Bailey's Cafe 2/2

Go women!

            Finally, a woman who does not accept any shit! Ladies and gentlemen, may I introduce the only female character in Bailey’s Café who stands up for herself, fights back, and knows the consequences of racism; the “crazy Yuma squaw,” Miss Maple’s unnamed grandmother.

            The grandmother marries a black man because he pays for her fair and square. Indeed, her sale was going to happen eventually because of her beauty. She has mahogany skin, jet black hair, luscious breasts, and only one piece of bark covering her crotch. Just because she is beautiful, though, does not mean she will assimilate into the black man’s view of marriage. “My grandfather set about teaching her the most important phrases in English: I am the man. You – woman. But he found himself learning her language a whole lot quicker: co-barque. That meant no, and he was to hear it often.” (167)

A beautiful Yuma woman.

            Not only does the grandmother verbally assault her husband with rejection, she physically assaults him when necessary as well. “She gave him no peace, as she insisted she was going to California:…No help with the crops…No cooked meals…And finally, no sex. But you’re already in California, you damn fool, my grandfather would hold his aching balls at night and rage. But he knew what she meant and he also knew better than to try beating her into submission. That was how he’d learned the Cuchan words for his nose – e hotche – because she’d broken it.” (168)

            One would think that the Yuma woman never helped her husband one bit, but she did. Not only is the grandmother beautiful, strong, and fierce, she is also intelligent. “But my grandmother insisted on my grandfather paying them something, if only a penny a parcel, to make the sale papers legal. The Yumas had already learned what the white man could do when your land was given by God.” (170) Now, their children and their children’s children will own 3,000 acres of land that will be fertilized by a soon-coming irrigation system.

Your welcome, children. Eat your cacti!

The grandmother made her family filthy rich by doing things her way, which she had to fight for. In my opinion, she holds the title of best family member and of best woman ever, for that matter. It was more than relieving and pleasing to read about her in a book filled with abused prostitutes. The only infuriating issue I have about Miss Maple’s grandmother is that she is by far the strongest character in the entire novel, and she does not have a name.

Strongest woman in the world. (on the outside, at least)