Man To Send Rainclouds By Sandra Cisneros

Throughout the book Braided Lives many cultural clashes are brought forth and developed. The roots for these clashes are deep within the differences of religion, language and race in others and in oneself. Examples of cultural clash can be found within Native American, Spanish and English cultures, and developed as many of these different cultures find themselves in contact with each other and things they don’t understand.

In the story “Man to Send Rainclouds” two Indian men plan to bury their grandfather in the old ways of their ancestors. Before they finish the burial though they decide to ask their Christian priest if he will sprinkle holy water at the burial so their grandfather will not be thirsty in the next life. At first the priest

For example, in an excerpt of “House on Mango Street” by Sandra Cisneros the main character, Esperanza, witnesses a clash of language within the household of her next-door neighbor. Her neighbor, who has recently arrived from another country to live with her son refuses to speak English and spends her days indoors. This is not because she is to fat to leave as Esperanza’s friend Rachel suggests, but because she is afraid to speak English. She does not want to leave everything from her native land behind so she clings tightly to the only thing she seems to have left, her language. This woman who lives down the street not only refuses to speak English but she begins to have a crisis when her young son comes home singing the coca cola theme song in English. She screams at him saying “No speak English” over and over, only to have her son continue to sing and learn. This clash of language may not be with other cultural groups, but in oneself, as it was in many of the stories within Braided Lives. The woman, Mamacita, is not angry at her son for speaking English because dislikes English speakers, but because she refuses to assimilate and accept that she is no longer in her home

In the short poem “Can I Ask You a Personal Question” this racial clash is seen through the eyes of a Native American who is continuously asked questions only because of the way she looks. Questions about the length of her hair and if she made her won clothing, all because of the clash of culture within the native Americas and the white Americans. This clash of culture is a long past of misunderstanding of the Native Americans and their place in the Americas. In many of the other poems about Native Americans the past of the fighting between American Indians and settlers of America is brought forth. All of this racial misunderstanding and fighting is due to the clash of culture due to race between the two