This reading made me think of Isabel Allende's The Infinite Plan. Allende's novel is about a mexican family immigrating to america and how they cope with the differences in tradition and customs. The main character is Gregory, a young man who grows up in america with his immigrant parents and how he is treated as a mexican-american. In "Un Rez" the narrator and Nora (the mother in The Infinite Plan) experience the same feelings of desperation and confusion.
I really enjoyed this passage by Rivera, i found it very poetic. The repetitious nature of this chapter (if you can call them chapters) with the mother crying out for "Jesucristo... Virgen Maria... Virgen de San Jaun.. Guadalupe" (14) to watch over her son and to keep him safe from the bullets of "los comunistas y a los coreanos y... los chinos"; all of this adds to the poetic nature of this section. I enjoy how Rivera ties in his lyrical writing style with political opinions... How this book is told in so many parts, that it can cover way more aspects than a typical novel would with characters and continuous plot lines.
Both of these authors captured the struggles that many immigrant labourers went through as they resettled in America, some leading nomadic lifestyles traveling from state to state (like the discussion in the passage on page 17... "Iuta"), others coming from small towns and moving to large American cities. The characters and narrators in both books demonstrate a will to fit in and at the same time hold on to their heritage.
2 comments:
Hi Alanna,
I wanted to begin by saying that I think you've brought up some really interesting points. I too really enjoyed the "Un Rezo" passge. I think that you definitely are onto something with Rivera linking his lyrical style, which is clearly quite poetic and the politics of the novel.
I also agree that we definitely have to take into consideration the message he is trying to get across about the challenges and hardships that migrants to the United States face, no matter where they are coming from, and how they differ between small town and big city. As we see here in "...y no se lo trago la tierra", the campesino lifestyle and experience is most certainly comparable to that of the city when it comes to migrant workers, and perhaps more socially punishing, if that makes any sense.
Great observations.
It is a touching prayer for her child, universally understood and strikingly sincere...people lamenting in Spanish I find is more tear-jerking than it is in English. I agree, Rivera's ability to intermingle his political inclinations with heartfelt dialogue is one of an awesome nature, few authors can achieve such a task in so natural of a manner.
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