Woman Hollering Creek

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Jessica Silverio
Professor Telesca
English 101B
7 February 2017
A Woman Hollering Creek
In Sandra Cisneros’ short-story, “Woman Hollering Creek”, explores the life of a young
woman who wishes to live her life as perfect as the one’s she has seen in her telenovelas. The
story focuses on a young woman named Cleofilas who dreams of having the perfect life after she
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is married. Everything suddenly takes a drastic turn when she is suddenly abused by her husband
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after their marriage. Despite of the abuse, she still loves her husband unconditionally and thinks
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of nothing bad of him. The theme of “Woman Hollering Creek” is that one’s strong love for
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another can cause suffering. It begins with Cleofilas being too passionate to see the reality of
things, the neighbors foreshadowing what is to come to her soon, she gets abused by her
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husband, her husband is nothing like the men in the telenovelas, and her realization that life
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won't get any better if she doesn't leave her husband.
In the beginning of the short story, Cleofilas is characterized as a passionate young woman
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who can't see the reality of how life really is. “...since [Cleofilas] was old enough to lean against
the window displays of gauze and butterflies and lace is passion” (Cisneros 44). She longed for a
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passionate marriage as the ones seen in the telenovelas. She desired to live happily ever after and
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live the perfect life she always wanted when she is married. “The kind of books and songs and
telenovelas describe when one finds, finally, the great love of one’s life…” (Cisneros 44).
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Cleofilas believes that no matter how painful or sufferable love is, you can always find the good
things within them. “Because suffer for love is good” (Cisneros 45). No matter the outcomes that
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come along her way, Cleofilas desires to live happily ever after when she is married.
After Cleofilas and her husband are married and move to Seguin, Texas, she meets two
women who foreshadow what is to come to Cleofilas in the near future. The first woman is
Soledad, whose husband has left her remains a mystery to Cleofilas. “The neighbor lady Soledad
liked to call herself a widow…” (Cisneros 46). The next neighbor she meets is Dolores. Dolores
is actually a widow who lost her husband due to grief when her two sons died while at war. “In
the other house lives la señora Dolores, kind and very sweet…” (Cisneros 47). The
characterization of both woman foreshadow Cleofilas’ dreadful future. “They were too busy
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remembering the men that had left [them]…” (Cisneros 47). The unlucky history of these two
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women will soon happen to Cleofilas when she settles in with her new husband. Cisneros wanted
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to provide this story of a women, like the variety of her previous stories, for the readers to
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explore the types of females going through socialization, independence, and “feminist activism”
(Mullen 396). Cisneros also wants to represent the working class of of Hispanic, “whose stories
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have been untold or translated” (Mullen 396). It’s important to be able to have your voice heard
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and talk about the struggles of Hispanic women in society and what goes on in their everyday
life.
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After Cleofilas is settled in with her husband, she ends up getting abused by him for the first
time. “But when the moment came, [Juan Pedro] slapped [Cleofilas] once, and again, and
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again…” (Cisneros 47). The abuse goes on for a long time and Cleofilas doesn’t put a stop to it.
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Her happy marriage soon becomes disastrous and terrible. It transitions from physical abuse to
verbal abuse. “[Juan Pedro] had thrown a book. [Cleofilas’]. From across the room. A hot welt
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across the cheek” (Cisneros 52). Despite what Cleofilas is going through, she still ends up
forgiving him because she believes in the love she has for her husband and wants to continue to
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make it work. When Cleofilas has to go to her doctor appointment for their soon to be born child,
her husband refuses to let her go because he doesn’t want to be questioned why Cleofilas is badly
bruised. “If the doctor asks [Cleofilas] can say she fell down the front steps or slipped…”
(Cisneros 53). Cleofilas love for her husband is so strong that she has to make up a lie for him so
he won’t get in trouble with the authorities. Overall, the story comes in terms with the “pain and
suffering of women” in a society that’s controlled by men (Rouster 393). All the decisions and
conversations made in the story are made by the men when “men and women are present in the
story” (Rouster 393).
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After all the mental and verbal abuse she gets from Juan Pedro, her husband, she comes to
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terms that he is nothing like the men she had seen in the telenovelas she had watched. In the
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beginning of it all, Juan Pedro asks Cleofilas’ father for his permission to marry his daughter. She
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was very delighted to get a new start with her husband, but did not get the marriage of her
dreams because he wanted to get married immediately. “Because Juan Pedro wanted to get
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married right away, without a long engagement since he can’t take off too much time from work”
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(Cisneros 45). As soon as they got married, they packed up and moved all the way to Texas
where she gets abused a year later. She begins to think about the good times they had together for
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the time being. “From what [Cleofilas] can tell, from the time during her first year when still a
newlywed, she is invited and accompanies her husband” (Cisneros 48). She reminisces the
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happier times of how life used to be better when they first got married. She then thinks about
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how her husband does not resemble the men as seen in the telenovelas. “[Juan Pedro] is not very
tall, no, and he does not look like the men on the telenovelas” (Cisneros 49). Her husband differs
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from what she has seen on her shows. He isn’t what she thought he’d be, but she continues to put
up with him. The men in the society seem to be able to do what they want because the “women
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will put up with it” (Rouster 394). If women continue to let the men to do as they please, the men
are given the “predominant position in society” (Rouster 394).
After all the disheartening acts her husband has done to Cleofilas, she finally comes into
reality and realizes that if she doesn’t take action soon, her life will only get even worse. As she
is getting a sonogram from her doctor, Graciela, she see’s all of Cleofilas bruises and gets the
idea that she is being abused by the husband. She secretly makes a phone call to her friend Felice
and asks her if she can meet with Cleofilas early next morning to take her to a Greyhound station
in San Antonio. She agrees and Cleofilas gets the memo about what needs to be done early next
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morning. As Cleofilas waits for Felice, she begins to become full of doubt and fear for her life as
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she realizes that she is secretly leaving her husband without his acknowledgment. “There was
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was to think about, yes, until [Felice] from the pickup drove up” (Cisneros 55). She has second
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thoughts about what would happen once her husband realizes that she is gone and thinks about
going back home before her husband gets there until Felice comes and picks her up. As they
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begin driving across the arroyo, Felice gives out a furious yell that startles Cleofilas and her
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baby. “But when they drove across the arroyo, [Felice] opened her mouth let out a yell as loud as
any mariachi” (Cisneros 55). The reason for her yell is because the arroyo’s name is Woman
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Hollering Creek and Felice feels the need to let it all out every time she drives across the creek.
Cleofilas finds this interesting and wonders if Felice is doing this out of rage or she is purely
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doing it out of satisfaction. “Can you imagine, when we crossed the arroyo [Felice] just started
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yelling…” (Cisneros 56). Thanks to Graciela and Felice, Cleofilas freedom will help her
understand “her release from her role as passive victim of violence” (Hicks and Smith 392). The
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myths and legends Cleofilas remembers from her childhood take the roles as an “all passive and
long-suffering Mexican culture that teaches its daughters” (Hicks and Smith 392).
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In conclusion, one’s strong love for another can cause suffering upon themselves. Cleofilas
thought she’d be living the life of a telenovela, only to find out there is no happy ending to her
marriage. She was too passionate to see what life really is like, she meets two neighbors who
foreshadow what will come to Cleofilas in the near future, she ends up getting abused by Juan
Pedro, her husband differs from the men from the telenovelas, and finally she came to her senses
to realize that her life will only get worse if she does not soon free herself from her husband’s
control.
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Works Cited
● “Woman Hollering Creek." Short Stories for Students, edited by Kathleen Wilson, vol. 3,
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Gale, 1998, pp. 383-397. Gale Virtual Reference Library,
citruscollege.idm.oclc.org/login?url=http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
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p=GVRL&sw=w&u=glen55457&v=2.1&id=GALE
%7CCX2695000031&it=r&asid=4258140f0db7ae637bc34462ed618603. Accessed 6
Feb. 2017.
● Harryette Mullen, “‘A Silence Between Us Like a Language’: The Untranslatability of
Experience in Sandra Cisneros’s Woman Hollering Creek,” in MELUS, Vol. 21, No. 2,
Summer, 1996, pp. 3-20.
● William Rouster, for Short Stories for Students, Gale, 1998.
● Jennifer Hicks and Barbara Smith, Overview of “Woman Hollering Creek,” for Short
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Stories for Students, Gale, 1998.
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● Cisneros, Sandra. Woman Hollering Creek. New York: Vintage Books, 1991.
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Silverio 1

A Woman Hollering Creek

won't get any better if she doesn't leave her husband.

story” (Rouster 393).

are given the “predominant position in society” (Rouster 394).

Gale, 1998, pp. 383-397. Gale Virtual Reference Library,

● Harryette Mullen, “‘A Silence Between Us Like a Language’: The Untranslatability of

Summer, 1996, pp. 3-20.

● William Rouster, for Short Stories for Students, Gale, 1998.

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