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Abstract
This article analyzes the interconnections between masculinity and migration in the work Hemos perdido el sol, by Ángel María de Lera. The novel depicts the challenging experiences of Spanish migrants in Germany in the 1960s and the different conception of gender between Spanish and German cultures. The impact of migration on the main character’s masculinity is threefold. First, migration enhances his traditional sense of masculinity as he escapes poverty and subsequently feels more respected as a man when he achieves economic independence. Secondly, migration negatively affects his masculinity through the insecurities and discrimination he endures abroad. Lastly, although he adjusts his conventional male behavior at the beginning of his extramarital relationship with a German woman, his understanding of virility remains unaltered and he soon restores his traditional Spanish masculinity. The final message of the novel is that Spanish men’s relationships with German women are not meant to be successful due to cultural differences and divergent gender models.
Notes
Notes
1 Displaced men, particularly if they have been in a subordinated position in their home countries, may also experience migration in a positive and liberating way when they achieve a greater sense of autonomy and anonymity, and freedom from patriarchy, heteronormativity, and societal expectations about men (Cantú 135).
2 Spanish migrants also published their own experiences in Germany, such as Víctor Canicio, Patricio Chamizo, and Vicente Ballester Gil. Their works, according to José Rodríguez Richart, have a modest literary value but significant testimonial worth (358).
3 Other characters mention similar consequences for not commanding the German language: “Parece que se ofenden si les pregunta uno algo. Claro, contestan en alemán. Uno no entiende, y al insistir, se enfadan” (73).
4 Although the use of the term “protest masculinity” can be helpful in the study of migrant men, it is important to avoid their stigmatization and note that migrant men are not the only ones who embody violent or traditional masculinity (Hondagneu-Sotelo and Messner 208). In fact, there are migrant men who adopt a more egalitarian conception of gender roles (Smith 110), while there are men from the host nation who, without being oppressed by their race or social class, are conservative in relation to gender and behave violently due to patriarchy and hegemonic masculinity.
5 Despite this traditional Spanish masculinity, in the novel, there is a clear rejection of Spanish migrant men who embody a Don Juan masculinity and are constantly trying to seduce women, such as Luis el Fotogénico. Luis has children with multiple women and tricks Spanish migrant women into leaving their jobs for other positions where they will actually earn less money. His death at the hands of Gonzalo, who kills him for taking advantage of Spanish women, brings poetic justice to the novel.
6 For instance, a migrant man may start taking care of his children or doing housework in the host country because his wife is working outside the home, or a man who migrated alone may have to learn how to do chores, but these new situations for these men may not change their traditional belief that women are mostly responsible for childcare and housework.
7 On the contrary, migration can also make men more open to both accepting new gender models and adopting a more egalitarian understanding of men’s and women’s roles. In a study about Mexicans living in New York, Robert Smith analyzes the situation of a migrant man who, as a consequence of his migration, adopted a more flexible masculinity, including more active involvement in his daughters’ education and more equality in his relationship with his wife (105-106). Pease also mentions that in his interviews with migrant men, some of them embraced new gender roles and were pleased that in the host country women had more choices and the same rights as men (91).
8 The topic of unhealthy sexual repression is common in Lera’s novels (Listerman 12). According to Castro Díez, in the author’s narratives sexuality is depicted as an irrational impulse difficult to control (34).
9 The opposite effect is also possible due to the lack of social networks, racism, and difficult working conditions in the host country. The stress of living in a new country may also cause a decrease in migrant men’s libido (González-Allende, Hombres en movimiento 15).
10 In contrast, Spanish women are represented as more naïve and modest. Regina is an exception in the novel because she is unfaithful to her lazy husband, who remains in Spain. However, at the end, Regina’s lover dies in an accident, while her husband comes to Germany and tells her that their daughter is going astray. Regina confesses her affair to her husband, their marriage is restored, and then she decides to return to Spain to take care of her daughter. Thus, she goes back to playing a more traditional female role.
11 As Listerman eloquently points out, Rafa’s words to Ramón about the abortion—“Lo han deshecho, ¿comprendes? ¡Lo han deshecho!” (429)—could refer not only to the aborted baby, but also to Lucio’s lost hand, and even “to all Spaniards who have come into contact with the cold German machine and have lost the sun” (109).
12 A German man expressed the same idea to Lera: “las españolas […] tienen para nosotros un encanto especial: la coquetería […]. Las nuestras ya no coquetean: se van derechas al toro, como ustedes dicen” (Con la maleta 121).
13 Nevertheless, Lera avoids overly simplistic representations of both nations, since there are negative Spanish characters such as Luis and positive German characters such as Georg.