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

an example here because it is part of a pattern that we see in other films. Before starting
their journey, Eufemio is checking that everything is ready. He goes into the kitchen
where his wife Isabel and his mother Lolita are preparing the food they will take.
Eufemio starts giving orders in an authoritative way: ‘¿Qué pasó con la pastura? Ya ni
chicles de menta. ¡Apúrense!’ When Isabel complains that they are delayed because
they are cooking as though for an army, Eufemio scolds her by saying: ‘Pues déle
gracias a Dios, con el hambre que hay en el mundo’ and while saying this, he smacks
her on the bottom as if she were a child. Subsequently, his mother, Doña Lolita, tells
him she has prepared his favourite tacos and he replies to her affectionately: ‘Mi
cabecita blanca, adorada de su hijo’ 94 while kissing her on the forehead.
As seen in the comics, the mother is represented as saintly and as someone who
will always looking after her children, no matter their age. While the wife is there to
obey her husband, the mother is an angelical figure that is adored by her son. The
exaggeration of the macho character and the way he expresses himself through slang are
incongruous. He is saying something that perhaps makes no literal sense, until we
understand the expression is a double-intended. 95 This converts the macho image into
something funnier. Later, Eufemio’s abusive behaviour and the contrast between the
mother and the wife becomes excessive when, after thinking that Isabel cheated on him,
he beats her in front of those present, and forbids her from approaching his dead
mother’s body by saying ‘Las mujeres como tú no tienen derecho a nada’. 96 He assumes
the right to label his wife and to decide about the fate of his dead mother. To portray the
machismo using the language of humour ‘les asegura en el oyente una acogida mucho
94 Alcoriza, Mecánica Nacional, 1971.
95 Expressions which change meaning through a slight alteration are a means of humour, the more so
when it is related to a taboo topic, such as sexuality. Freud, El chiste y su relación… pp. 35-37.
96 Alcoriza, Mecánica Nacional, 1971.
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