Teresa de la Parra | Mama Blanca’s Memoirs

In the novel, Mama Blanca's Memoirs (1929), Teresa de la Parra beautifully depicts memories of the past, and this is explored through the eyes of a young girl.

Blanca Nieves, an old woman, depicts her life to the young girl through a collection of memoirs. Within these memoirs reveals a fascinating Venezuelan childhood the old woman experienced to the young girl. The memoirs mentioned in the novel ignited a plethora of childhood memories, from tragedy and compassion. The novel captures the reader with down-to-earth, warm, and powerful speech.

For instance, De la Parra's gently mocking tone and elegant word choice illustrate the clear social distinctions and divisions along the racial, gender, and class lines, similar to that of "Adam and Eve" (19). Mama Blanca's Memoirs reconstructs a world through women's oral narratives, and De la Parra managed to do this by including gentle humour.

I, as the reader, fell in love with De la Parra's craftwork because of her love of language. In fact, in one chapter of this work, she claimed that the "dictionary" (46) is the best book in the world, refreshing to the spirit for its endearing incoherence and lack of logic.

To clarify, De la Parra never writes favourably about the institution of marriage, here she expresses her opinion, as mentioned in the lecture “De la Parra and the Plurality of History”: "As it inevitable and unfortunately happens everywhere, at Piedra Azul, too, most of the men, once the knot has been tied, gave themselves over to infidelity with remarkable dedication and plurality" (75).

Instead of criticizing with direct and forceful language, she chooses her words wisely. I believe this is the essence of De la Parra! She is a sharp and insightful social critic who discusses contemporary manners and customs with gentle humour. Therefore, her masterpieces must have encouraged all women who wished to enter the literary world.

In summary, the bittersweet memories of her childhood and her love of language contribute to the heartwarming feeling of the book, which succeeds in portraying the "life" that remains for women in an oppressive and sexist society during the 19th century.

Questions: Do you think gender affects writing? If so, are there differences between male and female writing styles? What are the characteristics of women's writing?