La lucha por la libertad de la mujer en la sociedad latinoamericana como vista en La casa de la laguna por Rosario Ferré

The Latina’s struggle for freedom as viewed in La casa de la laguna by Rosario Ferré

Within Latin American culture, marriage can be a vehicle for men to control and oppress women. The Puerto Rican novelist, Rosario Ferré, examines the role of the Latina as a wife and mother and her struggle for freedom in the novel, La casa de la laguna, via the character Isabel Mendizábal. Isabel finds herself in the shoes of her grandmother and great grandmother, faced with similar problems they once had to confront in their own marriages. However, Isabel comes to an epiphany while writing her family history when she realizes that she must stand up against her husband's authoritative demeanor. Her feminist views are developed by Isabel's exploration into the injustices against her family by dominating male figures. Some injustices that Isabel found most prominent by the men of her family while writing her manuscript were physical and psychological abuse, infidelity, and selfish machisto behavior in general, which would place a man's wants and needs above those of his wife and children. Ferré makes an inspirational statement for Latinas and all women that are oppressed under the power of their husbands via the complexity of her novel, spanning generations from the early 1920's to the present day.