Why Women Love Men by Rosario Ferr

Why Women Love Men by Rosario Ferré from The Oxford Book of Latin American Short Stories I found particularly interesting and beautifully crafted. It’s a story of two women, Isabel Luberza, Ambrosio’s wife, and Isabel la Negra, his lover. When he died, he left each of them with half of his inheritance. At first they thought that he did it on purpose, to “push [them] both downhill…, to see which one of [them] …showed first 75 words of 601 total…

…showed last 75 words of 601 total…and that the saint/virgin might be promiscuous or sexually independent. Through telling this story of two different women, and by showing how through their fantasies and aspirations they are so much alike that they practically grow to be one, Ferré implies that we shouldn’t judge them solely within the narrow confines of societal designations for women, but regard them as whole, paradoxical and complex individuals. Bibliography Oxford Book of Latin American Short Stories