The Role Of Pesticides In Heroes And Saints

In Cherrie Moraga’s play story, Heroes and Saints, takes a surreal look at farmworkers in the San Joaquin Valley facing problems with pesticide poisoning. The play centers around Cerezita, who was affected by pesticides while she was in the womb when her mother was pregnant. She was born with a disembodied head, and viewed as a saint by the community for her miracle of being alive. The main issue in the play revolves around the poisoning of the pesticides affecting the barrio, or Chicano/a neighborhood communities. The communities have been affected by pesticides in various ways such as birth defects, deaths, and unsanitary water adults and children drink. Not only is pesticide poising an issue in the barrio, but families face their own personal struggles everyday as they fight to survive. One issue that can be seen in the passage selected is machismo, and how the man plays a

role in the family while facing the pesticide issue occurring in the barrio.
In continuation, the passage selected from the play story is a conversation Don Gilberto is having with Father Juan. Don Gilberto is the Godfather and Amparo’s husband, who is great friends with Cerezita’s mom, Dolores. Father Juan, who is known as the “half-breed” leftist priest. During this dialogue between the two men, figurative speech and emotive language are being used. Figurative speech is being used when Don Gilberto describes men that leave their family. He states, “When a father leaves, it’s like cutting off the arms of the family” (121). In a Chicano/a community, men are known to be the bread winners in the family where as the women stay home to care for the children. When a father is no longer in the picture, it is like “cutting off the arms of the family” (121), and leaving the family to survive on their own with no help. The mother then needs to figure out a way to help her children survive, and earn a decent income to provide for her children without a male provider, which becomes difficult when having a child who is disembodied, like Cerezita.
Another use of language, emotive language, is when certain words or phrases change the feeling of a sentence making up an emotional reaction from the reader, and can be either positive or negative.

Emotive language can be seen through a metaphor when Don Gilberto says, “You can imagine how hard it’s been for Dolores, but she did it, and alone. My compadre, bueno, it’s hard to even call him that now after leaving his family like he did” and later shifts to him saying, “Nos llaman braceros because we work and love with our arms. Because we ain’t afraid to lift a sack of potatoes, to defend our children, to put our arms around la waifa at night” (121). When the reader reads these lines, the first emotion that can be seen is sadness and sorrow for Dolores and for his good friend leaving his family. As Don Gilberto continues speaking in this scene, the mood shifts to confidence and loving because the point of view he makes is how real men are and how they are supposed to really act with their wives and children, even during the difficult times such as the ongoing pesticide problem in the

barrio.
In contrast, Don Gilberto mentions to Father Juan how real men are supposed to act, in which one of the themes that is evident in the passage selection is machismo. In the Chicano/a community machismo is relatively common. Machismo is the idea of how men are expected to act and be towards other people. To be machismo in this type of community means to have power over others. If a man shows weakness it is symbolized as him being a coward, and is assumed to be feminine. To portray this Don Gilberto states, “Maybe he can fool las Viejas, act like que tiene huevos. But that’s easy part, jumping in and out of the sack” (121). This phrase is important in various ways in which macho is truly defined. Men who “jump in and out of the sack” are not real men but macho men, in which they forget they have a family to provide and support. The passage from scene twelve of act one, Moraga genders a man through Don Gilberto as the conventional masculinity of what it means to be a man when he states, “we ain’t afraid to lift a sack of potatoes, to defend our children, to put our arms around la waifa at night” (121). This sentence means two things which are strength and sensitivity. The allusion made in this statement is strength by stating that real men “ain’t afraid to lift a sack of potatoes” by Don Gilberto telling Father Juan that men are not afraid to lift heavy duty things even small things. At the same time men should not be afraid to be sensitive. Sensitivity is demonstrated in the phrase “to put our arms around la waifa at night” which means that mean should not be afraid to show love and passion towards there women and family. Men are taught to hide their feelings away and not show any kind of emotion. As the pesticide problem continues to be an issue, men are finding it difficult to show their emotions towards the way their children are born with birth defects. Therefore, the only option left is to leave their family in order to cope with the situation, which leaves the mother struggling to survive on her own.
To continue, the passage does a great job in reflecting two ways in that machismo is viewed in the Chicano/a community which are to be emotionless, and a fighter. In a machismo world, to be a fighter is very common in many cultures besides the Chicano/a community. Fighting is one huge characteristic that determines whether or not a man is macho enough for his community or family. An example is when Don Gilberto recalls a time in which Mario, Dolores son, comes home from school with a bloody nose, “(Hugging Mario) Even this guy. He had a lot on his shoulders. !Chihuaha! I usetu remember this little mocoso coming home from school all the time with his nose all bloody. He wasn’t a fighter” (121). In continuation with the dialogue, Mario’s mother, Dolores asked Don Gilberto to do something about the situation. Don Gilberto decides to teach Mario how to fight. It can be seen that even at a young age, men are taught to become fighters to defend themselves through violence. When fighting is introduced to young boys, as they become older, violence will be known to be the solution to solve anything. As the dialogue continues, Mario attends school and fights the kids that gave him a bloody nose, and the kids never messed with him again. Fighting does not define what it means to be a macho, but a coward. Boys who grow up to be young men, have the mentality that fighting is the only solution to show toughness, when in reality it is not.
To close off with, this passage helps us understand the role men play in a Chicano/a family and community. The language styles used in the passage are figurative and emotive in which the tone of voice can be read from feeling sorrow to being confident of one self. The passage shows different factors in how machismo comes into play for men which are being emotionless and tough. Throughout the play story it can be observed that Moraga re-constructs the notion of Chicano males being emotionless and fighters, by using Don Gilberto to define what machismo truly means.