El Gallo Quiquiriquí
The fairy tale of Quiquiriquí is a very popular tale from
the Caribbean in which tell the story of a farm run by a kind farmer named
Bonachon who treats his animals with kindness and respect and gives them the
freedom to do whatever they please. The
animals are the center of the fairytale with speaking abilities, conflicts, and
resolutions. Mr. Bonachon gathered his animals and told them he has to sell the
farm to Don Cascarrabias, a mean spirited farmer who as soon as he arrived at
the farm he treats the animals badly and hires a rooster named Quiquiriquí, who
is the protagonist of the story and becomes a mean foreman. The gender roles are very typical, all animal
male characters are strong, mean, and in a predominant role and the female
animal characters are weak, sexualized, and lazy. There isn’t any information on the origin of
the tale and the information found is only from early version of a tale that
has been passed down from generations to generations. All the written versions can be found in many
scholastic books and collections of Spanish books of children fairy tales. The version that I read for this assignment
was released in 1986 by Cuentos infantiles publications; an online journal for
books and children publications.
There is only one version of the tale;
however, the character of Quiquiriquí has been used for other tales where the
rooster is similar to in character but taking different roles in a complete
different story. According to scholars
of children fairytales most versions of the stories were written in
Spanish. Moreover, the first story was
original from Spain and it was brought to the Americas by the Spanish
settlers. Since it is such short story
it can only be found in book compilations and as part of other children tales.
El Gallo Quiquiriquí is hired to be a
foreman of a farm and as soon as he arrives he treats all the animals with
anger, disrespect, and fear. The main
target of his abuse are the hens which are the female role in the stories. The rooster abuses, humiliates, and belittles
almost every hen except the beautiful Beatriz who he is enchanted by and
doesn’t force her to do hard labor or face the same humiliation as her
friends. In the story Hen Isabel uses
her beauty to deceive the rooster to get him out the farm. Quiquiriquí is trying to force the hens to
produce eggs or he would lose his job.
Since he is so horrible towards the hens they are afraid of producing
eggs.
Furthermore, before the new owner arrived
the hens used to produce eggs by listening to their friend Filomena or play the
harmonica but since the new owner arrived he banned Filomena from the farm and
no music or happiness was allowed. At
the end, the rooster stole eggs from the duck pond but Hen Isabel sees him and
switched them to dove eggs. When Don
Cascarrabias see the small eggs he fires Quiquiriquí and allows Filomena to
come back and play the harmonica again and the happy hens start making eggs
again with the promise from their new owner that they will have similar
freedoms as the one before Quiquiriquí was there.
The male Architype is the strong, angry,
sexual, Don Juan, who is dominant and mistreats the women he doesn’t have any
interest in, but will overlook mistakes and give preferences to the good
looking and sexy one. There are two type
of female architypes, the four hens who became afraid and were abused followed
the role of the weak female who is abused but is gentle, passive, and knows how
to follow directions. The beautiful hen
Isabel plays the role of the sexualized female who just smiles, follows
directions, and uses her beauty to deceive the male and to get what she
wants.
The story is supposed to entertain
children but it has help to shape the stereotype of abusive males who are
always in charge and the role of females when in the presence of a male. Regardless of how subliminal the message can
be; it is clear that it has a patriarchal male chauvinist tone where females
are subject to abuse just for not been pretty enough. Fairy tales have the commonality of
perpetrating all stereotypical gender roles and using male dominant perception
to perpetrate all stories. It is a
fascinating concept that should be research and maybe further educate future
generation to break free from the perception of expected roles of males and
female’s characters in all future children fairy tales’ stories.
Character
list:
Bonachon, Original
Farm Owner
Enriqueta, Hen/Chicken
Filomena, Hen/Chicken
la vieja tía Copete, Hen/Chicken
Beatriz, Hen/Chicken
Bonifacia, Hen/Chicken
El Buho Oliverio
Farm Adviser
El Viejo Gorrión The
friendly Dove
Don Cascarrabias New
Farm Owner
References:
Anónimos. (1986). El gallo Quiquiriquí. Retrieved October 12,
2016, from
http://www.cuentosinfantiles.net/cuentos-el-gallo-quiquiriqui.html
C. (2009). Cuenta Cuentos: El Gallo Quiquiriquí. Retrieved
October 9, 2016, from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfqjIkNbPOE
B. (2013). Cuentos infantiles: El gallo Quiquiriquí. Retrieved
October 11, 2016, from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQ8-5ql7gPU
El Gallo Quiquiriquí
author. (n.d.). Retrieved October 13, 2016, from
https://www.google.com/search?q=el
gallo quiquiriquí/image
Neelen, I. (2003). El Gallo Quiquiriquí. Boadilla del monte: Ediciones SM.
"Life is the result of our choices" - Brava
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