Constructing Gender in José Martí's Brooklyn Bridge Chronicles

Authors

  • Kevin Anzzolin Dickinson State University

Keywords:

Jose Marti, Brooklyn Bridge, Gender

Abstract

Recent attempts to understand Jose Marti's assessment of both gender2 and technology have reached contradictory conclusions. Although usually dealt with separately, this essay proposes that Marti saw a relationship between these dual themes. Here, I explore three chronicles from 1883 which Marti dedicated to the construction and opening of the Brooklyn Bridge: "El Puente de Brooklyn", "Los ingenieros del Puente de Brooklyn: Roehling, Padre e Hijo," and "Dos damas norteamericanas." By examining these chronicles' engagement of machine technology and gender, I outline what the Bridge suggested to Marti about North
American culture, the role of the body, and labor practices. Written when Marti's conceptions of masculinity and femininity were in flux, I argue that his Brooklyn Bridge chronicles situate gender as both biologically determined and, somewhat paradoxically, socially constructed, modified by revolutionizing modes of production. I begin with the best-known of the three
pieces, "El Puente de Brooklyn."

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Vol. 14

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Articles

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