The Consequences of Publishing a Book Titled “Huevos: The De Masculinization of the Macho”
Two weeks ago I asked a former clerk from Tia Chucha’s bookstore why my book, Huevos, had not been allowed to be presented at the small, supposedly progressive Mexican American bookstore in the Sylmar area of the San Fernando Valley. She responded by saying, “Well, the committee led by Trini read the book and was uncomfortable with what you wrote and she asked a Cal State Northridge Professor Denise Sandoval to co-panel and counter what you said but she refused to do so.”
I then queried, “Has Sandoval, a renowned feminist in Chicano Studies, published a book on male issues?” To which she replied, “Well, no.”
Such has been the life for this book that was published by Floricanto Press; though researched thoroughly the book has been rejected because of its content, which is to analyze feminism by writing from a male cultural perspective. My arguments are simple: Mexican American males have been trampled by a legal system that favors women and criminalizes the nature of males. My emphasis is on Mexican Americans because I am one; however, the legal system mentioned applies to all men, so there is a universal application. But once race factors in, favoritism is much more apparent. Hence: for white women to claim victimhood when they dually benefit from both race and gender becomes a slap in the face to someone like me who has the door closed on him continuously.
From the moment I published this book and started bringing up male themes (when I taught as an adjunct at California State University, Long Beach, in a ill-conceived course titled “The Multi-ethnic Experience” wherein women are considered an ethnic group) I began to challenge the myth of female exploitation by bringing up data that corresponded to my point; the negative response came from female faculty of all colors who believed, followed shortly thereafter by the girlie men who believe in feminism. Even though my evidence was sound, such as arguing that white women were not segregated or that culturally I was raised by my mother to not trust women, I was summoned by the civil rights office. Imagine that! I was summoned to the civil rights office to account for my academic freedom, which did not exist, to the union and assistant dean; a Mexican American male having to reply to a white woman’s concern for my wording. I told her that feminism threatened Mexican American males (the fact that there are more women in college alone proves my point) and all she could say was: “Which feminism, I, II?” She then started to recite female authors and I simply told her, “All of them.”
Let us just say I survived with the aid of my female union representative but the writing was on the wall, I was to be gone at their next possibility. The next round of budget cuts was their shelter and I was given a permanent goodbye. Simultaneously, in discussions within my department, one male faculty member, Jose Moreno, would only ask, “Were you hurt by a white woman?’ with his limited Harvard intelligence.
Afterward, at another Cal State, Northridge, I used the book and that very semester, even before it ended, I was essentially terminated with no review. The chair had placed a female spy in my class who was writing notes and then providing them to David Rodriguez, who had me explain why I said this or that even though my material was academic. I did not back down; I challenged him and told him all the information was consistent with the lectures. He was essentially upset because I argued that “feminism distracted the Chicano Movement,” and when I requested the female student be removed at the end of the semester they wanted me to give her a grade. This was despite the fact that she had not completed the requirements of the course. We got into a shouting match because I refused and because I was not going to be re-hired, my stay there ended rather rapidly. My only consolation from CSUN was that their library had purchased the book, Huevos, and had it on display, under new books, which affirmed my work even though it was not in the Chicano Studies Department.
Lastly, at a nearby community college, my boss called me in and told me he had been summoned by the vice president of academic affairs, a black woman, to answer questions about my book. He told me that she was upset from what she read and that this book was not appropriate. His response was “I do not necessarily agree with everything he says, but he has gotten published.” This is uncommon at the community college level. He told me that I should hold off on using the book because he did not want any more trouble for me or himself; I knew it was serious when the union lady warned me that the female president had also inquired about the book and that I should not use it if I did not want employment trouble. I had to swallow my pride and not use it until the women in power left. I was able (after the president left) to use the book again some semesters later, but I try to be careful. As an adjunct faculty, I have no legal protection because I am a temporary employee and the administration can do an evaluation as they see fit.
I circumvented the use of the book by writing another book that incorporated the male themes lacking in the study of Mexican Americans with the same effect. At Cypress College where that book, Higher Education as Ignorance, was used and I presented, I was challenged endlessly from women about my position but I did not back down and proved my points factually.
The dean, a white female, was present during these challenges. Afterward, she prohibited my return to the college as a guest speaker, even for other books I have published, which further proves that women have too much power in censoring and censuring my ideas. After all, how am I a threat? I’m only a guest and a part-time instructor that no one wants to hire. Though I do have a follow up to Huevos, I just have to sit down and write it (as me publisher has asked me to do repeatedly). Maybe I will call it Girlie Men.
