Taking the Macho

1.  I liked the story in the beginning of the essay because it was nice to hear that the woman on the island were people of value.  The woman didn’t let the sailors in the story walk over them.  They demanded for them to go away and when they didn’t the women took charge.  The women didn’t let the men walk over them but instead they 

2.  Overall I really like the essay so it it hard to pick something I do not like.  But what I can say is that I didn’t like was how the men were surprised that the women could play ball as well.  Cofer writes that it was “disturbing to see the macho Conquistadors to see women and men going into battle together and playing pelota on the same team.” I didn't like that because men always think they are better then us women, and to me that is disturbing.  

3.  I found when she talked about how much courage is put into writing interesting from a writer’s point of view because I never really thought about that before.  I have always read fictions stories so I have never really been exposed to books where authors talk about their life.  It made me realize how much courage it does take for authors to tell the world what they feel and what they’ve been through.  

4.  I found how some cultures shape women roles interesting from a reader’s point of view because I see that in my family today.  My cousin’s mom is always doing the chores around the house and making sure that her husband is satisfied.  She does a lot for the family and doesn’t get a lot of credit.  It is hard to see this especially because no one has ever taught her that she also has value and doesn’t need to always play that “feminine” role. 

7.  I learned a couple of important things from reading this.  The first was that we don’t need men to determine how we live and I think that’s important because I feel that us women can be too dependent on men.  We think we have a certain role and it shouldn’t always be that way.  It is great to see that it is slowly changing through out the world. The second was when the men thought women being “macho” is contradiction in terms.  That is important because “macho” is defined as the male of species.  However women can be confident and can do things men do such as playing ball but that doesn’t mean they are “macho.”  It just means that women don’t have to be so dependent on men.