The short story “the Golden Thomas Vargas”, magical realism is evident in the union opposites of gambling. In the modern era gambling is notorious for cheating, lying, and stealing, however in Agua Santa gambling is sacred to the people. When his wife and Concha Diaz force Vargas out of his house, he takes on the life of gambling. When Vargas begins to gamble the narrator explains the audience that the townspeople “could tolerate a man who mistreats his family, a man who was lazy and a troublemaker, we never paid that money he borrowed, the gambling debts were sacred”(73). Magical realism can be seen in two instances here. One can be seen in the gambling and the other the people. The first instance is the gambling, for people to describe gambling