In the last third of the book, you would think that it would have all calmed down, and everyone would be happy, but in fact, things have turned from thrilling to tense. Now that Enrique has finally crossed the border into America, he has more time on his hands and more money to develop bad habits like drinking and smoking weed. These bad habits drive a stake into the two most important relationships he has in his life; the one between him and Lourdes, his mom, and the one between him and Maria Isabel, his girlfriend. Because of his habits, he worries his mother, and often lashes out at her. ""You left me, abandoned me," he tells her. "You forgot about me."" He is also paying less and less attention to Maria Isabel, and sending her less and less money, making it hard for her to stay afloat in Honduras. "Enrique is struggling financially... Maria Isabel knows none of this. She wonders if Enrique sends his daughter less money because he is spending it on another girlfriend. Enrique swears there is no one else." As you can see, tension rises, until the end of the book.
This just really shows what an issue it is for so many people to cross the border each year. It is detrimental to the families, especially hurting the children left behind. It puts stress on the US economy, and sends a lot of money out of the country. All the money that people like Lourdes and Enrique send home is that much more money that is being taken out of the US economy. Also, it provides the perfect backdrop for the gangs to move in, and start transporting marijuana and cocaine across the border. This all is detrimental to both the worlds of the US and those of the central american nations. We need to take action. There is no way we could force so many people out of the country, and we would be a cruel country to do so. what we can do is offer all of those people who are already in the US a US citizenship. The thing with the citizenship is that it allows them to bring their families in too, and so would keep the dollars in the US economy because the people the money was normally sent to would be in the US. The only problem would be overpopulation. To bring in the families of all of the people in the US could severely overcrowd the country, and put jobs out f the hands of the americans and into those of the migrants,
I agree. This also proves what Lourdes said earlier in the book about how life in the US isn't at all what they see on tv. Lourdes and Enrique both start off their new lives having extreme financial difficulty. Both María Isabel and Enrique have the same thoughts when they are left in Honduras. They aren't receiving enough money and because of this, they feel they are being abandoned.
ReplyDeleteWill I completely agree with you. In the last third of the book Enrique turned back to his bad habits, causing family problems and he also started to pay less attention to his family. The last part of the book had a very tense, straightforward tense that says that life doesn't always have a happy ending. Enrique faced real world problems and he might have made some mistakes, but he still ended up in the U.S. which was his ultimate goal.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your comments about Enrique going back to his bad habits. It must be difficult to completely abandon these habits, but it does fill the reader with a sense of disappointment when we find that Enrique has again turned to the habits that almost ruined his life in Honduras. It seemed that Enrique really needed to reconsider why he came to the United States in the first place, and then look at what he is currently doing. He is ruining relationships, and tearing himself down. His activities cause his mother and Maria Isabel to worry about him. He isn't doing anything good for anybody, including himself. I think that once Enrique realized what he was doing to himself, he finally started to taper off of the bad habits and get back on the right track. It is his job to provide for his girlfriend and daughter who he left behind in Honduras. Enrique finally recognizes and accepts that responsibility, and THAT was when he started being the man his mother and loved ones wanted him to be.
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