(Expediciones peligrosas con un sustantivo)
por Liza Bakewell
(A book review by Anne Hoyt, a Mexico City news correspondent based in Washington, D.C.)
Liza Bakewell, an anthropologist and a professor at Brown University, was studying in Mexico in the late ’80s and ’90s when she first noticed the different forms that Mexicans use for the Spanish word “madre.” Some of the meanings have completely opposite charges.
For example, un desmadre is a major disaster.
De poc a madre is fabulous .
Vale madres , it is worthless .
Dar en la madre, beat someone up . Ma macita , delicious creature .
Although author Blackwell felt herself to be fluent in Spanish, the recondite meanings of such a powerful noun were completely lost on her.
Hence, the book is an account of her expeditions in Mexico in search of the diverse meanings of the word and what they reveal about the Mexican culture in general.
Even though she is an academic, Bakewell’s linguistic explorations did not include experts or intellectuals, but simple people that she happened to befriend: “artist and food types” mainly, in her own description. Bakewell observed the usage of the word in such “scientific” settings as cab rides, weddings, dinner parties, art studios, restaurants.
Being from the United States and a feminist, she takes the obvious route. Her interpretation of why Mexicans use madre the way they do underlines the macho aspect of the society. However, there is much more to it than the simplistic feminist vision. Thankfully, the book does not pretend to be an archeological or sociological treatise. Her observations are tongue in cheek.
The problem is that there are other books about the use of language in Mexican culture and Bakewell’s attempts at arriving at a conclusion seem amateurish and banal by comparison. It might be a good read for a foreigner who has no idea of the way language is used by men in Mexico (i.e. to reaffirm their masculinity; to joke among themselves with the word-play of albur), but anyone who has delved into these issues in a more professional way, the book is just a piece of entertainment.
In Bakewell’s own words, the book is “part memoir, part travelogue
and part investigation into a culture and its language.
If taken just by its two first definitions, “Madre: Perilous Journeys with a Spanish Noun” is a good enough read. For someone who is really interested and wants to go deep into the culture, better stick with what has already been said in better books. W.W. Norton, New York, 222 pages, hardcover, $23.95ISBN- 1 3 : 9 7 8 0 3 9 3 0 7 6 4 2 4 (Anne Hoyt, of Washington, D.C., is a contributing columnist with Hispanic Link News Service.) © Hispanic Link News Service
