Marta go to visit el brujo to cast a spell on Candelario and Chayo 's unborn baby. At that moment, Marta is feeling anger and she did not think thoroughly about it because Candelario and Chayo are not willing to raise her baby. Marta hope that Candelario and Chayo’s unborn child will die, so Candelario and Chayo will take care of her baby. Marta picture, “el brujo’s magic wresting the baby from her sister’s womb, but then she pictured her own child taking its place in Chayo’s arms.” (Benitez, 61). When Chayo know about the spell, she locks Marta out of her life and creates a division between them. Marta try to talk it out, but she fails to reconnect with her sister. Marta asks, “Won’t you ever forgive me?” (Benitez, 151). Chayo says, “For what
It was another instance in which Socorro would have said her emotions were clouding her judgment and her witch’s intuition. One evening she’d had enough of the waiting and the pretending. She was a girl on her own, after all. She made her own decisions. She invited the boy in and before the door was closed, he was against her, his mouth on hers.
She wasn’t una pendeja” (59). She had known that her mother was going to fight until her dying breath to maintain dominance over the relationship between the two. Yet, Lola would not give in because she knew that she could no longer just be the daughter of Belicia Cabral. It was important that she found her own voice.
May of 1961 - A monumental day for the citizens of the Dominican Republic. Their corrupt, authoritarian ruler, Rafael Trujillo, was assassinated by a group of men, bringing joy to the oppressed masses of the country. Prominent leaders of the revolutionary movement were the Mirabal Sisters, who ultimately sacrificed their life in order to overthrow Trujillo. But was this sacrifice necessary in order to set right the inhumane and cruel regime of Trujillo? A vast collection of evidence suggests otherwise.
Her anxiety and the fear of what will happen if the D.R. police were to find her and her family. Like her children, Yo’s mother can be represented just like the children told the tale of El Cuco. Consumed by the fear of Rafael’s dictatorship, she believes that if not well behaved, she, along with her family—will be taken away and punished for not following the rules. Also living in the United States, she must concern herself with Child Protective Services (CPS), an organization known for taking children from their parents, if neglect/abuse is heavily suspected. Not as harsh as Rafael and his police force, but for a parent like Yo’s
In this explanation, the author employs the relationship of Antonio, a seven year boy and Ultima, a magical woman with healing powers and the various experiences which all along help the protagonist to learn important aspects of the community and designs means of overcoming the challenges with the help of Ultima. The author has done a good job in highlighting the origins and traditions of a culture which seems to be little understood or ignored by historians. The setting of the narrative, which is the author’s hometown and the use of the author’s life experiences does not only make the facts presented valuable but also exciting to read. The story also presents a number of conflicts such as paganism vs Catholicism, American Culture vs Hispanic Culture and the Expectation of parents towards their
This was a happy event, until an accident forced her to miscarry. This leaves Lourdes with the grief of losing her son, who she had originally planned to name in honor of her beloved father Jorge. The reflecting pool at the Frick Museum reminds her of this, “[she] remembers what the doctors in Cuba told her. That the baby inside her had died. That they’d have to inject her with saline solution to expel the baby’s remains.
Lourdes, Enrique’s mother, loved her children as every mother does and did anything in her power to provide for them even if it meant to travel 1,619 miles into a foreign country. Many parents like Lourdes have left their entire families for job opportunities and risk their lives through the dangerous journey but they have the hope and motivation because of love— love for their sons and daughters. Even Enrique found himself doing the same for his soon-to-be-born baby which was one of the components that made him persevere in his
Despite the fact, he justifies it would be the best thing for his son and tries to be affectionate with Reza to convince him that he is doing what is best for him. Reza’s family is living in poverty and without the proper means to feed their children. Pauperization in families brings tough and dramatic decisions. Therefore, the mother is giving the power of decision to her husband to move one of their kids to an orphanage.
The setting allows the reader to understand how people without honour are seen as outcasts of the society and the existence of a woman’s virginity is seen as a measure of her honour, as well as a precious commodity, which can purchase the family’s social advancement, through a marriage of convenience. Ángela states that Santiago deflowered her, but since “…she looked for it in the shadows…”, even though “She only took the time necessary to say the name.” we question this piece of information and its reliability, due to it being precise but also vague at the same time. Due to their sister stating this, Pablo and Pedro Vicario are ordered to reinstate their “…sister’s lost honour…”, ironically by their mother, to meet the expectations of the community and it is up to them to spiritually retrieve their sister’s virginity by killing Santiago. This means the brothers cannot back down from “…the horrible duty that’s fallen on them…” as “…there’s no way out of this…”.
Lola takes advantage of her deteriorating mother whose illness represents the declining hold of the norms over Lola. Since her mom “will have trouble lifting her arms over her head for the rest of her life,” Lola is no longer afraid of the “hitting” and grabbing “by the throat” (415,419). As a child of a “Old World Dominican Mother” Lola must be surrounded by traditional values and beliefs that she does not want to claim, so “as soon as she became sick” Lola says, “I saw my chance and I’m not going to pretend or apologize; I saw my chance and I eventually took it” (416). When taking the opportunity to distinguish herself from the typical “Dominican daughter” or ‘Dominican slave,” she takes a cultural norm like long hair and decides to impulsively change it (416). Lola enjoyed the “feeling in [her] blood, the rattle” that she got when she told Karen to “cut my hair” (418).
Alvarez and her family have a lot of trauma considering there lives in the dominican republic and living under the dictator,through it all alvarez's parents raised a daughter who would share their story in a fashionable matter that told the story how it was.
After doing so and being gone for some time, the daughter realizes that she misses and loves her mother very much. However, when they meet up again, the same sort of physical fight happens. The daughter is then sent to stay with her grandmother. After more time spent apart, both parties realize their love for one another. Lola also realizes, after talking to her grandmother, that she is so much alike her mother.
The Mirabal sisters, also known as La Mariposas, have been known throughout the Dominican Republic for participating in a major revolution against their unjust ruler, Rafael Trujillo. After years of the sisters’ hard-work, along with the others who were involved in the revolution, their work paid off when Trujillo's regime ended with his assassination. However, in order for them to have taken part in this act against Trujillo, the Mirabal sisters had to sacrifice several things from their lives, most importantly, their freedom and their relationship with their family. Many people believe that these sacrifices were not necessary because the sisters didn’t need to go to the extent where the end result would be them orphaning their children. Nonetheless,
The family would always ask “why us?” or “maybe it’s a curse” or “she was fine for years”, and the list would go on and on. (225) She didn’t feel like she belonged and her family
She is being easily swayed by the man who is making her think that the baby is “the only thing that is bothering [them and] it’s the only thing that’s made [them] unhappy” (212). The “love” she has for him seems real to her at first but soon she realizes it is not even true because she does not really mean anything to him and the baby she is carrying does not make him happy at all since he is going through so much just to get rid of it. She is presented with this realization when she says, “but if I do it, then it will be nice again if I say things are like white elephants, and you’ll like it” and to that he replies, “I’ll love it. I love it now but I just can’t think about it.