Under The Mesquite Analysis

Book Summary
Under the Mesquite is a story about a fourteen year old girl named Lupita from Piedras Negras, Coahuila, Mexico. Lupita is the oldest child of eight and discovers that her mother has been diagnosed with cancer. Lupita is faced with leaving Mexico and coming to the United states to move to Eagle Pass, Texas. Lupita must face cultural adjustments and acclimate to a new home. Lupita has more responsibilities than a typical fourteen year old teenager of dealing with her mother’s illness, school, being a caregiver to her younger siblings, and conflict with friends and family. As Lupita struggles to keep the family afloat, she escapes the chaos of home by writing in the shade of a mesquite tree. Overwhelmed by change and loss, she takes refuge in the healing power of words.

Book Analysis
Guadalupe Garcia McCall has written a well verse novel that depicts the experiences of a young girl’s life and the challenges that she has to encounter growing up as a Mexican American teenager who has immigrated to America at an early age and who has a very close relationship with her family. Lupita has been living the American dream with her family since she was six years old with her family and doing well. Many immigrants cling to the chance of coming to America for the opportunity to make a better life. This is a coming-of-age

Lupita had a line just to show how she feels by stating, “no matter how bad things get, I can always be found here, planted firmly in what’s left of Mami’s rose garden, with a pen in my hand, leaning against this same sturdy trunk, still writing poems in the shade of the Mesquite.” This shows readers right away that this book is full of emotion and heartbreak the character Lupita is experiencing with losing her mother and the life she once saw as the rock of