Ok, so now I'm regretting not asking Dr. Cook exactly why Porter's text cannot be considered Postcolonial ( I guess the obvious reason is just what Dr. P explained about the difference between a situation where the colonizing is still going on vs not and in Porter's experience, as well as in her text, it is still going on). I'm mostly interested if that would be her explanation, and interested in an idea that has occurred to me in "Flowering Judas." I started to think about the change, or potential for it, in Porter's character Laura. Again, the most poignant statement to me about Postcolonialism, or I guess Colonialism, in this text is the children Laura is teaching English to who say and write "we lov ar ticher" (p.95) with crayons, and in the same paragraph she mentions the young captain, one of Zapata's soldiers, who said he loved her. She doesn't give him the time of day and thinks: "I must send him a box of colored crayons." The implications are fascinating. She feels no respect for or hasn't any love to reciprocate to this man and perhaps not for the children either. In the story it seems very much like she is just going through the motions without much passion. It implies that she does not have a love for the people she serves, but also that she has no love for the revolutionaries specifically, which is almost a contradiction as she is one herself.
The change I'm wondering about is her reaction to Eugenio's death. She had given him narcotics and encouragement which is, in her eyes (just what we were saying in class), helping him. But when he overdoses, she does not call it a suicide, but "murder," recognizing herself as "murderer." By the end, her feelings may not have turned to "love," but the guilt and recognition or awareness of the part she plays, in colonization - one could argue, is evidence of a turnabout for her. I'm just wondering If that moment of awareness doesn't open itself up to Postcolonial thought and discussion?
I also couldn't help but see a new layer of meaning to the title "flowering Judas." As we witness Mexico's multi Colonization going on, it seems to have "flowered" into more and more presence of that "Judas" character experience, one going into save and proving to be a killing force instead.