Guadalupe Garcia Mccall's Under The Mesquite

In the coming of age novel Under the Mesquite, Guadalupe Garcia McCall develops the conflicts between Lupita/Guadalupe, the narrator, and her father, or as Lupita calls him, her Papi, in order to display the contrasting perspectives in the way they view their current life and future for Lupita and her family. Towards the beginning of the novel, after Lupita’s Quinceañera, she exclaims what being a señorita means to her versus her family and friends. For her father, “señorita means/ he has to be a guard dog/ when boys are around”. However, to Lupita it means “melancolía: settling into sadness” (McCall 75, 76). They view Lupita’s future life as a señorita very differently. While they may both be thinking of Lupita’s future,

her Papi is thinking of how it will affect him while Lupita is thinking of the emotions in her future.

Furthermore, Lupita suggested to her father that he takes her mother to a cancer clinic but the clinic is six hours away from their home. He tells her that he “[doesn’t] know how [they’re] going to do it”. Lupita thinks that there is nothing “more to think about[. Her] Mami needs this” (McCall 114, 115). While Lupita is focused on her Mami and her needs, her Papi is worried about how this will affect his children, even if it could help his wife. Their priorities are very different making their perspectives on how to deal with Lupita’s mother’s care different as well. In addition, after Lupita’s mom dies and Lupita starts thinking about her future since she has already graduated, she confronts her father with the idea of going off to college. He tells her that he ‘“made promises to [her] mother. / [He] told her [he’d] take good care of [Lupita], /… there’s no place safer than home/… [He] can’t let [her] go [to

college]’”. However, Lupita thinks that ‘“taking good care of [her]’” means letting her go to college and start her new life (McCall 200, 201). This difference in perspective of Lupita and her father on her future causes a lot of conflicts between them. This is because to Lupita going to college and starting her own life also means honoring her mother’s wishes of filling her notebook pages with love and hope while her father feels he is honoring her mother by fulfilling his promise and making her stay home where she is safe. Throughout the novel, Guadalupe Garcia McCall uses conflict between Lupita and her father to show their contrasting perspectives.
Along with the use of contrasting perspectives, the author also uses section breaks to emphasize the various struggles Lupita faces in specific times of her life.

For instance, in part one, “The Weight of Words”, Lupita is just finding out about her mother’s cancer and has not yet adjusted to her new life with this conflict. She is facing a very specific struggle in this section of the novel: learning to accept her mother’s sickness. While this is an ongoing problem in the novel, it is the main conflict in this section only, not in other parts of Lupita’s life. In this section, Lupita is talking to her friend, Mireya, about her mother, and while Mireya is telling her that her mom is “going to die”; Lupita insists that ‘she’s not” (McCall 19). Although her friend is trying to prepare her for the inevitable, Lupita refuses to accept this. Additionally, in part three of the novel, “Crossing Borders”, Lupita’s main conflict is about her culture. She had been taking drama classes since she started high school and was told by her teacher that to be successful she needed to lose her accent. As she attempted to do this her close friends started making fun of her saying things like, ‘“You talk like you’re one of them. /… You talk like/ you wanna be white’” (McCall 80). Lupita became conflicted in regards to her culture. She had thought that she had been devoted to her culture and was now questioning this. Throughout this section, the conflict comes up

multiple times whereas at this point in the book she has mostly accepted her mother’s sickness. As well as this in part five, “Cut like a Diamond”, Lupita’s mother died, meaning that in part six, “Words on the Wind” her mother’s sickness was not her main conflict, but now she was contemplating her future. In order to decide what she wanted to do with her life, she went back to Mexico and stayed at her abuelita’s house temporarily. By the time she left she had realized that her mother would want her to move on and to her this meant going to college and starting her own life. However, her father wanted her to stay home and help him take care of her siblings. This made it hard for her to leave without her father’s permission. She was fighting with both herself and her father throughout the sixth section and this was her main conflict whereas she was no longer contemplating her culture. Throughout the different sections of the novel, Lupita faces different hardships that come with specific times in her life.