When Hope Dies in Tomas Rivera in and the Earth Did Not Devour Him

At work, Ramon and the other Chicano miners are forced to take on the most dangerous jobs while working alone, while white miners were allowed to work in pairs, doing some of the less life-threatening jobs. The Chicanos become indebted to the company through high prices, as the only stores in the town are those owned by the company. Ramon and Esperanza, along with the other community members fight against verbal abuse and discriminatory practices in the working and living conditions they encounter on a daily basis.

Written during the year 2000, Virgil Suárez’s poem, “Isla” compares the creature Godzilla to the immigrant experience. The speaker provides a descriptive comparison of himself as an immigrant while comparing immigrants to Godzilla, a monster of Tokyo (Suárez, 2000). Throughout this poem, Suárez’s use of imagery and descriptive phrases elicit sympathy to its readers.

In “Puerto Rican Obituary” by Pedro Pietri, the author takes his readers on a journey of the oppressive life of a Puerto Rican immigrant. He describes a vicious cycle of stagnancy in which immigrants work endlessly without reward. Hopeful every day that the American dream they once imagined would come to fruition, but instead they are continually faced with trials and turmoil on every hand. Instead of uniting as a body to work towards greatness, the immigrants grow envious of each other, focusing on what they lack instead of the blessings that they currently attain. Contrary to the ideals of early immigrants, Pietri portrays Puerto Rico to be the homeland. The ideals of early immigrants have drastically changed throughout the development of America. Petri paints a completely different picture of America throughout his poem. Early immigrants describe an America that is welcoming, with endless opportunities, and a safe haven. Despite earlier depictions of the immigrant experience, these ideals are challenged because they weren’t integrated into society, were inadequately rewarded for hard work, and were disadvantaged due to their socioeconomic status.

Enrique’s journey from Honduras to the U.S. unveils the innate loyalty of a loving child to their mother and presents the dangers that a migrant faces on the road with consistent angst; nevertheless, it supports the idea that compassion shown by some strangers can boost the retreating confidence within a person. In Sonia Nazario’s “Enrique’s Journey,” he seeks the beacon of light that all migrants hope to encounter; “El Norte.” Like many children before him, it is the answer to the problems of a hard life. While being hunted down “like animals” leading to “seven futile attempts,” he is

These tensions in school and in society in general are reflected in the short novel And the Earth Did Not Devour Him by Tomás Rivera. The story concentrated on the memories of a male protagonist and how the act of remembering is empowering him. All the stories are loosely based on Rivera’s childhood because they took place in a small community of Mexican-American farm workers during the 1940’s and 1950’s. This story was a call to social change and supported a greater well-being of Mexican Americans because it depicted the difficult working conditions that migrant workers faced and had to endure for the lack of job opportunities. Problems with the working conditions for migrant workers is depicted in several of the short stories, especially since it concentrated on how these conditions lead to tragedies and sometimes deaths. Also, racism in the schools by other classmates and school officers is shown; for example, he includes the story of a child getting expelled easily because the principal claimed, “they need him in the fields.” The opening section of the novel is the male child protagonist reflecting over his thoughts, memories, and impressions while the rest of the novel is narrated through the viewpoint of other people in his life, such as his parents. A main theme in the novel is the idea of an American Dream, which was the desires of the migrants of having a better life in the U.S compared to their

In the book Fast Food Nation, Eric Schlosser talks about the working conditions of fast food meat slaughterhouses. In the chapter “The Most Dangerous Job,” one of the workers, who despised his job, gave Schlosser an opportunity to walk through a slaughterhouse. As the author was progressed backwards through the slaughterhouse, he noticed how all the workers were sitting very close to each other with steel protective vests and knives. The workers were mainly young Latina women, who worked swiftly, accurately, while trying not to fall behind. Eric Schlosser explains how working in the slaughterhouses is the most dangerous profession – these poor working conditions and horrible treatment of employees in the plants are beyond

The book Fresh Fruit, Broken Bodies: Migrant Farmworkers in the United States illustrates the fieldwork of the author Seth M. Holmes by explaining the myriad aspects of migrant workers’ lives in the U.S.—from the politics to the social environments to the physical body. By not only studying, but living, the lives of these migrant workers, Holmes brings the reader a view unseen by the vast majority and provides the opportunity for greater understanding through the intense details of his work. The voices of vastly different characters—real people—are captured and expounded on without judgment but with deep consideration for all factors that contribute to each person’s life, opinions, and knowledge. Ultimately, a picture of intersectionality is painted in the colors of migrants, mothers, fathers, children, doctors, soldiers, executives, the poor, the rich, and more.

First of all, the setting of this novel contributes to the Rivera family’s overall perception of what it means to be an American. To start this off, the author chooses a small American city where groups of Latino immigrants with their own language and traditions, lived together in the same apartment building. All these immigrants experienced similar problems since they moved from their countries. For example, in the novel after every other chapter the author

...And the Earth Did Not Devour Him is not a story of one character, but rather of a people. Rivera, much like in the Actos of El Teatro Campesino, basically uses a stock character. Although each story seemingly gives more detail and specificity to the character, it can also be interpreted as doing the exact opposite. In telling of the life of one, Rivera in turn reveals the lives of many. Even though specific details of each of their lives were obviously different, the core issues still remained; Chicanos needed change and they needed it immediately. One of the most noticeable techniques Rivera uses within his novel is the constant changing of the point-of-view. The novel is centered on an unnamed male protagonist, however, throughout the story the point-of-view ranges from that of a mother praying for her son unwillingly fighting in Vietnam to that of an omniscient narrator, capable of entering anyone’s heads. This often times seemed to be very random and even abrupt. However, it was through the sporadic sprinklings of changes in point-of-views that Rivera was able to not only showcase cultural struggles of the time, but also call for social change as well as reveal the confusion and uncertainty of the people themselves.

The factory jobs were controlled by owners and bosses, who showed little regard for workers and their wellbeing. Workers forced themselves into work during even extreme illnesses; one absence or mistake and they might be replaced without question. These low wage jobs came with few benefits and no rights; there was nothing in place that protected the livelihood of the worker. Immigrant’s willingness to work all the time created these conditions.

In the ethnographic text, Fresh Fruit, Broken Bodies, by Seth Holmes, Holmes describes his experience on enduring the living and working conditions of migrant workers. Seth Holmes’ social positions and identities helped bring the ethnography forward by showcasing the stories of Triqui migrant workers and how they suffer in everyday life because of the cycle of suffering. On the other hand, Holmes risks credibility and validity as the ethnographic text is taken from his point of view as a white man rather than a Triqui worker’s. As the author of the ethnographic text, Seth Holmes takes an in-depth look inside the lives of the Triqui workers and the problems they encounter in the face of racism and the social, political, and economic

. . one can’t help but wonder what form the author/protagonist’s life will take in the aftermath of his exorcism” (261). In this quote, Gonzales-Berry asserts that Miguel Chico’s has been exonerated of his repression through the art of writing. As stated by Marquez, serving as an inner historian has provided Miguel Chico a different perspective on life. Moreover, Gonzales-Berry’s curiosity is insightful because now that Miguel Chico has released his repression, he can now enjoy what he was encouraged to repress—his body. Lastly, in the article, “Sinners Among Angels, or Family History and the Ethnic Narrator in Arturo Islas’s The Rain God” written by David Rice, adheres to the idea of repression as he writes, “Through his vision of Felix’s return, Miguel Chico realizes that the family can only be saved if it is reconnected to the past which it represses and denies” (184). In this quote, Rice claims that the Angel family suffers from repression. His viewpoint is coming from the inner historian—Miguel Chico—as Marquez refers in his article. He refers to the salvation of the Angel family because the burden of their past is preventing the family from living their lives, hence not function as a family. In order to proceed, Rice suggests that the Angel family must acknowledge the past and learn to accept it.

At twelve years of age, I awoke to three urgent nocks. Rubbing the sleep from my eyes, I opened the door to be greeted by one of my dad’s friend from work informing me my father had fallen from the ladder picking cherries that morning and was being taken to the hospital. Fear took over my body at the thought of what could have happened to my dad. With only my three other siblings at home and my mom working, we had to wait until my dad got home or my mom. Fortunately nothing too serious happened to my dad that morning. What had happened made me realize the dangers migrant workers face every day they work.

Nevertheless, even if he was not a supernatural creature, in a postcolonialism point of view he would seem as a subaltern towards the isolated group of people since he has no resources whatsoever to support himself. Also, Pelayo, his wife and everyone from this town do not have sympathy for him, regardless of the sickly and poor state he was in for the audience to notice the division between “race” in a postcolonialism view. Next, in this readerly text, the transactional reader response, the audience can claim that Pelayo and Elisenda could have helped the angel, learn from him and where he came from but instead, they held him captive like a criminal, a “ragpicker” in a chicken coop (Marquez 363). Additionally, in a religious perspective, the readers can notice the level of cruelty and hypocrisy of the couple’s behavior, they did not care this angel saved their child, but instead what they care was about exploiting and profiting from this miraculous supernatural creature.

There is an enormous amount of fear at the thought of returning to his homeland. Although his heritage is kept sacred it does not signify that his life within Mexico was a resplendent one. The poem suggests the fear of death at any given moment and a land deprived of beauty and essence: “…in the bed of mirrors and in the bed of razors / in the sleepwalking sewers…The vegetation of disaster / ripens beneath the ground” (63-68). This indicates that Paz had a troubled childhood and at the time, the most he had was the essence of nature to worship. Judging by his background experiences it is evident that what he has encountered during his lifetime is the locus of most of his poems and stories. He relied on writing poetry for relief and wrote about nature in its rawest form through the use of animals, the environment and also human nature.