SOURCE: Detwiler, Louise. “The Question of Cultural Difference and Gender Oppression in Estela Portillo-Trambley's The Day of the Swallows.” Bilingual Review/La Revista Bilingüe 21, no. 2 (May-August 1996): 146-52.

In the following essay, Detwiler underscores the role of cultural difference as it pertains to gender oppression in The Day of the Swallows.

Estela Portillo-Trambley is most noted for her two dramas, The Day of the Swallows and Sor Juana, and is also praised for her collection of short stories and plays entitled Rain of Scorpions and Other Writings. Born in El Paso, Texas, the writer has expressed on one occasion that “I think I have the feel, the earth-roots, the historical consciousness of a Mejicana, enough to re-create the authentic experience” (Vowell 59). While her Chicanaism is clearly reflected by these words, Portillo-Trambley's identification with feminism appears somewhat ambiguous on another occasion: “Algunas reseñas de Rain of Scorpions dicen...