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Thursday, October 23, 2003

I wrote the following book report for my Chicano Studies 430 course. I include it here, hoping it’ll be of use to someone doing a report on the same book, “The Tortilla Curtain”, by T. C. Boyle. Note, I read the book many months ago, so I may have left off some very significant parts of the story.

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Candido had already lived in America. He had worked here and made money, but as is often the case of immigrants who return home, his money vanished. He returned to USA, this time bringing with him his 17-year-old wife, America. This was their experience as illegal Mexican immigrants…

To convince her to come with him, Candido had told his wife that they’d have a nice home and that they’d make good bucks. Once in California, as she came to see for herself that his words were far from truthful, she still stood by him and was willing to help him make his words come true. This was most evident the days following that night when a white man, Delaney, ran him down with his car.

Delaney did not know who or what he had hit. He stopped the car and looked around. As time progressed, he became more relieved for not finding the object that had collided against his car. Then he heard Candido aching in pain. When he came close enough and saw that this man was going to make it, Delaney scolded him, “Why did you ran out like that? What possessed you? Didn’t you see me?” (7; ch. 1)

All Candido wanted was to abandon the scene, if he could do it with some of this guy’s money, better yet. “Monee”, said Candido. Delaney pulled out his wallet and gave him money. Later that night, when Delaney was explaining to his wife that he had hit a man, and that he had settled the problem with a twenty-dollars bill, he justified his not having done more for Candido by saying “I told you — he was Mexican.” (15; ch. 1)

With Candido hurt, America had become the strongest and healthiest of the two. She knew that bread needed to be brought home, and that her husband was no longer in apt conditions to provide this bread. Against his wishes, she visited that same Labor Ready location where even Candido had had little luck. Her luck wasn’t much different. To worsen things, there was a man there who had dentures and wore his baseball hat reversed. It’s not his appearance that gave her bad vibes, it was his attitude. This man was hitting on her, and when she politely asked him to give her more respect because she was a married woman, the man responded, “But not for long, pretty, not for long.” (83; ch. 6)

America did find a job. Not a steady one, however. She was hired by a white man to clean stone figurines of the Budda. She’d be paid 25 dollars for six hours of work. On her first day, eight hours had passed and there were no sights of her boss. She continued cleaning, picturing herself arriving home with bags full of food that she had bought with the very first money she had earned in her life. She assumed that the white man would be paying her extra for the two hours worked. She had assumed wrong. The only thing he gave her aside from the 25 dollars, was an unwanted caress on her thighs as she sat next to him in his car on the way back to Labor Ready.

Walking home from work one day, America came across a man on the hill where she lived. This was the same man who had given her bad vibes at Labor Ready. They were alone. She knew this meant trouble. She ran, but the man caught up to her. He beat her and raped her, and ended the act callously saying, “Married woman, you better call your husband.” (142; ch. 8)

Candido healed and returned to work. America was pregnant — Candido’s child. At this point they also had to leave the hills where they had been staying because some Whites living in the nearby neighborhood had pulled some strings and pushed some buttons and managed to have Labor Ready be closed and places raided by immigration officials. Because there would no longer be work available for Candido in the area, coupled with their reluctance to have their firstborn come to life in the hills, like a savage, they moved down to the plains; Canoga Park. America was excited.

The night of their relocation, Candido was lured by an individual who promised him a room to stay. He went by himself, leaving America on the streets. America waited and waited, and when she saw Candido again, he showed signs of having received a beating. In fact, he had. The man who lured him was a gangster, and along with his buddies, robbed Candido’s savings.

Candido and America, back to the hills they went. It’s where their child was born, and where she died, during a natural disaster. As much suffering as America and Candido had been inflicted by Whites, when a White man was about to die — swallowed by the same torrential waters that had almost taken the lives of Candido and America, and that had actually taken that of their child — Candido wasn’t going to just watch him die. This man in need was Delaney, the White man who had almost killed Candido accidentally, and later haunted him with the idea of getting rid of him, one way or another. A man Candido had come to fear. Candido put all that in the past, and extended his arm to save him.

Few books have been able to captivate my attention as “Tortilla Curtain.” Even fewer have been able to cause me to become upset as this one has. To achieve this, it helped that its author had realistic things happen to the characters. Realistic, sad things, unfortunately.

An unscrupulous man trying to court a married woman who had good intentions. Not satisfied with having gotten nowhere with her, he took her by force and fulfilled his morbid desires. White people who deemed Mexicans as being a hindrance to the well-being of their neighborhood, and did what they could to scare them off. A boss who not only underpaid his employee, but also harassed her sexually. Immigrants who’ve been living in the United States longer than others, look down upon and take advantage of those who’ve lived here for less time. An immigrant couple who had an ill baby, but didn’t seek a doctor because they lacked money and also because they feared deportation. These were all things that Candido and America suffered from as protagonists in T. C. Boyle’s “The Tortilla Curtain”. Theirs was a misery of an experience.

Thursday, October 23, 2003

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