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Cabeza de Vaca’s Survival Secrets Imagine that you are cold, lonely, and stranded on an empty island with only 3 other people. What would you do? Cabeza de Vaca and the other 3 survivors’ raft has been washed ashore on the Isle de Malhado, an island also known as the Island of Bad Luck. It was November of 1528, and the clueless Spaniards had no ships, let alone clothes and food.
The narrator recalls feeling trapped in her daily life, “I felt trapped in a world I could never escape. Confined to mediocracy, a pale, thin, overprotected girl...at the McCoy I became like my mother, a new person…,” (Chavez, 1999, pg. 256). She became a woman who, “Felt mature, comfortable with myself, more alive, not exhausted and frustrated by a life nearly over,” (Chavez, 1999, pg. 258), where being around new people allowed her to be the person dreamed of becoming, where she and her sister Margo both longed for freedom. At the hotel, they also stayed with their mother’s younger sister, Chita, “Rooms where shared by two sets of sisters, one younger the other much older... both groups sought respite from intense summer…,” (Chavez, 1999, pg. 255).
Patria has been a leader all her life and she is also caring and respectful. She got married at a very young age to Pedrito and has 2 children and one stillborn child. Patria is a wonderful mom and is very protective and caring towards her 2 kids, Nelson and Norris. Patria was the last but most revolutionary for many reasons. In Julia Alvarez’s novel
When her sisters go and visit her, the girls think that she looks like “the after person in one of those before-after makeovers in magazines” (117). Sofia essentially changed everything about her after just a few months in the Dominican Republic. She goes from someone that smokes weed and has wild stories about boys to a girl who is in touch with her Dominican roots. However, in Sofia’s case, parts of her identity are rooted in her innate characteristics. Even though some things have changed about her, there are still things that are the same about her.
General • First Name: Bartolomé • Last Name: de Las Casas • Middle Name: X • Birth Date: 11 November 1481 • Gender: Male • Ethnicity/Nationality: Spanish General Info: Bartolomé de Las Casas lived during the 16th century. He was one of the first people to settle in the New World. He is most famous for being a social reformer who indeed introduced many social reforms to the world never seen before.
The travels of Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca was born around 1490 in a small Spanish town called Jerez. He was believed to have grown up with his grandparents, because his parent died when he was young. Cabeza de Vaca left Spain for the Americas in June 1527. In April 1528, the ship's captain, Narváez, landed near present-day Tampa Bay, Florida with his large army of soldiers and settlers. Even with shortages of food, the Spanish made its way first north and then west along the southern coast of Florida to the Gulf of Mexico in Florida’s panhandle.
While waiting in line to get to the altar Patria looks at a picture of the Virgin Mary as Mate begins to pray. When she turned back and looked out into the pews she felt her faith ‘stir’ and come back to life. As she joined in with the prayer she questions the Virgencita saying “Here I am, Virgencita. Where are you?” And unexpectedly, she received her answer “Here, Patria Mercedes, I’m here, all around you.
Patria is strong willed about her religion, so think about everyone else. Trujillo’s regime has torn apart so many families, killed so many, and destroyed so many lives. The author tries to represent those events in this scene, the breaking of Patrias religious will. To conclude the theme of religion has an impact on the book In the Time of the Butterflies. Religion has a pattern of being present for characters like Patria in their times of need.
Bartolome de Las Casas was born in 1848 in Spain. Las Casas was a Spanish historian and dominican missionary who objected the Spanish treatment of the Natives. Las Casas is known for his famous writings which weren’t published until many years after his death. Las Casas was not like any ordinary man in his time period. He opposed to several things the Spanish had against the Natives.
Focusing on Patria, after listening to advice about joining the revolution she has made her final conclusions about what she wanted to do about the situation. Julia Alvarez uses Patria's faith in God as an illustration of courage. Patria is a very religious person. She used her faith in God to help her get through difficult situations demonstrating moral, physical, and emotional courage in time of danger.
she’s comparing God and Trujillo, by saying they have become the same person. Patria gains courage from this because she realizes that God might not be so great as she thought him to be. At a young age, Patria also showed signs of a motherly-figure. Patria, like any mother, loves her child no matter what. Another example from the novel is, “That moment, I understood her hatred.
Being deeply religious, Ama returns back to her roots, “and now Juana rarely saw her, sometimes Ama wouldn’t come home until the next day, saying she’d been praying all night with Dona Martina” (130). Such a noticeable change in lifestyle from alcoholic to devout Christian, demonstrates her complex personal
George is an extremely complex protagonist; Steinbeck’s unique style and vulgar diction throughout the first chapter convolutes the reader’s feelings about George. George’s persona rapidly changes from one extreme to the other. On one hand, George appears abusive towards Lenny and repeatedly calls him a “crazy bastard” and a “crazy son of a bitch”, but George also claims that he would “go nuts” without Lenny and that he was “jus’ foolin’’ when he uttered all the cutting remarks (Steinbeck 4-13). George’s comments fully illustrate his ambivalence towards Lenny. The reader is unsure of George because George himself is uncertain of his feelings towards Lenny.
Lola takes advantage of her deteriorating mother whose illness represents the declining hold of the norms over Lola. Since her mom “will have trouble lifting her arms over her head for the rest of her life,” Lola is no longer afraid of the “hitting” and grabbing “by the throat” (415,419). As a child of a “Old World Dominican Mother” Lola must be surrounded by traditional values and beliefs that she does not want to claim, so “as soon as she became sick” Lola says, “I saw my chance and I’m not going to pretend or apologize; I saw my chance and I eventually took it” (416). When taking the opportunity to distinguish herself from the typical “Dominican daughter” or ‘Dominican slave,” she takes a cultural norm like long hair and decides to impulsively change it (416). Lola enjoyed the “feeling in [her] blood, the rattle” that she got when she told Karen to “cut my hair” (418).
As the eldest sister, Patria is introduced as a motherly figure toward her sisters. She married at a young age and was happy being a wife and mother. Her Christianity is central to her character, and although it was tested due to the death of her stillborn child, a retreat in the mountains with her church group profoundly affects both her faith and her view of the rebellion. At the retreat, Patria witnesses a young rebel, not much older than her own daughter, being shot and killed by Trujillo’s guard force.
