In a traditional marriage, where women are the property of their husbands, men do not want their women to learn more than they know. Except for a few cases where the man is well educated and/or fairly fluent in English, husbands are opposed to their wives taking classes or learning more than the rudiments of literacy in English. Once literacy carries with it the symbolic power of education, it poses a threat to the power (im) balance in the family.

Men need to feel in control; not only does this mean having more power that their wives, but controlling what they think and do. This is especially so in a society where the man feels little or no power at work, in the family as the breadwinner, or in other positions associated with masculinity. This may explain the large investment in the macho act of drinking. According to the women we interviewed, masculinity as domination is especially brutal in a culture where machismo reigns. The words of Maria echo the feelings of many: "I don't want a macho. I want a man."

Many of the women live with violence in their daily lives. Alcoholism, or heavy drinking by their husbands, left them feeling desperate. Modesta breaks down and sobs: "He drinks a lot. He is very much like a man. Right now, things aren't going very well for us. He loves his children very much but he treats me badly. Very badly." Several related stories of being physically beaten; some flee their homes and a couple call the police or turn to the priest. Rosa related part of her story:

It got to the point where he was drinking so much. He'd come home and try to beat up on all of us. My children were very small. I used to tell him you can do anything to me--he'd get mad at me and beat me up--but please don't touch the children. Leave them alone."

While it is true that not all the women talk of violence, it is also very true that we asked very little about marital relationships--we did not even directly ask about the husband's attitude toward their learning. What is quite amazing is that these stories come out in the course of informal conversations between women about how English-language practices fit into the texture of their daily lives. It is the fact that I did not explicitly look for this information and did not fully appreciate its significance when I heard it, that makes me aware of the importance of reconceptualizing how we think about literacy and educational participation where it involves women.

I have stayed away from including these incidents of violence to avoid feeding into racist, class-biased stereotypes about the Mexican immigrant community. While all women do not talk of violence, under conditions of systemic sexism, women are oppressed through sexual practices enshrined as normal by the family, church, and other social institutions. While its form may vary and take a more subtle shape, violence toward women is not limited to particular class or culture -- and it has serious consequences for women's right to learn as well as for men's.

It saddens me greatly as I write this. I have lived in the face of male rage and violence. I have a feeling for what it means to live daily in the face of threat, never knowing what act will be interpreted as a transgression, an attack upon male right or power, setting off an explosion. You do nothing to set off that rage and withdraw into the safety of a kind of death. You do not even consider moving in what might be perceived as a threatening direction.

Literacy is caught up in this dynamic of threat and withdrawal; for women, it is lived as part of the relationships of domination in the family. Husbands do not have to oppose their wives taking classes directly for the wife to censor herself and never consider that possibility. In situations where violence is part of daily life, and overwork already severe, it is almost impossible to find the energy to move in new directions, let alone those which may incite further upheaval.

This may explain why women are more likely to develop their English literacy skills once they are separated or divorced. Several of the women we interviewed had left their husbands and talked of changing their lives through education, especially those who are younger and know enough English to seek a different kind of work. This is also true of the married women who have the support of their husbands. Youth, education and knowing some English tend to go together, as does the desire for a better life.

Another key element is that women do not think of literacy, education or learning as a right for themselves. When these are perceived as a right, it is as a male right. Several of the more articulate men we interviewed consider learning English, literacy and education in terms of rights, for themselves and their children. Women frame their lives in terms of family relationships. Men present themselves as the agents of their lives and talk primarily about their own experiences, whereas the women talk about their families, especially their husbands' experiences and their hopes for their children. Within the family women never put themselves first, but always last. Elena, a highly educated, gifted woman we interviewed, now working as a domestic, explains how it is that she thinks of her life as a success: