Woman Hollering Creek

Woman Hollering Creek Summary | Detailed Summary

Woman Hollering Creek, by Sandra Cisneros, begins with Don Serafin giving Juan Pedro Martinez Sanchez permission to marry his only daughter, Cleofilas. Juan Pedro plans to take Cleofilas to live in the United States. However, Don already knows that the day will come when his daughter will look south and wish she were at home with her family. As Cleofilas is getting ready to leave, Don reminds his daughter that he is her father and he will never abandon her. He then hugs her, but she is too busy looking for her maid of honor to pay attention to him. It is not until Cleofilas is a parent herself that she remembers her father's words. She thinks about how love between a man and a woman is not always constant, but a parent's love for a child lasts forever. Cleofilas thinks about this especially on nights when Juan Pedro doesn't come home.

The story now reverts to an earlier time through a flashback. The town were Cleofilas grew up does not have much excitement. She spends her time visiting her aunts and godmothers and playing cards. She also loves watching the latest telenovela episodes. Mostly she waits for the love of her life to appear. The heroine of her favorite novella, You or No One, has experienced all types of hardships, but believes that staying kind and loving no matter what happens is the most important thing in life. Cleofilas agrees with her. She thinks that suffering for love is good and that the pain is sweet.

The flashback then jumps forward to when Cleofilas starts dating Juan Pedro. He tells her about a town in Texas called Seguin. She thinks about the lovely house she will have and that her outfits will look like the women on television shows. Juan Pedro says they will go all the way to Loredo to get her wedding dress. He wants to get married right away. Cleofilas believes he has a good job and plenty of money to fill their home with new furniture.

The story moves ahead again to sometime after their wedding. Cleofilas and Juan Pedro are living in Texas. A creek runs behind their house called, Woman Hollering Creek, but no one seems to know the origin of the name. Cleofilas is fascinated by the name. When Cleofilas asks the laundromat attendant, Trini, about the creek, she is rude to her and doesn't answer. Cleofilas thinks that maybe she will ask her neighbors, but she decides that they probably won't know. One woman, Soledad, says she is a widow, but Cleofilas doesn't know what really happened to her husband. A woman named Dolores lives in the house on the other side of the newlyweds. She is very kind and sweet, but spends all of her time mourning two sons lost in a war and her husband who died a short time later. Her house always smells of the incense she burns in their memory.

At some point later, Cleofilas reflects on the first time Juan Pedro hit her. They had only been married a short time. She had always vowed to strike back if a man ever attacked her, but she does nothing. He hits her over and over until her lip is bleeding. She doesn't cry, yell, or fight back. She just stands there, feeling stunned and numb. Cleofilas then touches the blood with her hand and looks at it as if she doesn't understand where it has come from. After the beating, Juan Pedro cries, feeling remorse for his actions. She still says nothing. Instead, she silently strokes his hair while he weeps.

Sometimes Cleofilas looks at Juan Pedro after they have made love or when he is eating and thinks that he is the man for whom she waited her whole life. However, there are many times when she has to remind herself why she loves him. There are instances when he kicks the refrigerator, yelling at her about the state of their modest house, and then goes out without telling her where he going. When she asks for help repairing things in the house, he tells her that he pays for the food in her stomach and the roof over her head so she should leave him alone. Cleofilas thinks that he does not look like the men in the telenovelas. He isn't tall, he has scars from acne, and his stomach is fat from all of the beer he drinks. He also demands that she serve his dinner the minute he gets home, with every course on a separate plate.

At this point the narrative flashes back to when Cleofilas has just returned home from the hospital after giving birth to the couple's first child. She notices small things have been disturbed in the house. For instance, her lipstick and hairbrush are not in the same place. There is a crushed cigarette in a glass and a smudged fingerprint on the door. She does not ask him about her suspicions. The story then returns to the present. Cleofilas thinks of her father's house. She doesn't believe she can go back with one small child and pregnant with a second. The neighbors would talk about her disgrace. Her hometown is full of gossips, dust, and despair. Despite her hopes for a better life, now she knows that she just lives in another town full of gossips, dust, and despair. The Texas town she lives in with Juan Pedro bores her. There is nothing she can walk to. Cleofilas thinks that the town was built so women would have to depend on husbands. The newspapers are full of stories about women being killed by boyfriends, lovers, and husbands. Thinking about those stories makes her shiver as she is doing the dishes.

One day, Juan Pedro throws one of her books at her from across the room. It leaves a welt on her cheek, but it is not the injury that bothers her. She is angrier that he threw her favorite love story. Her novels are important to her, especially now that she does not have a television set. Sometimes, when Juan Pedro is not home, she will go to Dolores's house to watch an episode of her favorite shows. One of telenovelas is about a poor girl from Argentina who falls in the love with the handsome son of the rich family she works for. Their love is doomed because of their class differences. Cleofilas thought that her life was going to be like one of the telenovelas. However, unlike the television shows, her life keeps getting more and more sad, with no commercials for comic relief. All of the characters on the shows have names that sound like jewels. She thinks maybe she should change her name because a woman with a name like Cleofilas is destined to end up being hit in the face.

Pregnant with her second child, Cleofilas pleads with Juan Pedro to take her to the doctor to make sure the baby growing inside of her is all right. She tells him that the doctor has made an appointment for her and says she has to go. Cleofilas promises him that she will not tell the doctor where her bruises have come from. Instead, she will say she fell down the front steps. They fight over money and he becomes angry at her suggestion to ask her father for financial help. Juan Pedro asks why she is so anxious. She replies that she wants to make sure the baby is in the right position, not like her first son, who required her to undergo a cesarean section. Cleofilas promises to have their son, Juan Pedrito, dressed and ready to go next Tuesday after Juan Pedro gets off of work.

The narration switches to a first person account of Graciela, a woman who works at Cleofilas' doctor's office. She is talking to her friend, Felice, on the phone. She says she was giving a woman a sonogram and the woman started to cry. Graciela says the woman, who the reader can assume is Cleofilas, has bruises all over her body. She continues that the patient doesn't speak English and has not been allowed to call home or even write. Graciela asks Felice to take Cleofilas to the Greyhound station in San Antonio. She says she would take Cleofilas herself, but she has to work and Cleofilas has to be out of the house before Juan Pedro gets home from work. They agree that Felice will meet Cleofilas at the Cash 'N Carry store at noon on Thursday. Graciela tells Felice that their lives are like soap operas.

Cleofilas is waiting at the store, scared that Juan Pedro will show up. Instead, Felice pulls up in a pickup truck. Cleofilas does not have time to think. She simply puts her bags in the back and climbs into the truck. When they drive across the creek, or arroyo, Felice opens her mouth and screams. Cleofilas and Juan Pedrito are startled. Felice apologizes for scaring them. She explains that every time she crosses the bridge, she lets out a yell because of its name, Woman Hollering. Felice amazes Cleofilas. She asked Felice about the pickup truck and is surprised to learn that she bought it herself. Felice says she doesn't have a husband. Cleofilas will later tell her father and brothers about how this strange woman yelled when they crossed the arroyo. Sitting in the truck, Cleofilas suddenly begins to laugh.