Themes Of Let It Rain Coffee By Anna Cruz

Angie Cruz’s novel, Let it Rain Coffee, tells the story of the Colón family and their experiences with immigration and identity. Their experience proves that for many people in America, especially immigrants, society has a hand in influencing your life based on factors such as your race or class. This is summed up by Santo when he says, “We might want something, Esperanza, but the world wants something else. I’m just saying that it don’t matter how good we are, you go out into the world and people will try to beat you up and take everything you got” (57). This theme of individual efforts being tossed aside for societal oppression, is seen in many instances throughout the novel.

One example of this is Esparanza’s struggle with materialism

This is seen in Bobby’s arrest when the judge, aware that Bobby had no record and was defending his sister, chose to make Bobby serve time anyways since “the judge feared bobby was one of those kids who had flown under the radar for a while and it had finally caught up with him. It was best for his own good to lock him up in a medium-security detention facility to scare him out of becoming a repeat offender” (135). This reveals how stereotypes impact the American legal system and furthermore impact the lives of those subjected to it. Bobby articulates this difference in treatment after he is out of juvie as well when Hush describes to him Operation Clean Up to which Bobby replies that he has had “cops feeling me up since I was eleven years old, waiting for me to fuck up.” (204). Based on his experiences he knows this to be true and not uncommon, based on the political climate it is clear this is still a relevant

For example, Esparanza chooses to work in an area with a worse reputation, the Bronx, when the woman she works for accuses her of stealing. This clearly impacts her as she would “rather travel to the Bronx than be called a thief” (106). This shows that some have to take active steps to avoid something that must be proven and would likely not be assumed for others. It is also significant that she feels more comfortable working for another minority family even if they do not share the same heritage, they can bond over their commonalities. Additionally, many of Esparanza’s dreams are based on the television show Dallas. To her, her life will be successful, she will have achieved the American Dream when her life reflects those of the characters of that show. However, when she meets the actor who plays Bobby Ewing on a train, not is her hope in the reality of achieving such a dream shattered when she grapples with the show as fiction, but her hope is destroyed by the fact that he is a person just like her, riding the train. Here Esparanza not only has her dreams crushed, but learns an important lesson stemming from a Bible verse, “Do not judge and you will not be judged. That white man is not your neighbor. You don’t judge him, but you judge people around you.” (251). Here, Esparanza realizes she has been subjected to a standard that isn’t a reality for anyone, and that