Francisco Jimén Sálaz-Márquez: A Literary Analysis

Christopher Dawson, a famous British scholar, once said: “The greatest obstacle to international understanding is the barrier of language.” Around the world, approximately 7100 different languages are spoken. Accordingly, there is a high probability that language barriers cause misunderstandings or misinterpretations between people with different native languages. As this phenomenon is so common, numerous authors, especially those who have experienced such communication difficulties throughout their own lives, have explored this topic in their literary works. Francisco Jiménez and Rubén Sálaz-Márquez are two of those authors personally affected by language barriers, and therefore, they both address this issue in their short stories The Circuit

This behaviour is exemplified by means of the protagonist, Mrs Teubbes, in Rubén Sálaz-Márquez’ short story White Mice. Throughout the story, Mrs Teubbes claims that she is ready for new challenges and, referring to the Spanish language, eager to learn something new. Mrs Archunde, her aide, teaches “the Spanish component for all forth graders in the school” (Munkelt 107) and Mrs Teubbes says that she is “picking up the language right along with the students” (Munkelt 107). However, she only does that because she thinks that the Spanish “component would help kids learn English better” (Munkelt 107). After attending a bilingual conference, which was “conducted totally in English” (Munkelt 108), she states that Spanish should only be used in the classroom as a transitional tool. Consequently, the character of Mrs Teubbes is a paradox in herself: She is pretending to enjoy the bilingualism in her classroom, yet she rather easily abandons this idea after the conference. She claims that she is open to new challenges, yet she is not ready to adapt new cultural ideas and traditions. White Mice reaches its climax when a language barrier leads to a misunderstanding between Mrs Teubbes and her student America, causing Mrs Teubbes to feel nauseous as she thinks she has just eaten white mice. In reality, however, her student “assumed

The majority of the American people do not approve of letting Mexicans come to their land in search for work, as they fear that the Chicanos might steal their jobs, and thus also their money. Mrs Teubbes’ approbation to English only in the classroom could be interpreted in the sense of trying to turn Mexicans into Americans. However, Mexican Americans are characterized by more than just their mother tongue, as they “all share […] a unique culture, a complex history, religion, traditions, and values that make them markedly different from the dominant Anglo society of this country.” (Carl and Paula Shirley 4) Therefore, Rubén Sálaz-Márquez uses Mrs Teubbes’ misinterpretation to point out a larger misunderstanding of the whole Mexican American population. Moreover, through having a white educated teacher as his protagonist, he also criticises the American school system, which pretends to adhere to the needs of the Mexican children, when in reality, its goal is to transform them into well-behaved American