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

and how it constantly appears in these three comics, since it was an important concern
for the Mexican society. 145 Machismo is expressed in different ways, such as the abuse
of women, lack of respect, cheating, abandonment and lack of responsibility, among
others. In Hermelinda Linda, Caralimpio, a man with a record for being unfaithful, is
found with another woman by one of his partners and she asks him for money to
support her and their children. He answers: ‘Cometí un error’ and she replies: ‘Ocho
errores, Caralimpio… ocho errores que comen…’ [referring to their children]. 146 Her
answer is a surprise, and that is part of what generates humour. Nevertheless, although
we recognise the tragedy of the woman (which is the tragedy of many women), our
super-ego will tells us that we are witnessing a mise-en-scene and that the situation is
fiction. The characters are fictional but the issues are real. The super-ego explains that
we should not be concerned about the woman since she does not exist, therefore, it is
right to laugh. Perhaps we would not find this story funny if it had happened to someone
we know, but since we recognise that it is a possible world, 147 and not the real one, then,
we permit ourselves to laugh.
The same happens in La Familia Burrón, when Borola tries to help her female
neighbours get economic support from their partners. She becomes an unmasked
heroine self-called ‘Entrometida, la mujer que meterá en cintura a todos los maridos
cábulas’. 148 The tragedies that the women suffer day by day described in the issue are
terrible, but the exaggeration and eccentricity of Borola’s solution develops the
humorous side of the situation, and our super-ego identifies this. Even when our ego
tells us that we are discussing a painful topic, the super-ego will help us cope by
145 Octavio Paz in El laberinto de la soledad (1950) and Roger Bartra in La jaula de la melancolía (1987)
make interesting analysis about it.
146 Hermelinda Linda, 172, p. 20.
147 Raskin, Semantic Mechanisms… p. 55.
148 La Familia Burrón, 17186, p. 15.
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