The Little Burnt Victims
––In an analysis of this section, university professor and founding publisher of the Hispanic literary journal The Americas Review Nicolás Kanellos focused on the durability of the boxing gloves as a symbolic metaphor for society’s values. He explains: “…the boxing gloves the kids were using to play with when they were at home, when they were alone, didn’t burn in the fire, but the little bodies burned. So one of these little anonymous voices says, ‘Well, they sure make boxing gloves durable these days, don’t they?’ So it questions the values of the society — materialism, you know, we make these kinds of things to last, but we can’t make kids last and aspirations and hopes last” (Nicolás Kanellos). It is also, however, perhaps an eye-opener for dozens of individuals who, at the time, didn’t understand the amount of suffering that the Chicano individuals faced.
—Rivera creates a deeply horrifying situation that is caused directly by the fact that the Chicano people are badly mistreated and overworked. Utilizing the death of children in order to invoke emotion from the audience, he follows with a string of quotations from evidently uneducated and naive individuals who do not focus on why the fire started, but instead on their sadness for the Garcias. This is a really powerful technique that Rivera uses because it can perhaps be an attempt to stir anger from the audience – the anger that should have been felt by these individuals who could not do enough to stand up for themselves.
—Rivera creates a mirrored thought process with Dona Chona and the anonymous commenter at the close of the section. In response to Don Efrain claiming that there is a possibility that the children could become boxing champions, Dona Chona admits “..you never know, right?” (121). A similar statement is also made at the end of section, where the commenter explains: “I tell you, you never know when your turn’s up. My heart goes out to them. But you never know” (122). Here, Rivera creates a devastating and emotional parallel. In the first quotation, the audience is introduced to an incredible sense of hope that diminishes quickly when the children burn in the fire as a direct result of this hope. He ties this chapter together through the use of the same quotation to describe both hope and despair.
—Rivera’s illustration of Don Efrain’s hope in the beginning of this section is devastating. Consistent with previous sections of the text, Rivera has created a subtle sense of dramatic irony – the idea that the audience, in the back of their mind, knows that something horrible is going to happen to this family simply because suffering is the only consistency that Rivera has built into this novella. Both Don Efrain’s and Dona Chona’s hope for their children to becoming boxing champions is heart wrenching and an incredible tool to evoke emotion from the audience. In the same instance, Dona Chona represents, in many ways, the defeated: while Don Efrain can see nothing but success in boxing, it is evident that Dona Chona has her doubts. Even after Don Efrain “convinces” her that there is a possibility, a hint of doubt still exists. This may have been a technique used by Rivera to demonstrate how the Chicano people’s tremendous suffering has caused them to grab onto anything that will offer hope, despite the truth that it may be unrealistic.
—The structural shift from third person narrative to quotations from various individuals on page 121 is an interesting technique employed by Rivera. Very rarely in this text has the audience actually experienced the emotions from those that are suffering from traumatic events. Instead, he chooses to allow the Chicano community to tell the story through their own words. He effectively separates the audience from the situation, pulling them out directly after tragedy has struck and before the characters themselves have a chance to respond. This is a strange technique that perhaps was incorporated to leave the audience asking questions: how do the characters react? What is going to happen to these characters? How are their lives going to change? Rivera is effective at creating a connection between the audience and the characters in a few simple paragraphs, which he abruptly severs in a time of crisis. This was a successful technique employed by Rivera to captivate audience emotion and to create a deep level of sympathy.
The Night Before Christmas
—The day of the Magi, or Three King’s Day, is a holiday celebrated throughout Latin America, Spain, and in Hispanic communities that marks the biblical adoration of baby Jesus by the three kings. According to a bilingual newspaper, “[Three King’s Day] is the Epiphany of the church calendar, the 12th day after Christmas, when the Magi arrived bearing gifts for baby Jesus. Traditionally, children receive gifts on this day, brought by the three kings, Melchor, Gaspar and Baltazar. In Latin America, January 6th, and not necessarily Christmas, is the day that children receive their gifts”.
—The beginning of this chapter is devastating. Rivera has, once again, used children to invoke an emotional response from the audience. This time, however, he is playing on their innocence and naivety through sadness over not receiving Christmas presents. Throughout this novella, Rivera has done a successful job welcoming the audience into personal experiences and allowing them to feel the same raw emotions as the characters themselves do. In this emotional scene, it is evident that the children are too young to understand the situation. Already, Rivera is setting the reader up for an emotional chapter.
—The power of a mother’s love is illustrated in a beautifully tragic way in this section. Although the family is struggling financially, Dona Maria is still determined to provide for her children who claim that Santa Claus and the Three Wisemen “always forget” about them (130). There is a large parallel between this family and the Garcia family introduced in the section entitled “The Little Burnt Victims”. Don Efrain, like Dona Maria, was determined to make the lives of his children better. Unfortunately, both attempts made my Don Efrain and Dona Maria ended in an overwhelming sense of failure.
—While Dona Maria’s failure to return with Christmas presents was heart-breaking, it can also be seen as an incredible switch in focus made by Rivera. It is easy to say that this novella is riddled with suffering. Up until this point, a large majority of the suffering was a direct result of being a Chicano individual who, at the time, faced incredible levels of discrimination and was subjected to harsh working conditions. Dona Maria’s struggle, however, did not happen because she is a Chicano woman, but because she is human. With the inclusion of a character plagued with crippling anxiety, Rivera has lead a shift from sympathy to empathy and with millions of individuals struggling daily with anxiety, it is easy to relate to Dona Maria. This is a really interesting transition made by Rivera.
—Not only is there a transition from Chicano suffering to human suffering, but Rivera also makes various transitions throughout the novella from first-person thought to third person commenter, like that seen in the section entitled “The Little Burnt Victims”. The use of allowing the audience to experience the thought process alongside of Dona Maria allows for a greater understanding of the anxiety that she is facing.
—When Dona Maria is caught stealing, it is really bringing to light the stereotype that is mentioned on 133 – that the Chicano people are “always stealing something”. This is not the first time that this has been brought up in the novella, but it truly provides a backstory and a reason as to why these Chicano individuals are known for stealing: they are underpaid and need to provide for their families. In a humorous newspaper column entitled “¡Ask a Mexican!”, Gustavo Arellano light-heartedly explains this stereotype, claiming: “Poor people tend to commit more burglaries than the rich or middle class, and many Mexicans in los Estados Unidos are a missed paycheck away from the welfare cheese…Theft is no more an innate trait amongst Mexicans than it is amongst other ethnic groups — gabachos only think it is, thanks to centuries of stereotypes perpetuated by American-made caricatures ranging from the Frito Bandito to Carlos Mencia” (Gustavo Arellano)
—Both this section and the previous section, “The Little Burnt Victims” are incorporated into this text to offer the invoke a sense of sympathy/empathy from the readers. Both use childhood characters to do so and there are a variety of parallels between them.
When We Arrive
—The structure of this section is really interesting in the way that Rivera is allowing the audience to receive different perspectives about the situation. This reiterates the idea of perception and its importance in handling various hardships. Interestingly enough, this is also one of the few sections that actually has characters who express anger and frustration towards their situations.
—The use of different perspectives may have also been a strategy implemented by Rivera in order to create a connection between the reader and the individuals who are making the trip. There are dozens of personalities incorporated into this small section – from individuals who are angry about the situation to those who are taking advantage of the situation to look at the beauty of the night. The audience is presented with thirteen drastically different individuals in this section, making it incredibly easy for the to connect with at least one individual. It, in some ways, makes the reader ask themselves who they would most likely empathize with had they have been in the situation themselves. This is a great and effective tool by Rivera.
—In this short section, Rivera makes it an evident point to underline the selflessness of many of these individuals. A handful of people are heard claiming things like: “When we get there I’m gonna see about getting a good bed for my vieja” (145) and “I’m still going to try my bed to help [my viejo] out. At least along his row so he won’t feel overworked. Even if it’s just for short whiles” (144). It is an interesting technique, but is consistent with his original purpose: to show the beauty of the migrant workers.
—This chapter possesses an incredible amount of beauty in it. When the trailer breaks down, it appears that there is an equal amount of both positive and negative thoughts until one of the final thoughts that the audience reads, which claims: “…I’m tired of arriving. Arriving and leaving, it’s the same thing because we no sooner arrive and…the real truth of the matter…I’m tired of arriving. I really should say when we don’t arrive because that’s the real truth. We never arrive” (145). However, the final paragraph closes by claiming that the individuals “began getting out of the trailer and they huddled around and commenced to talk about what they would do when they arrived” (146). This is a beautiful portrayal of resilience and one of the few sections that does not end in tragedy.