Gender relations in El Loco Ruiz are characterized as violent and abusive. In several instances of the play, Ruiz exhibits controlling, frightening, and violent behaviors towards women (particularly Luista). Characters who were subjected to Ruiz’s irascible behavior did not passively respond, and they fought back against Ruiz. Ruiz attempts to exert his control over the residents of the boarding house points to the volatile relations between the two genders and the lower class. Although violence and abuse are prevalent throughout the play, some characters facilitated positive gender relations. For this excerpt of the play reprinted below, Angelica reveals that Goyo, a male character, can be humane and caring:
Goyo: am I really your only friend?
Angelica: Yes, because you are the only one who has not tried to have me be something more. You are the only one who has never had a violent word for me and you have taken care of me. Remember that time I drank too much, you put ice on my forehead and injected me with caffeine so I would come to my senses? [What???]
Goyo: I spent two days by your side that time
Angelica: and you did not speak
Goyo: I was so in love with you. So noble were my intentions towards you that I could not put them into words without diminishing them. I was fine with just loving you in silence. And everytime I celebrated with you your latest conquest, I felt the love I had for you but which I never expressed, die a little.
Angelica: [moved] Goyo
Ruiz is the epitome of an Argentinian malevo, and he portrays this negative gender profile by indifferently considering women’s gender roles. For example, a woman and her baby (Ruiz’s child) appear at the boarding house, and she inquires about Ruiz’s whereabouts. The woman is dismayed when she cannot find Ruiz for money. In addition, Angelica and Agustina learn about Ruiz denial of his social role of being a father, and not acknowledging the pregnancy. They are concerned over the well-being of the mother and her child, despite knowing Ruiz’s rejection of his social role of being a father. Both women decide to help by giving the woman money. The excerpt that is reprinted below shows that Angelica and Agustina disregarded the pleasures of life that can be bought by money, and instead they prioritized the women’s motherhood:
Angelica [in low voice]: girls, come on, do we have some money we can give this poor woman?
Agustina: I just have these 20 pesos Alfredo gave me to buy shows…but here, take them
Elena: and wait, I have ten pesos he gave me to buy those 5 tickets. Take them. Besides, Malandante is nothing but a burro. He was going to lose anyway.
Luista, the young girl who is described as innocent and naïve, is disillusioned by the gender relations that are presented by Ruiz. Ideal gender roles are imagined by Luisita, but not true in the play. For example, Luista believes that all of the people in the boarding house are virtuous people, but in reality they are living precarious lower-class lifestyles. Luista gains a false sense of family structure, and she finds out that Ruiz was lying the entire time about his life and the boarding house. Overall, Ruiz attempts to lure Luisita into a questionable and dark lifestyle. The innocent and pure gender relations of a young girl is adulterated by a low-class and deceitful Argentine malevo.
At the climax of the play, a religious figure named “Akman” appears in the play. He is known as a country bumpkin who sells bibles. Sexuality and sinful subjects discussed in the company of Akman. In dialogue between certain characters, subjects of morality surface presence of the Akman, such as the “Pleasures of life.” “Interest in women,” and “Not resisting a woman’s desires.” The Akman disagrees and rejects the residents ’sinful views of life “Akman’s” rejection of the characters comments on sexuality suggests the rigid interpretation of gender relations.
Dora Barrancos, a well-known Argentine socialist, wrote an article that reflects the rigid interpretation of gender relations in Argentina titled, Gender, Sexuality, and Reproduction in Twentieth-Century Argentina. In her article, Barrancos describes that Argentine women’s mobility, sexuality, and other aspects had limitations, and these women were at the brunt of divorces and separations. Argentine women were viewed as the cohesive force that kept families together. Argentine men, however, were an exception, and they were allowed to lead adulterous lives. In terms of divorce, men were required to pay money to their divorced wives’ children. Most of the time, men did not pay money to their children, and this is reflected in the play (When Ruiz fails to give the woman money for his own child). Barrancos also points out that this is especially true in Catholic countries such as Argentina. The appearance of the religious figure in the play, Akman, alludes to religion’s strict role in Argentine gender relations. Asunción Lavrin, a Latin American historian, shares similar views on Argentine women with Barrancos in paragraph two of page five of her essay titled, The Ideology of Feminism in the Southern Cone, 1900-1940.