About the book
The Machismo and Marianismo Tango
Machismo, the male ideal so specific to Hispanic culture, is complemented by its corollary marianismo, the female ideal. Both are examined in this careful study, along with the Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder that so often accompanies-and, in fact, overhangs-the lives of the women who have survived the abuse that machismo too often inflicts.
David Sequeira
The author
Dr. David Sequeira, a United States citizen since 1975, was born in Nakuru (Kenya), East Africa, and attended high school in Goa, India (an old Portuguese colony), where his parents were from. His A.A. is from St. Francis de Sales College, Nagpur, and his B.Ph. is from Papal Athaneum, Poona, both in India. Dr. Sequeira went on to earn his S.T.L. license in theology at the Catholic University of Fribourg, Switzerland; his M.A. at Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles; and his Ph.D. in clinical and social psychology at Wright Institute of Los Angeles. He stayed on in southern California, where he now lives and works as a clinical psychologist.
As a missionary in Brazil, Dr. Sequeira noted that among other machismo characteristics, most local men visited prostitutes, and this was tacitly accepted by their wives and children. “I found this very odd,” he says, “and I decided to write my dissertation on machismo in Hispanic culture.”
The dissertation was accepted with the proviso that it not be published; the Hispanic dean “did not like what I had written.” Now, with the addition of much new information on the parallel culture of marianismo, that original study is presented in this book.
