Ten years have passed but nothing here has changed on the ranch. The scenery is different; the grass is dull and dead, starting to turn brown and shrivelling over, starved from water. The weather is miserable just like my mood I suppose; the clouds are black and full of rain, ready to rupture just like a car tyre. I hear the rumble in the atmosphere like a lion roaring, the wind was howling, it is as if a zoo is being created by the dreadful weather, with the howling and roaring. The wind howling so much it is manipulating the leaves of the brush to make soundless movements. The people may be different here on the ranch but the way in which they treat each other is much the same. As I walk onto the premises’ of the ranch I can smell burnt wood. I notice that the immigrant workers are still doing the worst jobs such as being stable bucks. The only consolation, I suppose, is that the pay is equal no matter what job you do.
Just standing here looking at the ranch brings back lots of memories, both good and bad. The barn where the terrible accident happened no longer exists. It looks like a fire was started on the site and all that remains now are the burnt ashes. The grass has disintegrated and all that is left is the dry almost could be described, as malnourished soil, no water to quench its thirst I’m told that burning the barn was the first thing that Curley did after taking over the ranch from his father. All the other buildings remain intact as they were when I was here.
If I look hard enough I can still see Lennie working as if it was only yesterday. I can remember talking to Slim about how good a worker Lennie was, when suddenly he picked up a bale of hay all by himself. Oh how we laughed, it had taken two men to d...
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...ng around, I realise that this is the place I belong. Working on a ranch may not be the best work but having travelled around and worked on a few, I realise that this is where my heart belongs. So here I am at the gates about to start work again for Curley. I’m not going be just any old worker, though like I was once was. Curley specifically asked me to be his deputy. I seized the chance, as I am going to make this a better place for all. I’m going to make sure that all of the guys get a fair and equal chance to do all of the jobs here on the ranch. I’m not going to allow the less intelligent ones to suffer abuse or ridicule at the hands of the others.
Maybe by taking over some of the pressure of running a ranch, Curley will be less stressed and have more time for his family. I’m hoping he will realise how lucky he is to live the dream I have always had.
When Spaniards colonized California, they invaded the native Indians with foreign worldviews, weapons, and diseases. The distinct regional culture that resulted from this union in turn found itself invaded by Anglo-Americans with their peculiar social, legal, and economic ideals. Claiming that differences among these cultures could not be reconciled, Douglas Monroy traces the historical interaction among them in Thrown Among Strangers: The Making of Mexican Culture in Frontier California. Beginning with the missions and ending in the late 1800s, he employs relations of production and labor demands as a framework to explain the domination of some groups and the decay of others and concludes with the notion that ?California would have been, and would be today, a different place indeed if people had done more of their own work.?(276) While this supposition may be true, its economic determinism undermines other important factors on which he eloquently elaborates, such as religion and law. Ironically, in his description of native Californian culture, Monroy becomes victim of the same creation of the ?other? for which he chastises Spanish and Anglo cultures. His unconvincing arguments about Indian life and his reductive adherence to labor analysis ultimately detract from his work; however, he successfully provokes the reader to explore the complexities and contradictions of a particular historical era.
is in the life of the ranch, how dependant she is on Curley, for her
In a country full of inequities and discriminations, numerous books were written to depict our unjust societies. One of the many books is an autobiography by Richard Wright. In Black Boy, Wright shares these many life-changing experiences he faced, which include the discovery of racism at a young age, the fights he put up against discriminations and hunger, and finally his decision of moving Northward to a purported better society. Through these experiences which eventually led him to success, Wright tells his readers the cause and effect of racism, and hunger. In a way, the novel The Tortilla Curtain by T.C Boyle illustrates similar experiences. In this book, the lives of two wealthy American citizens and two illegal immigrants collided. Delaney and Kyra were whites living in a pleasurable home, with the constant worry that Mexicans would disturb their peaceful, gated community. Candido and America, on the other hand, came to America to seek job opportunities and a home but ended up camping at a canyon, struggling even for cheapest form of life. They were prevented from any kind of opportunities because they were Mexicans. The differences between the skin colors of these two couples created the hugest gap between the two races. Despite the difficulties American and Candido went through, they never reached success like Wright did. However, something which links these two illegal immigrants and this African American together is their determination to strive for food and a better future. For discouraged minorities struggling in a society plagued with racism, their will to escape poverty often becomes their only motivation to survive, but can also acts as the push they need toward success.
Literary magazines were not remotely interested in publishing Gilb’s stories, which focus primarily on the professional and personal struggles of working-class Mexican Americans. But his unapologetic stories about working-class Mexican Americans have made him a voice of his people (Reid130). Gilb’s short stories are set vividly in cites of the desert Southwest and usually feature a Hispanic protagonist who is good-hearted but often irresponsible and is forever one pink slip or automotive breakdown away from disaster (Reid130).
Didion paints uneasy and somber images when describing the Santa Ana winds. “There is something uneasy in the Los Angeles air… some unnatural stillness, some tension,” starts the essay off with the image of Los Angeles people in a sense of stillness or tense. She further adds, “Blowing up sandstorms out along Route 66… we will see smoke back in the canyons, and hear sirens in the night,” propagating the uneasy and stark image of Los Angeles. “The baby frets. The maid sulks,” she adds, giving a depressing view into the effects of the Santa Ana winds on people. Didion, in an attempt to show the craziness associated with the Santa Ana winds, points out the Indians who throw themselves into the sea when bad winds came. At any rate, Didion attempts to show the negative effects of the Santa Ana winds through images of stillness, uneasiness, and sobriety.
The movie opens up with rural images of thousands of migrant workers being transported in trucks with a short introduction by Edward Murrow and some occasional interventions of parts of an interview made to the secretary of labor after he saw the impacting images, and to the different people who have seen the lives the workers lead. Most of the secretary’s commentaries depict the exclusion that these people have since they are basically people who are silently crying out for assistance to stop harvesting the fields of their shame, or at least to hope for potential raises and better work conditions. From Florida to New Jersey, and from Mexico to Oregon, these people including women and children travel around the states following the sun and the demand from the seasonal goods while working around a hundred and thirty-six days earning and average of nine hundred dollars a year.
Desperate to find better employment opportunities, migrants are continually losing their lives by crossing the Mexico border. In the Diary of the Undocumented Immigrant, it explains what Mexicans have to go through. Having to trust smuggliers, paying them hundreds of dollars just to get them across the border and there's no guarantee that they will actually make it across. Martin explains, in the Diary of the Undocumented Immigrants, the condition of the place they had to stay in, "The house in which we take refuge is built in the rear of a house of concrete. It has four rooms, but in the two of them, part of the brick walls have fallen down. The roof is asphalt sheeting. There's badly rusted bed in ea...
Have you ever felt like you didn’t belong somewhere? Do you know what it feels like to be told you don’t belong in the place of your birth? People experience this quite frequently, because they may not be the stereotypical American citizen, and are told and convinced they don’t belong in the only place they see as home. In Gloria Anzaldúa’s “How to Tame a Wild Tongue”, Anzaldúa gives the reader an inside look at the struggles of an American citizen who experiences this in their life, due to their heritage. She uses rhetorical appeals to help get her messages across on the subliminal level and show her perspective’s importance. These rhetorical appeals deal with the emotion, logic and credibility of the statements made by the author. Anzaldúa
The struggle to find a place inside an un-welcoming America has forced the Latino to recreate one. The Latino feels out of place, torn from the womb inside of America's reality because she would rather use it than know it (Paz 226-227). In response, the Mexican women planted the seeds of home inside the corral*. These tended and potted plants became her burrow of solace and place of acceptance. In the comfort of the suns slices and underneath the orange scents, the women were free. Still the questions pounded in the rhythm of street side whispers. The outside stare thundered in pulses, you are different it said. Instead of listening she tried to instill within her children the pride of language, song, and culture. Her roots weave soul into the stubborn soil and strength grew with each blossom of the fig tree (Goldsmith).
In both the movie, La Misma Luna, and the newspaper series, Enrique’s Journey, migrants are faced with many issues. The most deadly and scarring issues all relate back to bandits, judicial police, and la migra or Mexican immigration officers. The problems that arise are serious to the point of rape, robbing, and beating. It is not easy crossing the border illegally and secretly, but the successful ones have an interesting or even traumatic story about how it worked for them.
Not a second passed by and the wagon’s wheel snapped. I shook Marvin hard and grabbed the repair kit. He quickly jumped out of the wagon and stopped the oxen from moving any further. The wagon was tipping and Marvin couldn't hold it up by himself. Steven and Phillip woke up and helped him hold the wagon in place while Marvin fixed the wheel so we could get back on the road. We were still in England and I didn't think we were going to be out any time soon. We finally got the wheel fixed and decided to take a break from all the rambling. My mother said there would be many problems along the way but I didn't think they would happen so early into the trip.
The emotional letter that Juan left for his mother might be one of the most emotional scenes in the documentary. The pure emotions that the letter was written by Juan to her mother leaves the audience with the bonds and emotions felt between the kids and families. Juan Carlos’s father abandoned the family years ago and left to New York, consequently Juan believe it is his responsibility to provide for his family. He also wants to find his father in New York and confronts him about why he has forgotten about them. The story of Juan is not just about migration of children, but also the issue of family separation. The documentary does not dehumanize but rather bring the humane and sensitive lens to the story of Juan where the human drama that these young immigrants and their families live. Juan Carlos is not the first of Esmeralda’s sons to leave for the United states, his nine-year-old brother Francisco was smuggled into California one month earlier. Francisco now lives with Gloria, his grandmother, who paid a smuggler $3,500 to bring him to Los Angeles, California. Once Juan Carlos is in the shelter for child migrants his mother eagerly awaits him outside. After she sees him she signs a paper that says if Juan Carlos tries to travel again, he will be sent to a foster home.
Those stories we receive shape certain emotions towards the people that live in those places. Adichie gives an experience of her own about the single story of the debates about immigration in the United States. Immigration in America translated in people’s minds to Mexicans sneaking across the border. When Adichie visited Guadalajara she was a bit surprised to see Mexicans differently than the stereotypical immigrants she expected them to be. She goes to say, “show people as one thing and one thing only over and over again and that is what they become.” That is the consequence of the single story about a person, place, or issue. A single story robs people of dignity and emphasizes how different people are. By engaging with all the stories of a person, place, or issue, the trap of a single story can be avoided. Adichie eventually looked at the Mexican and the U.S. side of the immigration issue, balancing the stories and not falling into the trap of the single
Baca asks “Do they come on horses with rifles, and say, ese gringo, gimme’ your job?” (3) The answer is no; for the most part Mexican immigrants take jobs that many Americans don’t want. Most people that cross the border do so to provide for their family, or to have a better life. As a result, they take jobs that pay them pretty much nothing. He later states that Americans should actually look at the bigger picture. Mexicans need the jobs to feed and provide for their children. Baca’s use of imagery, and symbolism paint the picture of American hypocrisy on Mexicans taking away American jobs. Baca mocks the racist commentary made by Americans to help the reader rethink the situation to show how ludicrous this misconception is.
I breathed in the air it smelled horrible, like goat fur and mints. I stared in the room. It seemed nothing had moved from back then. Slowly I moved across the room and glanced at my work sheet.