Conformity And Exclusion In Los Cachorros

In A Place Where the Sea Remembers, Sandra Benitez invites us into a mesmerizing world filled with love, anger, tragedy and hope. This rich and bewitching story is a bittersweet portrait of the people in Santiago, a Mexican village by the sea. Each character faces a conflict that affects the course of his or her life. The characters in this conflict are Remedios, la curandera of the small town who listens to people’s stories and gives them advice, Marta, a 16 year old teenage girl, who was raped and became pregnant. Chayo is Marta’s big sister and Calendario is Chayo’s husband. Justo Flores, his conflict is person vs. self. One of the most important conflicts in this story is person vs. person, then person vs. supernatural followed by

The themes and idea explored in the novel that shows the life of a peasant in Mexico, most evident in this story are: theme of family, death and revenge. In addition, the author Juan Rulfo became an orphan after he lost his family during the Mexican revolution and he uses this tragic chapter of his life for inspiration in this story. The fact that he did not have a father role model is evident in this story too. Juvencio’s and Don Lupe’s son both of them grew up without the role

It is not just the language of the Dominican culture that we find characters struggling to hold onto in Díaz’s Drown. We also find that the characters walk a fine line of defining themselves as newly Dominican American, and it seems they feel pressured to leave behind their old ways and traditions to join their new society. In the short story “Fiesta, 1980,” we find many examples of the family being torn between their Dominican customs and assimilating to their new American life. This story begins with the explanation of Papi’s most prized possession: a brand-new, lime-green, Volkswagen van. Much to Yunior’s chagrin (due to the fact that he gets sick every time he rides in the vehicle), this van means a lot to Papi, because to him, it represents an American family. According to John Riofrio (2008), “it[the van] is the embracing of the American way which has reenabled Papi’s masculinity,” (p. 33). After arriving at their Tia and Tio’s home for the party, Yunior sneers at his relatives’ apartment stating, “the place had been furnished in Contemporary Dominican Tacky” (p. 32). It seems as though Yunior, after only a short period in America, is already feeling embarrassed by his culture’s traditions. This chapter of the book also discusses the betrayal of Yunior’s father to his family, by having an affair with a Puerto Rican woman, whom

Commencing one of the main noticeable themes is poverty, which can be seen towards the end of the given excerpt of the script. Child poverty is presented where Jaibo asks for a cigarette, which Cacarizo replies to with ‘Ni cigarros, ni quinto, mano.’(Pountain: 209). It is inferred that the boys have essentially nothing which can be linked to the historical aspects of Mexico city may have influenced Buñuel’s work. Due to the Partido Revolucionario Institucional (1927) creating an economy based on the political views of themselves and the more prestigious citizens of mexico, with only the rich getting wealthier, leaving the rest unprivileged and poverty-stricken. This also meant further widening the gap between the prosperous and the penniless of the

Within Valenzuela’s “The Censors,” the satirical theme of this story mocks Juan, his thoughtless actions and his letter are symbols for innocence and secrecy. Juan’s actions symbolize the innocence of childhood and those who haven’t experienced hardship, of those who are impressionable and naïve. Juan’s actions when he receives Mariana’s address and immediately “without thinking twice, he [… writes] her a letter” and sends it show his lack of

True masculine force goes back, in family stories from the Dominican Republic, with Trujillo's dictatorship shaping manhood perception in the Dominican culture. Oscar is incapable of rising to male-standard imposed by

The racist connotation that Miss Jimenez associates with who she thinks would “fit in” society’s box is a definite reflection of the hardships Valdez witnessed in his community. For example, the Zoot Suit Riots that occurred in 1944 was rooted by a reaction by young Mexican-American males against a culture that did not want them to be a part of it. Stuart Cosgrove examines this issue when he states, "In the most obvious ways they had been stripped of their customs, beliefs and language.” (*Vargas 317) These youths were going through an identity crisis because they did not know which culture they could identify with. Miss Jimenez is a character that embodies that repression Valdez explains in “Los Vendidos.”

Collectively, these literary images go to describe a young ethnic man, probably of Latin descent, who lives with his mother in a poverty stricken area. The careful recitation of instruction given to the younger man seems to demonstrate an intricate knowledge the narrators has accrued from both predecessors and experience. Singularly, this part of the story is very powerful in that it shows a young man having to hide who he is and where he comes from in an effort to seem appealing to women, and speaks volumes about the deception that both genders go through all in name of the chase.

To practice machismo, also known as masculinity in a Dominican culture, males have to hide their flaws and act a certain way. If men express their un-masculine nature, they will be seen as expressing their weakness. In Drown written by Junot Díaz, contains many stories about Dominican Republic male struggles as an immigrant in America. One of the struggles Díaz expresses in his text is appearing masculine in society’s eyes. From the story “Drown”, the unnamed narrator expresses what it means to be masculine. “Boyfriend” is a story about another unnamed narrator observing his neighbor’s relationship, and comparing it to his own past. Yunior, the narrator of the story “Negocios”, explains the history of his father Papi, also known as Ramón. Society creates many definitions for what it means to be masculine, leading the narrator from “Drown”, the narrator from “Boyfriend”, and Ramón struggling to choose between doing what they want for themselves, or do what society wants to see.

During the decade of the eighties in El Salvador, the government would armed forces and recruit children that are approximately twelve years old out of their schools. Since Chava is only eleven years old, he still has a year of innocence, which means a year before he is conscripted to fight against the rebels of Farabundo Maríi National Liberation Front (FMLN). Chava’s life becomes at risk since it is a game of survival and he carries negative effects with violence. Although with the love of his mother and with a classmate, Chava finds the bravery to keep positive understandings and stay alert against time before he might get recruited. According to Yahaira Padilla, in Hermanas lejanas? Female Immigrant Subjectivities and the Politics of

Race and class was a significant part within Spanish society. The Spanish constructed a society and used race as a foundation on how to view individual people. They used this system to protect their superiority over the Indians. However, the introduction of and interracial relations and blacks challenged the social structure the Spanish put in place. To counter the changing social circumstances the Spanish used a variety of ways to project their superiority over the cast.

The narrator states that “it was [Maria] who did away with my generation’s virginity” (65). Garcia Marquez uses a hyperbole to portray how crucial Maria Cervantes’s contradictory role is in the men’s lives. She embraces her sexuality and is very open. In addition she also “taught [the men] much more than [they] should have learned, but she taught us above all that there’s no place in life sadder than an empty bed” (65). She reinforces the idea that sexuality should not be repressed because that would only bring on loneliness and despair. She recognizes the “disorder of love” that the townspeople live with because of repressed sexuality. The narrator describes Santiago Nasar’s passionate relationship with Maria Cervantes. He describes their relationship like “a falcon who chases a warlike crane” and that the falcon can only “hope for a life of pain” (65). The author uses a metaphor to compare Maria to a warlike crane in order to show her power and grace. The crane is a bird that stands tall and may look elegant and enticing but because Maria is “a warlike crane” she is able to stand up and fight for herself while still maintaining her grace. Another aspect of her independence would be that she stands alone in her battle against society. Garcia Marquez gives her these headstrong qualities to show how she follows her own path and goes against the town’s beliefs without showing any signs of stopping and to show that

The inquisition as an institution was enough to force people to conform and at the heart of the Spanish Inquisition was conformity. However, if we were to refer to specific tools of the inquisitors to enforce outward conformity there is a plethora. Confiscation of property would certainly be a motivator. Public sentencing and obligatory garments would cause most to conform. We can guess that doing business with a convicted heretic could look bad for the customer. Heretics could be deemed “infamous,” and their descendants would be barred from public office and the middle or upper-class lifestyle.7 Anyone of these punishments could deter heretic from practicing publicly. Considering the very basis of the inquisition was witnesses testimony,

After Blanca, who has harbored Pedro Tercero in the house for months, asks her father to help Pedro Tercero flee the country, Esteban agrees and goes to retrieve him from his cell-like surroundings. This dialogue comes from that scene, and it mirrors the conversation between Esteban and Pedro when Pedro Tercero frees Esteban from the workers at Tres Marías. In both situations, one man is imprisoned and the other rescues him at Blanca’s request. However, when Pedro Tercero retrieved Esteban, Esteban was furious, and his line “go to hell” was uttered from a place of anger and loathing. Now, miraculously, the two are able to smile when recalling their old, destructive relationship, marred even by a murder attempt. This scene brings the connection of the two men, which revolved around Blanca and their differing political ideologies, to a state without rage or hate. A pivotal moment in Esteban’s development, the exchange marks an end to the cycle of Esteban’s fury and hatred of Pedro Tercero.

A pesar del carácter ilusorio de los recuerdos, en los que lo fantástico y lo real se entremezclan. A pesar de que el tiempo enmaraña los sentidos, queremos comenzar evocando los recuerdos propios, porque precisamente esta tesis se fundamenta en las vivencias y los recuerdos de otros. Los de uno son recuerdos de una infancia cuyo escenario es un municipio de la provincia de Jaén. Era por 1979. A escasos metros de mi casa, en ese pueblo, vivía Madriles. Madriles era un anciano, vestía de negro impecable y se dejaba ver poco. De vez en cuando los niños que jugábamos en plena calle a la pelota durante horas y sin que el paso de un vehículo nos entorpeciera, abandonábamos lo que estábamos haciendo y no dejábamos de mirar, atónitos. Acompañado por su mujer, salía de su casa y daba un pequeño paseo, tan sólo unos metros calle arriba y calle abajo. A Madriles le faltaba una pierna. Era evidente. El dobladillo del pantalón negro, también amputado, bamboleaba con cada esforzado paso. Las muletas de madera eran pesados apoyos en las axilas del abuelo. Siempre me ha impresionado esa visión. De niño cavilaba a menudo sobre el desconsuelo de Madriles y sus torpes movimientos con las muletas.