Women have very interesting roles throughout "Heartbreak Soup." I would like to focus on the tale of "Holidays in the Sun" to emphasize the portrait of women presented by Hernandez, as well as their role in the novel.
Although completely surrounded by men, Jesus, still cannot escape the women of Palomar. They control his daydreams and his thoughts, forcing Jesus to live in a constant hell. Panel 1 on pg 203 provides the reader with a vivid descirption of not only the conditions in whcih Jesus is living, but the state of his mind. It is dark, dirty, and full of depressed, decripite looking men.
Jesus's sexual fantasies begin with Luba and change to his wife, Laura. The women control the men with sex or the desire of such in the town. Jesus cannot escape this control even though he is in prison. He tries to forget Laura by fantasizing about other women, Luba and Tonantzin, but cannot. Gilbert Hernandez does a very skillful job of conveying this through the two page (206-207) panels with no words to describe Jesus's fight with Laura and how he got into jail. These are Jesus's personal thoughts shared with us the reader. He is controlled by Laura, by the memory of her.
Furthermore, the only time he remembers feeling any love for Laura is when she was pregnant. I found this quite interesting. A woman is at her most feminine when she is pregnant. It is then that she fits into her maternal role as giver of life, creator of things. In these three panels on the bottom of 209 continuing on to 210, Jesus is below her. Laura is in the dominant position, once again in control.
The story ends with Jesus being told what to do by Laura, even in his day dream (panel 4, p.212). She states "Come along, Jesus, before the food gets cold." Jesus in the background looking very small compared to Laura who dominates half of the frame in the foreground. It is important to note that in panel 2, Jesus is dreaming of Luba adorned in animal print. His sexual fantasies turn into fantasies for the mothering Luba.
There are, as is evident in this story within the text, two images of women that dominate the text. The image of women as mothers and as sexual objects. Jesus's fantasies incorporate these two images and he has trouble at times discerning between the two. Laura is pregnant and naked at the same time. She is a mother and a sexual being. We see this as well in Luba. She has five children, but is also an object of desire for the men in Palomar. Women in the novel have the ability to control men because of these two powers. The power to be a mother, nuturing and loving while at the same time a fufiller of sexual fantasy.
Men on the other hand, do not have these abilities. As we see in Jesus's story, he is unable to father his child (as he is in jail) and when he acted as a father, he put his child's life in danger. We also see such inabilities when Jesus is an object of sexual desire for the other men in the jail. He turns them down (panels 5-6 pg. 202). Although there are a plethora of men in Palomar, the women stand out as the most prominent in the novel. Women in the novel are able to maintain their control over men because of their ability to be both mothers and sexual objects.
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I agree--it's interesting, because Chelo and Luba especially start off in such defined roles, each playing a half of the madonna-whore complex. Chelo as mothering/midwife/protector, Luba as pure sex appeal. But those roles shift, the lines blur, and--as we see with Jesus in "Holiday"--the women of Palomar grow stronger than the boxes they've been put in.
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