By Kira Shannon
Modern Latin American writers have turned to women in classical mythology to explore ethnic identity, feminism and machismo, said UC Davis professor Kathleen Cruz in a recent lecture that focused on themes such as ‘othering,’ feeling discomfort, and finding one’s voice.
UC Davis Classics professor Kathleen Cruz visited UC Santa Barbara to lecture about the mythical Ariadne and her influence on modern Latine poets. Cruz said Ariadne’s story can be used to explore topics of identity and migration.
“Being uncomfortable is really valuable,” Cruz told a room of UC Santa Barbara Classics professors and students in a talk on Puerto Rican and Chicana poets who were influenced by Ariadne of Crete, a mythological woman of the ancient Mediterranean. Cruz said the richness of Ariadne’s story has bubbled up into modern literature in relation to racial, ethnic and gender identities. “Adaptations give opportunity to return to ancient texts.”
She presented the book “Virgin” by Chicana writer Analicia Sotelo, a collection of poetry that paints a vivid portrait of the artist as a young woman and has many allusions to the story of Ariadne. In ancient mythology, Ariadne, daughter of King Minos, helps the hero Theseus defeat the Minotaur with a thread, but after he abandons her on an island, she finds love and immortality with the god Dionysus.
Cruz said Ariadne’s story is a tool for thinking through the process of being “othered” and socially separated due to one's female or Latine identity. In her poem, “My English Victorian Dating Troubles,” Sotelo wrote about reclaiming her identity in Western culture.
“I will devour your pith helmets as well as these enchiladas piled high with American mozzarella any time of day,” she wrote. “See there is a white man in every single one of us.”
Cruz said Sotelo felt tempted to grow into her environment as Ariadne, but by the end of the book, she realizes that she had to shed Ariadne’s skin and embrace her own. This modern take differs from the ancient tale because the princess in the new version finds a voice that was previously denied.
Cruz also discussed the ways that people are treated differently based on skin color and how dark skin in women is often considered less beautiful than pale skin in women— another theme in Sotelo’s work. The poet Sotelo also explores this via a father-daughter dynamic in which the daughter feels disconnected to her father, due to the difference in their skin colors.
“This opens up a critical concern within Latine communities,” Cruz said. “Namely the variation in skin color not only across the community itself but within individual families, and how these variations and the way that women are treated based on them shape individual experience and identity.”
UC Davis Classics professor Kathleen Cruz visited UCSB Classics to speak about Latine poets who were inspired by the mythological story of Ariadne. Cruz discussed the books “Virgin,” by Alicia Sotelo, and “Ariadna del agua,” by Etnairis Ribera.
Cruz then moved on to the book “Ariadne del Agua,” a collection by Puerto Rican poet Etnairis Ribera. Cruz describes Ribera’s work as a “celebratory text” in the ways that it “creates a bridge between the [mythical] Aegean and the Atlantic.” In her book, Ribera delves into Puerto Rican migration and anxieties of diasporic life.
Cruz examined Ribera’s poem “Embriagada de saberse sola, cambiante,” which translates to “Drunk on knowing oneself alone, changing.” Cruz focused on the term “vaivén,” which refers to the constant comings and goings of large numbers of Puerto Ricans.
“It implies that some people do not stay in place for a long period of time, but move incessantly,” Cruz said, describing a “circular migration” between Puerto Rico and the United States and its impact on those involved. She also said bodies of water challenge the “bondedness of geography” in relation to the island Ariadne was abandoned on. “The water that keeps them apart ensures they are together.”
Cruz said her research reveals a silencing of women’s voices in ancient myth, and she saw these texts as an opportunity to think more about the power of Ariadne’s speech. She described Sotelo and Ribera’s books as a “tapestry to observe agency.”
Kira Shannon is a second-year UC Santa Barbara student majoring in Film and Media Studies. She is a Web and Social Media Intern for the Division of Humanities and Fine Arts.