There is a role that most women and particularly maternal figures play which is to be very critical of a new woman entering the family, especially son's girlfriend. It is a form of jealousy and fear when women do this because they feel like a new female is coming into the family and she is being replaced. All mothers do this without even knowing it because the culture has sculpted this gender role for them to play. In “Pura Principles,” Mami plays this gender role. She doesn't like Pura at all. Mami's son observed this and said, "Mami was extremely mean to Pura and always teased her about the way she dressed or the way she ate" (Diaz, The Principle of Pura). When Pura was in Mami's sight, Mami ignored her. Without thinking, Mami played her female gender role, shaped by the culture she grew up in and which was to be protective of males in the world.