Leticia Neria PhD thesis - Research@StAndrews:FullText ...

Machismo is another topic which emerges. It is no surprise since ‘el machismo
mexicano marca la cultura del país en casi todos los niveles, y esto incluye el humor’. 65
Hence the ‘macho’ is a common and traditional figure in the Mexican imaginary. In
fact, his usual representation tends to be caricatured and exaggerated, such as ‘El Charro
Matías’ of Abel Quezada, or the characters performed by Andrés Soler like ‘Andrés
Parra’ in El Ceniciento, or ‘Laureano’ in La Oveja Negra, during the golden age of
Mexican Cinema. La Familia Burrón reflects machismo in Mexico very well. Borola
constantly confronts her traditional-minded husband Regino, demanding more freedom
and, Borola tries to liberate her female neighbours from the oppression they suffer from
their abusive husbands. Nevertheless, her absurd actions are doomed to fail. On many
occasions she will admit to her submissive role as a Mexican woman and to the fact that
her thoughts are influenced by machismo.
In one of her adventures, Borola considers that the women in her vecindad are
suffering too much abuse at the hands of their husbands and she wants to help them to
overcome their misery. 66 But Borola thinks that the same women are the ones to blame
for this abuse since they do nothing to make themselves look more attractive to their
partners, a macho point of view. Borola’s solution is very interesting because it contains
a good dose of incongruity and exaggeration: she thinks that the ladies should dress as
‘playmate bunnies’. She designs fancy rabbit dresses, which, in fact, make them look
exactly like rabbits. So her solution to their problem is unsuccessful, and even some of
the women are punished by their partners for dressing in such a strange manner.
Another example of machismo occurs in this same issue, when a man arrives home for a
visit. His wife comments: ‘¡Betito, qué gusto me da que vengas a la casa! Como mis
65 Rafael Barajas Durán, Sólo me río cuando me duele. La cultura del humor en México (Mexico:
Editorial Planeta Mexicana, 2009), p. 106.
66 La Familia Burrón, 17165.
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