The Tyrannical Mother in Mexican Telenovelas

Abstract

Motherhood is an identity category that carries considerable weight in Mexican society and cultural expressions. The cult of motherhood means that a woman and her worth are often measured by her relationship to maternity. The closer that she comes to meeting the standards of Marianism (modeled by the figure of the Virgin of Guadalupe), the more likely she is to be seen as a good woman. This trope is a standard feature in telenovelas, where the good woman (la buena) is or longs to be a mother, whereas the bad woman (la mala) rejects maternity. There is another female character, however, who eludes these categories—the tyrannical mother. She is a woman whose controlling, manipulative, and often criminal behavior lands her squarely in the category of la mala. Yet she is not subject to the same terrible fate that befalls the childless mala, often in the form of death, disfigurement, or imprisonment. Here I argue that it is maternity that provides the tyrannical mother protection from the more extreme punishments experienced by childless malas. The examples that I point to are Cuna de lobos (1986, 2019), Soy tu dueña (2010) and Abismo de pasión (2012).