Yesenia Lopez Summary

Reading Log:
Yesenia Lopez between pages 1-6.
Yesenia Lopez, A disabled kid who has lost her mom at her early age. For a while, the only family member she has is Tia Nene. Who she admired most about throughout the story because Tia Nene taught her valuable life lessons. After few years she has also lost the only family member. Even being the cripple I think she is a strong girl because she didn't let herself down emotionally after all these incidents that has happened in her young age. Most of the time people at this age are very emotionally trapped because they mostly rely on parents. Hope for days where they could just stay with guardians because they feel more comfortable about being with them. But look at Yesenia she is left very vulnerable in society where she has no one. I think the author did a fantastic job of portraying to readers about the reality of being cripple and how they feel. Now she is being fostered by ILLC. Her feelings about this situation is that why can't she live like a normal person where she won't have to follow rules and procedures that are placed by institutions. As a results now she feels like she is being undermined of her ability because

most of the time she has to depend on the ILLC staffs. In example ILLC staff won't let cripples to take their own medicine, stay awake late night, kept in urinated stinky room as punishment. Based on this evidence, these types of actions are insane because not only you are making them unconfident about themselves, but also you have just identified their problem by disability not by their personality.
Teddy Dobbs, Page: 37-44.
Teddy is a very young kid, who has a lot of hope in his life. One day he wishes to live on his own and hire a hooker to teach him about some crucial life experience. Even though he thinks like normal people, he couldn’t make these wishes come true because of his disability. He is often denied of his entertainment when he wishes. On the other hand Teddy loves Mia, often he thinks about her and how beautiful she is. I think disabled people should also have access to all the rights as normal people in general. Throughout the whole book i read about these characters and have learned a lot of great things, but there was not a single thing about disabled people voting. I think they are being denied of their rights. They should also have access to present their voice in public. But here all we see is kids getting older and still hallucinating for their dream to come true. This is a very unfair advantage toward cripples.
Mia Oviedo, Pages:132-133.
A girl whose story touched my heart. I think she is a very talented girl but she is not mostly presented as smart because ILLC identifies her as one of the many retards. I think this type of behavior from an institution like ILLC is not acceptable to me because they are the only one looking after her since her family left her here. Based on my feeling Mia should be taken care of very good hearted people, who could teach them how to love people, how to give up something for people. Whereas what we see here is staff members are doing their duty just to get passed by their duty so they could get paid. For example: Mia felt very sad from the incident when Teddy Dobbs, her boyfriend who died in the bathroom because one of the staff member forgot to get him back after a while. She tried to protest about it and she felt that she couldn't do much because after all she needs to be taken care by the good ol bad people. Based on her story I say the government should something to fix this type of issues in the institutions. Because just putting kids in ILLC doesn't fix their problem, there is a matter of trust, love, service and procedure, whereas all we see they are just being kept in the stinky urinated room for punishment. This type of actions could get this kid more insane because you are attacking kids psychologically. This is more or less like Jail. Why does reality have to turn out something like we never wanted, This is just careless mistakes that people make day to day basis and leaving the society as corrupted.
Activity II, Question 2:
The world is like a rainbow where you see the differences and at the end, it's nothing but bent light from the sun and you couldn't hold them even if you wish.

This also regards human life and human characteristics because on one side you might see mystery on the other side there is reality. Based on the book “Good king Bad king, ” I would say life is like a designed game where people feels the need for our own and rest to be thought of themselves. The role paternalism is true about this book because ILLC gives loving care to helpless, but it doesn’t give freedom of choice. This may sound very majestic but on the flip side people never knows the story of disabled, kids is often denied of their freedom, equality of fair treatment, discrimination in the job, right to have a relationship with

another.
For example: As we know our life is full of joy and happiness. But in the case of cripples, they are being deprived of their personality and happiness because most of the cases they couldn’t even choose what they want. Nurses and caretakers choose what they need. Even some cases, they restriction in life, such as can’t stay up late, can’t have intercourse with others as if they wishes, has to take medications by certified nurses or care takers. These restrictions placed by institutions does provide loving care for people, but doesn’t give enough freedom to understand or embrace the freedom as a normal person because most of the time people are undermining the ability and their personality.
Discrimination is a big problem in our society especially where there have been centuries of slavery. But still there is not enough support for discrimination because this type of thing doesn't have any pride in it. Even though we know about good and bad people tends to avoid the reality because we are too busy chasing our own dream. Joanne Madsen, who falls under the category of being crippled because she uses a wheelchair. I like her spirit because even being disabled she didn't let her dream to be stopped so she went on to work at the ILLC as clerk. But there still lies a problem of its own because Joanne is being worked over hours and paid under. I think she is being taken advantage of by the institution because of her disability.
Mia, the girl who wondered days when will she be better in shape because her hopes and dreams lies on her health. Unlike us she doesn't have many freedoms such as speaking up for abnormalities and unfairness. On one day she decides to run away from the institution and be on her own for a few days, but where would she go because there is nobody out there. Besides that institution is the only way for her to live her life. Most of the time she is not allowed to socialize with her peers because she might make something happened because of her age. I think this is kind of good for her health, but how long would be able to hold people like that because eventually she is going to get tired of it. From Mia's perspective, I think she is being treated unfairly because she is still being undermined of her freedom.
Life is a big lesson where people have to understand where is the need and fulfill it as if it needed. Because people only get one life and they should have the right to live it. But that doesn't mean letting all the cripples on their own, but letting them have most rights is the best because there no goods for people depriving people. At the end of the circle you realize that its the same for you.