Haunted by the Past: The Legacy of Colonialism and Feminist Resistance in Mexican Gothic
- Raine McLeod
- Apr 29
- 8 min read
This was the term paper I submitted for my The Art of Story: An Introduction to Literature course. I got an A+ on the paper, an A on the final, and since my prof only gives letter grades I'll have to wait to be sure, but I got either an A or an A+ in the course overall. The feedback for this paper? Also very gratifying! "Raine, I thoroughly enjoyed reading your essay. You have done a very good job of digging deeply, making insightful comments, and seeing important symbols for what they are. Well done!"
In Mexican Gothic, Silvia Moreno-Garcia criticizes not only colonialism but the exoticization of Mexican culture. To confront the historical exploitation of Mexico and shallow, contemporary representations in various media of Mexican culture and its people, Moreno-Garcia uses her main character, Noemí Taboada, to explore the complexity and challenges of a post-colonial world from an enlightened female perspective. Both Virginia Woolf’s feminist concept of the “Angel in the House” and Ignacio M. Sánchez Prado’s “Citational Gothic: Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s Mexican Archive” provide further context for Moreno-Garcia’s critique. Through Noemí, the novel ultimately asserts the importance of reclaiming one’s cultural identity, and the need for personal autonomy for women in a world defined by patriarchal control and colonial legacy.
A primary theme in Mexican Gothic is the lasting impact of colonialism. The novel’s setting in the 1950s, post-revolution but shortly before enfranchisement for women in 1953, draws on the historical context of Mexico’s colonial and patriarchal past and shows how the land and its people were exploited by families like the Doyles. The Doyles are the foreign elites who came to Mexico to build their fortune through theft and by literally stripping Mexico and its people of wealth and freedom. Howard views Mexicans as “mulch” (Moreno-Garcia 212) and accepts the inclusion of “locals” only because the family’s inbreeding has led to sterility. Virgil explains to Noemí “[o]n occasion you need to inject new blood into the mix…we must not mingle with the rabble…it has become a necessity. A question of survival” (Moreno-Garcia 237). When Noemí remarks that her money must have helped, Virgil says “[w]ell, that’s obviously a prerequisite. Your stupid Revolution robbed us of our fortune. We must get it back” (Moreno-Garcia 237). In Ignacio M. Sánchez Prado’s “Citational Gothic: Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s Mexican Archive,” he says that marrying Noemí “is a way in which parasitical foreigners could…appropriate the wealth created” (Prado 337) by post-revolutionary government policy that returned Mexican wealth to Mexicans and away from foreign capital. By portraying the Doyles as parasites, Moreno-Garcia subverts the anti-immigrant stereotype of Mexicans as migrants who “take away jobs and government resources from Americans” (Prado 337). The subversion of the trope of immigrants as parasites is expanded upon through the gloom; the Doyle family home is a living entity that consumes the people inside it.
High Place, the home of the Doyle family, is a symbol of colonial oppression. Its isolation aligns with the “otherness” typical of settings in gothic literature, although the Europeans are “the others” here. High Place’s decaying architecture and surroundings are symbolic of the degradation caused by colonialism. Additionally, the fact that the mansion is an inheritance reminds the audience of how deeply-rooted colonialism is in power and privilege, especially through exploitation, as it was built using the wealth extracted from a silver mine where Indigenous workers were exploited, mistreated, and killed. As Noemí herself observes, High Place “looked absolutely Victorian in construction, with its broken shingles, elaborate ornamentation, and dirty bay windows” (Moreno-Garcia 20). Once a symbol of wealth and power, High Place now decays just as the Doyle family fortune has, and just as Howard Doyle himself is. High Place reflects the moral rot of the Doyle family and their history. It serves as a record not only physically as an out-of-place structure, but metaphorically as the colonial legacy that haunts Mexico. The crumbling mansion is not just a physical remnant of stolen wealth; it is a physical manifestation of the emotional and social costs of exploitation. It acts as a reminder that colonialism is not just an historical event but a constant presence shaping the lives of those who continue to suffer its consequences.
Throughout the novel, the exoticization of Mexico and its culture is critiqued. Usually, Western portrayals of Mexico depict a dangerous, mysterious land of superstition; one that has been reduced to an uncivilized country full of tourist traps on one hand and illegal migration and drug trafficking on the other. It is a backdrop for danger, thrills, and macabre tales, “cram[med] with Day of the Dead imagery” (Moreno-Garcia CBC Radio). Mexicans themselves are confined to roles as maids, nannies, and labourers, or worse as superstitious and savage brujas. While writing Mexican Gothic, Moreno-Garcia intentionally subverts the gothic genre’s stereotypical portrayal of Mexico as backward and cliche, proving “[t]here were other ways to tell stories that don't necessarily conform to the narrow expectations that people have of Mexicans” (Moreno-Garcia CBC Radio). Prado highlights Moreno-Garcia’s work as “a new road in the cultural politics of the representations of Mexico, one that imagines a path beyond otherization” (Prado 346), and says that Moreno-Garcia’s “work is deeply invested in countering the idea of Mexico as an unmodern or inferior country to the United States” (Prado 335). The novel’s critique of these narratives is not just about rejecting misrepresentation but also about challenging underlying assumptions and encouraging readers to look beyond stereotypes and appreciate the true depth of Mexican culture.
Mexican Gothic also emphasizes the wealth and cultural sophistication of Mexico prior to European colonization. Through the Doyles’ exploitation of Indigenous labour and lands the novel highlights the vibrancy of pre-colonial Mexico and underscores the lasting consequences of colonialism. Critiquing the myth that Indigenous civilizations were primitive or backward, Moreno-Garcia alludes to the greatness of ancient Mexican cultures like the Aztecs, whose advancements in governance, science, and architecture were erased by colonization. Noemí herself is a descendant of the Mazatec, which she claims proudly. Her connection to the Mazatec is also a strength, as she is more able to resist the gloom as it tries to control her. In Noemí’s ultimate triumph over the colonialist Doyles, Mexican Gothic shows the power of connection to ancestral land and the ability to recover from the damage done by colonialism. This is doubly important considering Howard Doyle’s obsession with eugenics and ethnic purity, and his racism toward the Mexican people. Through Noemí’s fight against the oppressive force that wants to consume and erase her heritage, the novel reaffirms the importance of cultural survival, resistance, and memory.
The novel’s theme of women’s agency within a patriarchal system draws parallels to Virginia Woolf’s concept of the “Angel in the House” which refers to the idealized figure of the feminine, one who is “intensely sympathetic. She was immensely charming. She was utterly unselfish” and “she was pure. Her purity was supposed to be her chief beauty – her blushes her great grace” (Woolf 141). Believing adherence to these qualities stifles a woman’s creativity and independence, Woolf notes that women “are impeded by the extreme conventionality of the other sex” (Woolf 143). She emphasizes the importance of autonomy for women to fully realize their potential, writing that the killing of the “Angel in the House” is an act of self-defence and that “[h]ad I not killed her, she would have killed me” (Woolf 141-2). Noemí confronts a similar challenge: the pressure placed on her as a young woman who is expected to conform to certain expectations based on her sex and social status. Noemí’s rebellion against expectations is a revolutionary embodiment Woolf’s critique of women’s role in society and the need to defy social beliefs of what is “acceptable” for women and their futures.
Overlapping the criticism of both colonialism and patriarchy, Noemí’s socio-economic status as a sophisticated, educated, and ambitious young woman of means from Mexico City also represents Mexico as a modern and cosmopolitan country and deconstructs the simplistic portrayal of women as naive or passive. Her family’s fortune is sourced from the industrialization of Mexico following the Revolution, showing that economic recovery is possible after colonialism despite its lingering effects. Noemí is strong-willed, intelligent, and independent, in direct opposition to what Howard Doyle perceives as valuable in women. He tells Noemí a woman’s “function is to preserve the family line” (Moreno-Garcia 74), that women serve only to ensure continuation of wealth; this is evidence that Howard views women, and Mexican women in particular, as another resource for him to exploit.. Even Noemí’s family “balked when she declared she’d like to continue her studies upon graduation” and Noemí’s mother believes that “[g]irls were supposed to follow a simple life cycle, from debutante to wife” (Moreno-Garcia 12). Moreno-Garcia stated in an interview that “the view at the time was that the woman, while she may 'waste' her time engaging academic pursuits, ultimately, the final goal is to get married and to have children" (CBC Radio). Rather than confining herself to domestic life, Noemí subverts the expectations of the time by agreeing to check on Catalina at High Place in exchange for her father agreeing to allow her to enroll in the National University to pursue a Masters degree in Anthropology. Noemí also capitalizes on her beauty and encourages the Doyle family’s underestimation of her because of her sex. “She knew her large, dark eyes and her generous lips were her greatest assets, and she used them to excellent effect” (Moreno-Garcia 37). Prado notes in “Citational Gothic” that there is a “pattern in Moreno-Garcia’s heroines: female characters seeking to be participants of Mexican modernity to the fullest” (Prado 335). Through the use of Noemí’s intelligence and bravery, her role in exposing the dark secrets of High Place and the Doyle family, and her challenge of patriarchal control and colonial legacy, Mexican Gothic becomes a feminist narrative that reflects Woolf’s critique of the limitations placed on women, advocating for women’s autonomy and intellectual freedom.
The theme of women’s autonomy is central to Noemí’s character arc and by extension to the novel’s critique of both colonialism and patriarchy. Noemí’s struggle for intellectual freedom becomes especially important when considering the limitations placed on women in 1950s Mexico. In a society where a woman’s place was the home, confined to marriage and motherhood, Noemí’s desire to continue her education defies social expectations. Noemí challenges the notion that a woman’s primary role is to support her husband and children, and rejects the convention of becoming a wife and mother at an early age. She refuses to be defined solely by her sex or social status. Moreover, her intellectual independence extends beyond her desire for further education. When Noemí arrives at High Place, not only is she determined to help her cousin, but as the story progresses, to uncover the secrets of the Doyle family. Much like an anthropologist studies a foreign culture, Noemí approaches the house with a critical view, allowing her to see the lies and manipulations of Howard, Florence, and Virgil in particular. Noemí’s late-night encounter with Virgil leads to her thinking, “[t]his man was an absolute liar, toying with her, attempting to confuse and distract her. He was kind for a second when it suited him, granted her an inch of cordiality, then took it away” (Moreno-Garcia 187). Her determination to think critically, to ask questions, and to act independently in a world that values a woman for her beauty and submission rather than her intellect reinforces her role as a feminist symbol in the narrative.
Ultimately, Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s Mexican Gothic is a potent criticism of colonialism, and the exoticization of Mexico and its people and culture while presenting a complex portrayal of female agency. Through the lens of Noemí as a character, the author challenges reductive depictions of Mexican women as passive victims and rejects narratives imposed by colonial or Western perspectives. Mexican Gothic not only reimagines women as active participants in their own destinies, echoing Virginia Woolf’s feminist theories and her call for women’s independence in Professions for Women, particularly regarding the concept of the “Angel in the House” but it reframes Mexico as a place with a rich cultural history that was exploited by selfish foreigners for their own gain. The novel encourages the reclamation of cultural identity and the breaking down of sex-based barriers to defy patriarchal and colonial control. Through its haunting narrative, Mexican Gothic asserts the power of resistance, both personal as embodied by Noemí’s struggle for independence, and cultural as seen in the reclaiming of Mexican heritage, as a means of survival in a world shaped and controlled by colonial and patriarchal legacies.
Works Cited
Moreno-Garcia, Silvia. Mexican Gothic. Del Rey, 2020.
Prado, Ignacio M. Sánchez. “Citational Gothic: Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s Mexican Archive.” College Literature, vol. 50, no. 2, 2023, pp. 323–48, https://doi.org/10.1353/lit.2023.a902221.
"Silvia Moreno-Garcia Subverts Genre Expectations with the Spooky Suspense of Her Novel Mexican Gothic." CBC Radio, 19 July 2021,
Woolf, Virginia. Professions for Women. 1931.