Guadalupe Garcia Mccall's Under The Mesquite

In the coming of age novel Under the Mesquite, Guadalupe Garcia McCall develops the conflicts between Lupita/Guadalupe, the narrator, and her father, or as Lupita calls him, her Papi, in order to display the contrasting perspectives in the way they view their current life and future for Lupita and her family. Towards the beginning of the novel, after Lupita’s Quinceañera, she exclaims what being a señorita means to her versus her family and friends. For her father, “señorita means/ he has to be a guard dog/ when boys are around”. However, to Lupita it means “melancolía: settling into sadness” (McCall 75, 76). They view Lupita’s future life as a señorita very differently. While they may both be thinking of Lupita’s future,

Furthermore, Lupita suggested to her father that he takes her mother to a cancer clinic but the clinic is six hours away from their home. He tells her that he “[doesn’t] know how [they’re] going to do it”. Lupita thinks that there is nothing “more to think about[. Her] Mami needs this” (McCall 114, 115). While Lupita is focused on her Mami and her needs, her Papi is worried about how this will affect his children, even if it could help his wife. Their priorities are very different making their perspectives on how to deal with Lupita’s mother’s care different as well. In addition, after Lupita’s mom dies and Lupita starts thinking about her future since she has already graduated, she confronts her father with the idea of going off to college. He tells her that he ‘“made promises to [her] mother. / [He] told her [he’d] take good care of [Lupita], /… there’s no place safer than home/… [He] can’t let [her] go [to

For instance, in part one, “The Weight of Words”, Lupita is just finding out about her mother’s cancer and has not yet adjusted to her new life with this conflict. She is facing a very specific struggle in this section of the novel: learning to accept her mother’s sickness. While this is an ongoing problem in the novel, it is the main conflict in this section only, not in other parts of Lupita’s life. In this section, Lupita is talking to her friend, Mireya, about her mother, and while Mireya is telling her that her mom is “going to die”; Lupita insists that ‘she’s not” (McCall 19). Although her friend is trying to prepare her for the inevitable, Lupita refuses to accept this. Additionally, in part three of the novel, “Crossing Borders”, Lupita’s main conflict is about her culture. She had been taking drama classes since she started high school and was told by her teacher that to be successful she needed to lose her accent. As she attempted to do this her close friends started making fun of her saying things like, ‘“You talk like you’re one of them. /… You talk like/ you wanna be white’” (McCall 80). Lupita became conflicted in regards to her culture. She had thought that she had been devoted to her culture and was now questioning this. Throughout this section, the conflict comes up