Blog 4: HalfBreeds

I’d like to focus on a specific line from the fifth chapter of Cecilia Valdes that truly stuck out to me. At the very bottom of page thirty-five, Cecilia address her friends by calling her “my dear little halfbreed.” When I hear the word halfbreed used in such a way, I immediately think of an animal or mystical creature like a centaur. It is obviously used in a condescending fashion coming from Cecilia’s mouth. What threw me for a loop was that Cecilia (who is a mulatto) used it to reference another mulatto. It is almost as if she finds herself to be above her mulatto heritage and because of this, I find the line to be one of the most important in the section that we read.

In class we discussed how Cecilia is portrayed in a very sexual manner even from a young age. As she gets older, the more sexual references continue but the author also makes an effort to portray her almost as a bimbo. Truly, the only reason she is as well known as she is, is due to her beauty. The image she portrays of a mulatto is very negative and the above comment that she makes toward her friend further destroys any semblance of decency. Her reference to a half breed, in my opinion, demonstrates the desire of mulattos to forget their background and rise to the status of the white elites. The desire is so strong, that they are willing to turn on one another in order to achieve that goal. This is also seen through the deliberate slighting of Pimienta by Cecilia in favor of Leonardo. Due to the unpleasant and self-centered nature of Cecilia, I believe that the author is disgusted by this practice. He would prefer that all remain in their social class; that whites stay with whites, and half breeds stay with half breeds.