism Charlson Ongs How My Cousin

Manuel Brought Home a Wife tells the story from the point of view of Carlos, a chinese-filipino, and how his family deals with the return of his cousin Manuel, who unexpectedly brings home a big ang black Brazilian wife. The main theme of the story is racial discrimination. When Carlos family recieves news that Manuel would be returning to the Philippines with his Brazilian wife, at first, Aunt Mei Lu, Manuels mother is visibly shrunken and defeated. Carlos mother, Rosario on the other hand is not distraught yet, and is trying to comfort Mei Lu by saying that Carlos would probably bring home a white woman. Early on in the story, the issue of race and skin color is very evident already. Rosario is not yet upset because of her expectation that Manuel would bring home a white Brazilian. To further appease Mei Lu, Rosario reminded Auntie of their former neighbor whose son married a rich Chinese-Brazilian, and Aunt Mei Lu at last sipped her cold tea. After reminding Mei Lu of some Brazilians who are wealthy and have status, Mei Lu is able to come to terms with the possibility of Manuel bringing home a rich Brazilian or foreign wife. This shows that societal status is also very much important to Mei Lu and Rosario, and if the wife Manuel was to bring home was rich, it might overshadow that fact that the Brazilian was a foreigner and not a Chinese. The first description Carlos has of Consuelo, the wife of Manuel, is that she is huge and black, and after seeing her, he is no longer excited to see the Sonia Braga of

Sy 5 his fantasies. Unlike in Manuel Arguillas How My Brother Leon Brought Home A Wife, where the speaker, Baldo, is obviously captivated throughout the story by his brothers wife Maria, in Charlson Ongs story, immediately after meeting Consuelo, Carlos stops fantasizing about her, and is almost shocked by the wife that Manuel has brought home. When Carlos first sees Consuelo he immediately knows that Mei Lu would never accept her as a daughter in law. He thinks, so she (Mei Lu) might even learn to live with the fact of a foreign daughter-in-law. Spanish-speaking and all. But Consuelo? suggesting that any other foreigner of skin color or race would do, just not included in that list of possibilities is a black foreigner. As soon as Rosario sees Consuelo, she too loses all initiative to defend the foreigner. Both Mei Lu and Rosario become speechless, and disgusted with the wife that Manuel has brought home. Unlike in the earlier part of the story where Rosario served as the voice of reason to Mei Lu in accepting foreigners, it clearly shows here that anything other than the white woman would be unacceptable for even Rosario. It didnt matter anymore if Consuelo was rich or Brazilian, the mere fact that she was black destroyed all possibilities of acceptance. Throughout the story, the two main traits of Consuelo, being huge and black (in Carlos words) are emphasized, with Mei Lu even moaning big and black... big and black... shes bigger than the Great Wall and blacker than the pit of my kettle. But perhaps the more important and highlighted of the two is the blackness of Consuelo. She is refered to as a black star, black icon, black widow, black one, and black devil in different parts of the story. Even though she becomes well known as a healer in the Philippines, she is first and foremost a black person, before anything else. This shows

Sy 5 the importance of race not only to the family, but also to everyone else including Filipinos. Carlos says we come from an age where the word beauty conjures a fairness. The word fair may to refer to fair skin, or light colored skin, and he says that todays modern image of beauty has no room for dark skin. The storys setting, a Chinese-Filipino household and culture adds on to the theme of the story. Charlson Ongs use of Chinese-Filipino main characters in the story contributes to the racial descrimination because a part of the culture of Chinese-Filipinos is the association of black with evil and death. Black is a taboo color to most ChineseFilipinos, and for Consuelo, being a Brazilian black-skinned woman is not only unfavorable to her because she is foreign or a non-Chinese, but also because of the skincolor itself. Chinese-filipinos are also generally light-skinned, so this contributes to their superiority complex and results in their looking down on other races with darker skin colors. As I mentioned earlier, Aunt Mei Lu was already prepared to accept Consuelo, but once seeing that Consuelo was black, immediately refuses to have anything to do with her. In one part of the story, Aunt Mei Lu starts burning spirit papers, trying to ward off all sorts of evil and ill luck. She also alludes to Consuelo when she says were preparing the way for the spirit to come and exorcise the evil presence. She wholeheartedly believes that Consuelo is evil, and is already resorting to traditional rites of exorcism. Mei Lu also calls Consuelo a black devil, further showing that black skin color corresponds to evil. Aunt Mei Lu and Consuelo can be considered foils of each other. Besides the obvious difference in race, Mei Lu is described as being old, prim, feisty, and rarely smiles, Consuelo on the other hand always seems to be smiling, and is very friendly

Sy 5 towards other people. While Mei Lu is defined throughout the story as being very racist, Consuelo isnt, and even chooses to heal and be friends with Manuel who is Chinese. Also, in the story Consuelo is a healer and Mei Lu ends up being healed (healer vs. healed). The use of foil further emphasizes their differences and was used by Charlson Ong to show that in some situations, contrary to the common saying, opposites may not always attract. There is also an irony in the story when Aunt Mei Lu is sick, and of all people, it is Consuelo who is able to heal her. After Aunt Mei Lu suffers from a stroke and becomes comatose, it is Consuelo who uses her healing powers to revive Aunt Mei Lu despite Mei Lus previously voicing out disapproval of Consuelos abilities and calling of Consuelo a witch. Consuelo is able to wipe away invisible blockages and finally revive Mei Lu. Earlier in the story, Charlson Ong discusses also Consuelos healing technique: the physical body was supposed to be the grossest manifestation while the higher soul was of the subtlest frequency...before any disease manifests itself in the physical plane it first shows up in the etheric body... therefore, one need only to heal the higher bodies to prevent physical sickness. This suggests that most people are only able to see the physical aspect of things (such as Consuelos skin color), and arent able to look past her physical appearance to see her inner beauty. This statement says that we should not judge a person by his or her cover, and it is necessary to get to know the person first before judging them. Eventually after healing Mei Lu, it is Consuelo who dies because her physical body could not stant the strain. Physical body could pertain to either the literal physical body with Consuelo having exhausted herself from healing Mei Lu, or it could mean that

Sy 5 she was finally affected by all the racism from the people around her (people judging her by her physical body). This is also a situational irony in the story because with Consuelo being a healer, she is the last person we expect to die in the story. It is also ironic that while Consuelo is able to heal Mei Lu, and other people who judge her by her skin color, she is not able to heal herself. When Consuelo dies and even Aunt Mei Lu shows some respect towards her (Mei lu approached the table, picked up the urn, and placed it on the altar beside the portrait of her dead husband), it indirectly shows the Mei Lu finally admits that she was wrong about Consuelo. Another theme in the story, though less prominent, is the following of social norms in society and culture. We find out in the story that Carlos and his cousin Sam (short for Samantha) actually have a romantic relationship, but could not pursue it because of the restrictions implemented by society. Even though Carlos says in the story that his father was adopted so he and Sam arent related by blood, Manuel discourages the relationship and says, it doesnt matter, you pumpkin brain. You carry the same name. It cant be. Even Carlos own parents arent able to accept the relationship the cousins were kept away from each other. Even though Carlos may have loved Sam, he was not able to pursue the relationship earlier on because he was bound by the rules and norms of society. It is only in the end of the story, after Consuelo dies and Manuel leaves that Carlos is finally able to realize that society is not always right, and eventually marries Sam.