4th,+Patria

Patria, 4th period

=Bryant, Lexi, Eileen, Rhett=

Definition of "identity crisis"
Identity crisis is when one is shifting through identities and experiencing uncertainty about who one is. This is often because she is in a state of foreclosure, when one makes a commitment to an identity without attempting identity exploration, a necessary prerequisite for achieving a permanent and satisfying sense of self.

Passages that show Patria's identity
__Stage 1__

Patria began in a state of foreclosure, having chosen a set identity without exploring herself first. She decided to be the perfect Christian who always follows every rule, often judging those who don’t do the same, as she explained:

“From the beginning, I felt it, snug inside my heart, the pearl of great price. No one had to tell me to believe in God or to love everything that lives. I did it automatically like a shoot inching its way towards the light” (Alvarez 44).

Especially when Patria when speaks of believing “automatically,” it is apparent that she adopted a strict Christian identity without ever considering another path. She followed Catholicism to a tee “from the beginning.”

Another example of her strict adoption of the Christian doctrine is found when she tells Minerva,

“I worry that you’re losing your faith. That’s our pearl of great price; you know, without it, we’re nothing” (52).

She often chastises others for not following the religion as closely as she does, and she always refers to faith as a “pearl of great price,” demonstrating how much Christianity means to her. Catholicism is her identity.

__Stage 2__

When Patria loses her baby, she experiences a crisis of faith, losing the belief she has always held closest. At this point, she enters into a state of identity diffusion, lacking a distinct identity, but not searching for another. She shuts down, feeling empty and doubtful of everything she once believed:

“Suddenly, I was crying in [Minerva’s] arms, because I could feel the waters breaking, the pearl of great price slipping out, and I realized I was giving birth to something dead I had been carrying inside me. After I lost the baby, I felt a strange vacancy. I was an empty house with a sign out front, //Se Vende//, For Sale…I wondered if the dead child were not a punishment for my having turned my back on my religious calling? I went over and over my life to this point, complicating the threads with my fingers, knotting everything…I had heard, but not believed. Snug in my heart, fondling my pearl, I had ignored their [meaning those who suffered under Trujillo’s] cries of desolation. How could our loving, all-powerful Father allow us to suffer so? I looked up, challenging Him. And the two faces [Jesus and Trujillo’s faces] had merged!” (53).

Patria uses “pearl of great price,” which she has always used to describe faith, to describe the baby when it was slipping out of her. The pearl becomes a metaphor for both the baby and her faith, and when she gives birth to the stillborn child, she loses both. She then describes feeling “a strange vacancy” and “empt[iness].” She also questions everything, a classic sign of a crisis of identity, when she goes “over and over her life to this point.” Patria feels completely lost, doubting the faith she always cherished, wondering “how…our loving, all-powerful Father [could] allow us to suffer so.” She even associates Trujillo, an evil dictator, with Jesus. She has lost her Christian identity, and she shuts down without finding another, feeling empty and vacant.

__Stage 3__

When she finds faith again, she experiences identity achievement, but her faith is not the same as it was before:

“I turned around and saw the packed pews, hundreds of weary, upturned faces, and it was as if I’d been facing the wrong way all my life. My faith stirred. It kicked and somersaulted in my belly, coming alive…I started at [Mary’s] pale, pretty face and challenged her. Here I am, Virgencita. Where are you? And I heard her answer me with the coughs and cries and whispers of the crowd: //Here, Patria Mercedes, I’m here, all around you. I’ve already more than appeared”// (59).

When Patria sees the “hundreds of weary, upturned faces” she feels as if her focus has always been in the wrong direction. She realizes that instead of thinking about the authority figures and rules of the Church, she should focus on the people. Her faith is renewed not by the words of a priest, but by the tired yet faithful faces of her neighbors. Inspired by their faith, she hears her own return through the “coughs and cries and whispers of the crowd.” Mary presents herself through the voices of the people. It is also significant that Patria feels her faith stirring in her belly, as a baby would. She lost her faith when she lost the baby she was carrying, but when it returns, she feels motion in her stomach again. The baby and her religion are connected, which is reminiscent of the story of Mary and Jesus. Patria always carried her faith, and though it appeared to die, it was resurrected and renewed, just as Jesus was. Patria finds her true identity, and she is still Christian, but her focus is different now. She will no longer focus on judgment, rules and regulations, but instead on the people that surround her.



Connections pg. 51-- "I couldn't understand why Minerva was getting so worked up. El Jefe was no saint, everyone knew that, but among the bandidos that had been in the National Palace, this one was at least building churches and schools, paying off our debts. Every week his picture was int he paper next to Monsignor Pittini, overseeing some good deed. but I couldn't reason with reason herself. I tried a different tack. "It's a dirty business, you're right. That's why we women shouldn't get involved."

She believes that women should stay out of politics and at first did not wanted to be involved in Minerva's rebellion against Trujillo. Because Trujillo has had no negative effect on the things she identifies herself with, such as the church and her family, she does not think action must be taken against him. However, she is beginning to at least consider what she has always accepted in the past: Trujillo's actions.

pg. 51-- "The days started to fill, Nelson was born, and two years later, Noris, and soon I had a third belly growing larger each day."

Being married at 16, her identity is very much tied to her domestic life in her husband and her children. The loss of the baby greatly affected her domestic sphere because of the grief of both herself and Pedrito. Only through the direct loss in her life was she able to see Jesus and Trujillo in a different light.

pg. 44-45 -- "You'd give anything away, your clothes, your food, your toys. word got around, and while I was out, the country people would send their kids over to ask you for a cup of rice or a jar of cooking oil. You had no sense of holding on to things."

Patria never really tries to hold on to things because she has never lacked these necessities. Her family's wealth and socioeconomic status meant that she never had to worry about things like rice and oil and therefore could focus on the helping the less fortunate.