The Children of America
Socorro in America
America, more than Candido, felt that bringing a new life into this already crazy world would bring more blessings. After all, that is typically what bringing a chid into this world means, right? It was certainly the complete opposite for both America and Candido. Candido worked as hard as he could in order to save money for the home that America envisioned. She wanted chickens, a fridge, and a restroom where she could shower. I believe Candido's dream was to make America happy, and America could only hope that her child would have a roof over her head. As her pregnancy progressed, America realized that things were not changing and their situation was only getting worse. In this day and age, many immigrants believe that their children will have a better future if they are born in the United States. It is somehow just written in their cards if they're born here. "She had her baby, and every living cell and hair of it was a miracle, the thing she'd done herself though her father said she was stupid and her mother called her clumsy and lazy and unreliable-her creation, beautiful and undeniable. But who could she show her off to? Who's was going to admire Socorro, the North American beauty, born with nothing in the land of plenty?" ("The Tortilla Curtain", page 333-334). Even though Socorro felt like a blessing to the new mother America, this baby was the downfall of their future in the North. Just recently, a video surfaced on the news of a woman passing her child through the bars that separate Mexico and the United States. How can she believe that anything in her and her child's life will change by just being in the U.S. What will happen is that they will get processed and be deported. Living in a border city, I have seen plenty of people that were born in the U.S. but reside in Mexico. They don't have a brighter future due to the sole fact that they were born here. If America didn't have this idea embedded in her mind that her life would be better by having her baby born in the U.S., her situation might've turned out differently.
Socorro was more loved than Jordan
Our choice on what to talk about for the Wiki-Curtain on the book The Tortilla Curtain is Jordan and Socorro. Of course, there are so many things and characters that you can talk about from this story but we chose to focus on the children. Since the beginning of the story we hear about both children and as the story progresses you can realize major differences in their lives. First, we have introduced Jordan who is already a grown boy, as the story progresses we see a little bit more of him. He is always playing with his video games, barely interacts with his parents and is mostly forgotten throughout the story by both the parents and the reader. On the other hand, Socorro isn’t born until the last chapters of the story and goes through quite a lot. She isn’t easily forgettable since you always hear about America’s pregnancy. Her existence has always seemed to be a sign of hope for her parents, at least in our perspective as a reader. With everything her parents go through in order for her to be born in a nice place and not suffer we are lead to believe she’ll be a positive change for them. Unfortunately, that isn’t the case, which gives makes us wonder why she’s rubbed in our face so much only to end terribly. That’s not the only question that comes up in our minds either, such as why is Jordan neglected when Socorro is acknowledged through the story? Or what each child represents individually in the story? To what is seen Jordan represents new generations who spend most of the time glued to a screen and with the little interaction they give people forget about their existence. Socorro reminded us how it’s said that babies change your life, usually for the best. In this story though, it doesn’t happen like that at all. Socorro’s presence in the story didn’t help anyone but actually made everything worse. America was forced to stay in a situation she didn’t want to be in and Candido was going nuts not being able to provide for his family. At least in her case, America and Candido did everything they could for her. Whereas Jordan’s mother, Kyra, is mostly worried about her job and gave more importance to her dead dogs than to her own son in the story. Delaney who isn’t his biological father takes care of him more than Kyra does. Clearly, there are many differences between these two kids like the way they live, the attention they receive from their parents, their meaning in the story, you name it. It’s interesting to think about their differences and what they could each represent in this story.
Socorro means "Help"
Giving birth to a baby girl has changed everything for this couple. All that's happened with America and Candido when giving birth to there baby girl was good news, or so everyone would expect. America was is tons of pain, she had no choice but to stop. With a fire consuming around them Candido was hoping the fire wouldn't get to them (Boyle, T.C). When he looked at the Mossbacher's house and looked around, it was deserted (Boyle, T.C). Candido realized that families were evacuating the area due to the fire. It became darker and nerve-racking for Candido he eventually had to stay up all night to be sure everyone was safe from the fire. America had a hold on the neighbors' cat during labor (Boyle, T.C). “As he wraps his head around the fact that he is a father, the father of a daughter, América tells him that she will name the child Socorro, which means ‘help’ in Spanish” (Boyle, T.C). In this unstable filthy shed to give birth in, Candido was expecting a son. “The baby is delivered successfully and both Cándido and América are overjoyed. Cándido cuts the cord and cleans the baby” (Boyle, T.C). He was just as grateful for there daughter. Candido needs to provide more support and living for his little family. This little girl gave Candido hope that life was just about to restart but America was unhappy. She wanted more for her daughter than no house to call home and a father that was believed to have bad luck. She wanted to move back to Mexico for a better life for her daughter. I am surprised with how people can assume many different outcomes when Socorro was born (Boyle, T.C). I believed the best was to come but my group members had different views. Come to find out we were all shocked to know they lost the baby later into the novel when a flood occurred (Boyle, T.C). This is such a complicated life for individuals who just planned on having a better life. Losing a baby, a place more than once, a job that was all replaced with bad luck and worse situations. This upsetting couple went to hell and back over and over again, simple as that.
Rockstar by Nickelback
Nickelback “Rockstar” Tortilla Curtain
“ (So how are you gonna do it?) I'm gonna trade this life for fortune and fame I'd even cut my hair and change my name. Cause we all want to be big rockstars”
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“I’m going up the road to the labor exchange to see if I can’t …. see if I might ….. find something” (26)
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“ I want a brand new house on an episode of Cribs and a bathroom I can play baseball in and a king size tub big enough for ten plus me’
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“ A house, a yard, maybe a TV and a car too-nothing fancy, no places like the gringos built-just four walls and a roof. Was that too much to ask?” (29)
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“ I wanna be great like Elvis without the tassels Hire 8 bodyguards that love to beat up assholes sign a couple autographs so I can eat my meals for free. (I’ll have a quesadilla on the house) I’m gonna dress my ass with the latest fashion,”
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“ ‘Maybe a motel’ she said ‘-just for a night. We could take a shower, ten showers, shower all night. This water’s dirty, filthy, full of scum and bugs. It stinks. My hair smells like an old dog.’” (210)
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“ Well, we all just wanna be big rockstars. And live in hilltop houses driving fifteen cars. The girls come easy and the drugs come cheap
We'll all stay skinny 'cause we just won't eat. And we'll hang out in the coolest bars”
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“ Mexican illegals Candido and America desperately cling to their vision of the American Dream as they fight off starvation in a makeshift camp.” (Intro)
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This We Believe
Although this novel was published over 20 years ago, the concept that TC Boyle wrote about is still something that we see in today's modern world. The main idea in this novel is that nobody truly knows what someone is going through in their life unless they are in their shoes. As residents in a city that borders Mexico, we have witnessed the struggles that immigrants face when they come in to the United States. In present time, we are seeing hundreds of Hondurans fleeing their country to cross into America. This book has insight into some of the struggles these Honduran immigrants might face if they actually get across the border. We believe TC Boyle not only wanted to open the eyes of the uneducated in the topic of immigrants in America, but also he wanted to show the feelings from people on both sides.
