Melodrama in The Mango Bride
Learn more about: Melodrama.
Melodrama is a work with exaggerated, sensational events and characters. It is highly emotional, focusing on exciting but over-the-top situations that are designed to encourage emotional responses in the audience. While most melodrama’s utilize stereotypes in their characterization, The Mango Bride stands apart in it realistic, and complicated characters.
“Soliven’s novel, with its nonlinear narrative, coincidences, revelations, and simultaneities, reveals that the “melodrama” of Filipina/o life results from the asynchronous temporality imposed by the entanglements of Philippine class society with globalized capitalism” (Arighi).
“…Amparo’s and Beverly’s stories are rife with the kind of scenes and elements we are used to seeing in those programs: a family feud, rich boy falls for a lovely but “unsuitable” girl, unplanned pregnancies and society scandals, unlikely romance, the aforementioned dramatic stabbing, karma, and lots and lots of secrets.”-Meann Oritz
Arighi, William. “The Time-Space of Transnational Melodrama in Marivi Soliven’s the Mango Bride.” Melus. 43.2 (2018).
VAWA and Protective Measures for Immigrant Women
Learn more about: VAWA and DV
The first piece of legislation that recognized domestic violence as a problem experienced by immigrants dependent on their abusive citizen for legal immigration status was the “battered spouse waiver.” In order to obtain full lawful permanent residence, the immigrant spouse must remain in the marriage to the citizen for at least two years. This two-year requirement placed a heavy burden on many immigrant women, forcing them to remain in abusive relationships to satisfy immigration law requirements. Congress recognized that immigrant women and children were still trapped in violent relationships and deterred from taking action to protect themselves by filing protection orders or criminal charges or calling the police because of the threat or fear of deportation despite the enactment of the battered spouse waiver. Joe Biden and his team of experienced lawyers and policy makes drafted the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) in 1994, after holding a hearing welcoming women to come forward and share their stories to ensure that the legislation represented their needs. VAWA contains provisions that limit the ability of the abuser to use immigration laws to threaten and control his immigrant spouse or child.
VAWA created two forms of relief for immigrants: VAWA self-petitions and VAWA cancellation of removal (formerly called “suspension of deportation”). These provisions ensure that immigrant victims of domestic violence have access to lawful immigration status without having to depend on the cooperation or participation of their batterers.
Sudha Shetty and Janice Kaguyutan “Immigrant Victims of Domestic Violence: Cultural Challenges and Available Legal Protections” VAWnet: The National Online Resource Center on Violence Against Women, 2002
Veronika Lynch ’19