María Concepción

Porter in “Maria Concepción” uses characterization throughout the story to explain why the killing of Maria Rosa by Maria Concepción was seen by the village as a way to preserve the traditional norms of the community.

As you read the story you kind of know that Maria Concepción will not receive any punishment for killing Maria Rosa because of how Porter describes the two woman. While Maria Concepción is seen as a God fearing and hard-working woman, Maria Rosa is seen as a disrespectful, lazy “child” in the village. The first time we see Maria Concepción in action is when she was walking on a road next to thorns and cactus, with chickens slung over her shoulder, while she was pregnant and tired in the summer heat going to give food to her husband and his peers. This description shows the readers that Maria Concepción had every right to be angry at her husband’s infidelity, and the woman he cheated on her with, because she did all of this as a commitment and duty to her husband, yet he broken the pact they both made in front of God at the alter. But the first scene we read of Maria Rosa was when she was fooling around with a married man. This shows the readers that she is disrespectful to the cultural norms in the village. The contrast between these two woman shows that Porter wanted the readers to feel bad for Maria Concepción, so that when she finally kills Maria Rosa and take her baby, we will understand why, and some may even sympathize with her.

“Care and Roles can be seen as rules for how to behave. But these do not exert influence without a system that ensures rules are followed. It is often assumed that reward and punishment play a central role in this, but in practice group members only resort to these in extreme cases [35].” (Akkuş B, Postmes T, Stroebe K)

This explains the community and their practices, because not following the norms and tradition in the village was what caused Maria Rosa to be remove from the community, and why the village did not care and “Rejected her in death”(Hendrick pg.45`).

Throughout the story, Porter describes Maria Concepción as a traditional Christian Woman who is hard working, resilient and commands respect through her works. She took her marriage to Juan as a duty, even as to go far as paying extra money to marry Juan in the church, Which is seen by many Christians as getting God’s blessing. Her hard working and family driven personality made her respected in the tight knit community. For this, the village saw the Murder of Maria Rosa as Justified because it was done for the purpose of preserving culture and tradition in the community, it was not seen as a crime but as a way to give order to the disruption that Maria Rosa caused by having an affair with a married man.

From a social-dynamic analysis of communities, we infer that community values of loyalty regulate individual commitment, values of honor regulate norm compliance, and values of group hierarchy maintain a division of labor. In addition, communities may regulate the ways in which individuals have independent agency. (Akkuş B, Postmes T, Stroebe K).

The village is a tight knit community, who uses nature as a resource. Everyone in the village are defined by their labor and self-reliance, they have respect for each other’s roles to perform in it. They are deep rooted in traditions and preservation of culture. The people do what is good for the community as a whole.

“It is most likely within communities such as these that values are shaped, as they are requirements for coordinated social interaction, functioning and survival for groups [3,8]. Communities need particular mechanisms in order to regulate within-community behavior and to ensure the future preservation and integrity of the community. These mechanisms translate into values that are promoted within the community and that individual group members are supposed to live by. The same mechanism may operate within Nations or larger collectives, but their influence is likely to be much less direct.” (Akkuş B, Postmes T, Stroebe K)

For this reason Maria Rosas act of having a relationship with Juan knowing he was a married man, was seen by the village as her going against norm and tradition. Furthermore the fact that she left tending to her bee hive to her old godmother, Lupe and followed Juan to war is seen by the village and by her godmother irresponsible and selfish. This community is built on loyalty, and they are loyal to those who uphold their collective value. This is why Maria Rosa was not given grace then in death, because a person cannot be in a community and not abide by its traditions.

Some may finish reading and ask themselves, “What punishment did Juan receive?”. he did not die like Maria Rosa or put to shame for his infidelity, after he is the one cheating on his wife. In patriarchal communities, the men is often excused for infidelity, while woman are the ones often ridiculed, because they’re the one that “tempted” the male to sin. After the death of María Rosa, Juan stayed with María Concepción, which might be punishment enough, because he cheated on his wife to be with someone more fun and rebellious. He now have to stay with someone he probably does not have an emotional connection with, now his life not exciting anymore, because he has to stay with the person he tried to run away from.

“Juan is destined for life in the dead city. Sentenced to dull, senseless labor, from which he sees no exscape he accepts his fate.”(Hendrick Pg.45) Juan Now has to live the rest of his life without having any excitement in his life because after all “Family has won over love”(Hendrick Pg.45)

But did Maria Concepción really deserve this much happiness after killing someone? She is supposed to be the Christian with good morals and value for human life, yet she kills María Rosa for having a relationship with Juan. Yes, what María Rosa did was sinful, was it justifiable? No, But what María Concepción did was not justifiable in the teachings of Christianity no matter how much the village backs her up. Christianity teaches that if your spouse commits adultery or infidelity, a person is allowed to get a divorce. Either Maria Concepción was to blinded by her duties as a wife that she forgot her moral standing or she wasn’t really a Christian despite her grace and hard work. María Concepción was so blinded by anger and the fact that her was husband cheated on her that she marks María Rosa for death saying “Yes she is a whore! She has no right to live.”(Porter pg.89). María Concepción duty as a wife came first for her than her religious.

Porter shows how the characteristics of both Maria Concepción and Maria Rosa was view by the village. while Maria Concepción had a family oriented and hardworking nature to her, María Rosa was seen as very selfish and rebellious. these descriptions makes the readers understand why no one care about maria rosas death, and defended maria Concepción.