ahh love stories!

I’m really glad I chose The Two Mujeres for my midterm book review. I’m really enjoying every part of it, mostly because I can relate to the text and the characters in many ways.  It is the first lesbian love story I have ever read, I am still asking myself how come I have not come across these kind of stories before! The first part of the novel touches on important issues that are familiar to me and to everyone within the LGBTQ community. Internalized homophobia, the fear of coming out, patriarchy and the constrains our society puts on love . Another important aspect of the novel is the effect of social class on the relationship between Valeria and Genovesa.

“I’ve been waiting for her my whole life I thought. But she was a woman, and that was not easy to reconcile” says Valeria, “ it’s not the most common thing in the world” says Genovesa. These two sentences say so much about the fears and doubts Valeria and Genovesa are experiencing. I have felt like this myself, it’s that little scary voice inside that forces you to conform with the society’s idea of love, that tells you “No, your love for that woman is wrong and is devilish”. It’s actually a painful process to be able to  finally love yourself, and free yourself from guilt, fear and sometimes your own family.  I was able to see this process throughout the story, Valeria and Genovesa at first hides and resists their feelings, but then finally give in to each other’s love. I enjoyed specially when they start showing their love in public spaces, like when they hold each other’s hand for the first time. I love holding my girlfriend’s hand without any shame, it’s so liberating!

It was interesting to me the role men have in this story. For example, the way Alejandro thinks he is entitled to know every detail about Valeria’s life. Valeria’s responses are unexpected, she is already far ahead most woman of her time. I think that in this encounters the author is speaking to all women, telling us to really stand our ground and dare to say what we feel.

Money and class status is also important in the story, as Ricardo Arjona says “como se sufre en ambos lados de las clases sociales” this story story fit the quote! So far in class we have read stories from women in the working class, it’s interesting to me to see what happens to the lesbians on the rich side and see how much we all have in common. However, I think money does  give them certain privileges in the story, for example, they have a nice place to have their adventures, they get to travel a lot and people respect them, although maybe this same status makes it even harder for them to come out!

I hope I like part two as much as I’ve liked part 1, and I hope it has a happy ending. By the way it’s hard to organize my thoughts and write them! I will be back with more!