The Labyrinth of Solitude

In “The Sons of La Malinche” Paz provides an analysis of “chingar” and its nominalized form “la chingada.” The words are curses in Mexican Spanish and, although they do not have clearly fixed meanings in their current usage, evoke penetration, tearing, cruelty, and sexual violence. In that connection, Paz describes la chingada as the figure of a violated and degraded mother. Paz claims that this curse indirectly expresses Mexican ambivalence regarding the colonial past and the hybrid legacy it bestows: in a sense, all Mexicans are “children” of colonial violence.

Paz describes “communion” as an overarching goal of human existence, and it appears consistently throughout the essay. Our desire for communion has roots in our individual natality (we desire, in some sense, to return to the security of the womb), as well our collective history (a longing to return to the safety and conviviality of simpler, primal communities). Politically, our longing for community often expresses itself through utopian hopes for the return of a lost “golden age” that will replace and redeem the degraded state of the present. In our individual lives, we often seek communion through erotic love, intoxication, or communal gatherings.