In Cherrie Moraga’s play story, Heroes and Saints, takes a surreal look at farmworkers in the San Joaquin Valley facing problems with pesticide poisoning. The play centers around Cerezita, who was affected by pesticides while she was in the womb when her mother was pregnant. She was born with a disembodied head, and viewed as a saint by the community for her miracle of being alive. The main issue in the play revolves around the poisoning of the pesticides affecting the barrio, or Chicano/a neighborhood communities. The communities have been affected by pesticides in various ways such as birth defects, deaths, and unsanitary water adults and children drink. Not only is pesticide poising an issue in the barrio, but families face their own personal struggles everyday as they fight to survive. One issue that can be seen in the passage selected is machismo, and how the man plays a …show more content…
Emotive language can be seen through a metaphor when Don Gilberto says, “You can imagine how hard it’s been for Dolores, but she did it, and alone. My compadre, bueno, it’s hard to even call him that now after leaving his family like he did” and later shifts to him saying, “Nos llaman braceros because we work and love with our arms. Because we ain’t afraid to lift a sack of potatoes, to defend our children, to put our arms around la waifa at night” (121). When the reader reads these lines, the first emotion that can be seen is sadness and sorrow for Dolores and for his good friend leaving his family. As Don Gilberto continues speaking in this scene, the mood shifts to confidence and loving because the point of view he makes is how real men are and how they are supposed to really act with their wives and children, even during the difficult times such as the ongoing pesticide problem in the
Through their superstitious beliefs, devout religious convictions, and established customs the severity of the collective conventionality of the inhabitants of Valle del Sole in Nino Ricci’s Lives of the Saints is evident and crucial to the ruination of Cristina Innocente. The people of the town have proven themselves to be incredibly superstitious, irrationally believing in things such as the “evil eye” to prove ________________. In addition to their superstitions, their exceedingly pious beliefs further their condemnation of Cristina, casting her out in the eyes of God. The citizens of Valle del Sole also denounce Cristina for her lack of regard to the very specific roles and responsibilities within their
Heroic priest Bartolomeo Las Casas, a fighter for the rights of Indians in real life is afraid, constantly looking around to the disorder in Cochabamba. Yes, and the whole film crew, so enthusiastically create a movie instantly is ready to quit, fearing riots taking place in the city. A petty producer Costa, who boasts that for 2 bucks, employs a large crowd, suddenly imbued with sympathy for the woman whose child has suffered in the riots, and spitting on the danger of going into the inferno to save the girl. Everyone is different. We may be bad, but we can and show themselves as heroes.
There are many issues regarding the raising and producing of various livestock animals, and the use of pesticides on various types of crops. The movie Food.Inc does a good job explaining these issues, but in a very biased way. It makes agriculturists look like terrible people, when this is not the case.
Symbolism is the key to understanding Sandra Cisneros’ novel, “The House on Mango Street”. By unraveling the symbolism, the reader truly exposes the role of not only Latina women but women of any background. Esperanza, a girl from a Mexican background living in Chicago, writes down what she witnesses while growing up. As a result of her sheltered upbringing, Esperanza hardly comprehends the actions that take place around her, but what she did understand she wrote in her journal. Cisneros used this technique of the point of view of a child, to her advantage by giving the readers enough information of what is taking place on Mango Street so that they can gather the pieces of the puzzle a get the big picture.
Women are seen as failure and can’t strive without men in the Mexican-American community. In this novel you can see a cultural approach which examines a particular aspect of a culture and a gender studies approach which examines how literature either perpetuates or challenges gender stereotypes. Over and over, Esperanza battled with how people perceived her and how she wished to be perceived. In the beginning of the book, Esperanza speaks of all the times her family has moved from one place to another. “Before that we lived on Loomis on the third floor, and before that we lived on Keeler.
In the award winning play The Oxcart “La carreta”, by René Marqués is about a Puerto Rican family trying to escape poverty by moving to a more prosperous place. The Characters of the Oxcart are: Doña Gabriela who is a widow and the mother of Juanita and chaguito and also the stepmom of Luis, she is very strong woman. Juanita her daughter in the other hand stars off as a docile person whoever after something tragic happens to her she then becomes this strong defying character and eventually she becomes a prostitute. Chaguito is a very naughty boy he loves that streets and hates school he is extremely disrespectful. Don Chago is the father of Luis and Doña Gabriela’s husband he’s the typical and traditional man who won’t leave behind his place of origin. Luis, Doña Gabriela’s stepson, he is the head of the household; he works very hard but eventually dies coincidentally while working. Those are the primarily characters of the Oxcart then we have the others such as Lidia, whose Juanita’s friend while living in New York, we also have Lito, who is a family neighbor while they are living in San Juan, we also have Germana, the nosey neighbor. Matilde who is the one that encourages Juanita to enter the world of prostitution, and then we have Paco, a radio personality that meets Juanita in New York and ask her to marry him. There is also Mr. Parkinton an American preacher and lastly Doña Isabel, a former teacher and Luis’ fiancé’s aunt that also has a brief affair with him
The popular revolutionary poem “I am Joaquin” by Rodolfo Corky Gonzales influenced many Chicana/os to embrace their heritage in the Chicano Movement in the 1960s. The poem created psychological work for the Chicano identity. Moreover, this poem developed and promoted social consciousness, commitment to activism, and cultural pride for many Chicanos. However, Gonzales primarily focuses on the identity and struggles of a Mexican-American male which excludes other narratives. Thus, the lack of inclusivity influenced me to recreate the popular poem, which centers on women from Central America who are rarely acknowledged in Chicano Studies. Therefore, our poem “I am Dolores” is focused on these three main themes: empowerment of women of color, resistance
“Poverty and exploitation of women in Latin America can never be alleviated because they are rooted in machismo,” meaning that because of the way society was run in Latin American, women can’t advance from the ancient state of mind that they belong in the private sphere and should stay there, because only men are good enough to be out in the public sphere. The reason why society was run in this manner, was because of the machismo feeling engraved in the minds of men and, in some cases, women in society. Alicia, Carolina, and Nancy don’t really have any other choice, than try to survive on their own by doing acts that are not “approved” by the society they live in. Even now, because of their actions, we could even disagree with the way they decided to approach their situation, because even now a day, we could think that selling one’s body or being involved in “off the book”
The themes explored in the novel illustrate a life of a peasant in Mexico during the post-revolution, important themes in the story are: lack of a father’s role model, death and revenge. Additionally, the author Juan Rulfo became an orphan after he lost
In “I am Joaquin”, women are represented minimal, unspecific, and stereotypical. The term coined by Gonzales was not inclusive to women. A lack of women’s acknowledgment engagement with the Chicano Movement is present in Gonzales poem. In these lines “I shed the tears of anguish as I see my children disappear” Gonzales gives the impression of stereotypical women (I am Joaquin) . An image of a mother stereotype is depicted instead of an image of women contributing and involved in the movement through activism and organizations. Women such as Dolores Huerta played a vital role in the evolvement of the Chicano Movement however, the Chicano Social Identity is not inclusive to women because women are defined by men. Dolores Huerta was an important farmworker organizer within the farmworker struggles.
Junot Diaz's short story “Fiesta, 1980” gives an insight into the everyday life of a lower class family, a family with a troubled young boy, Yunior and a strong, abusive father, Papi. The conflict, man vs. man is one of the central themes of this story. This theme is portrayed through the conflicts between Papi and his son. Papi asserts his dominance in what can be considered unfashionable ways. Unconsciously, every action Papi makes yields negative reactions for his family. Yunior simply yearns for a tighter bond with his father, but knows-just like many other members of his family-Papi’s outlandish ways hurts him. As the story unfolds it becomes obvious that the conflicts between Papi and himself-along with conflicts between Yunior and himself-affect not only them as individuals, but their family as a whole.
In the short story “Ashes for the Wind”, written by Hernando Tellez, he applies the use of symbolism and theme to elevate his writing to a greater degree. Through various symbols providing profound overtones concealed throughout the story, Tellez’s continuous references to these symbols help to establish and reinforce the theme; the theme depicted in the story is corruption and reveals that the government will not tolerate those who have conflicting political views. One of the most prominent symbols that underlines the theme is the oil dripping from the black drum in Don Rómulo Linares’ store, which illustrates the continuation of life. When Juan Martinez is denied from purchasing oil, he is denied of his life; the oil is in clear sight across
Throughout his novel, Don Quixote, Miguel Cervantes effectively uses the transformation of reality to critique and reflect societal and literary norms. In three distinct scenes, Don Quixote or his partner, Sancho, transform reality. Often they are met with other’s discontent. It is through the innkeeper scene, the windmill scene, the Benedictine friar scene, and Quixote’s deathbed scene that Cervantes contemplates revolutionary philosophies and literary techniques. The theme of reality transformation does not even stop there. Sometimes the transformations of reality scenes act as mimetic devices. Ultimately, Miguel Cervantes’ use of transformative scenes acts as a creative backdrop for deeper observations and critiques on seventeenth-century Spanish society.
This text exhibits the events of the 1937 Parsley Massacre. Similar to Junot Diaz’s, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, this text refers back to Trujillo’s dictatorship in the Dominican Republic. Trujillo organized a genocide of Haitians who were in D.R. Danticat allows readers to experience this traumatic event through the perspective of Amabelle Desir, the main character.
The author of this short story, Sandra Cisneros used this myth to make herself different from other American writers. She used ideas from things and stories she heard growing up as a Mexican-American woman, living in a house full of boys that got all of the attention (Mathias). Cisneros also grew up in the 19...