Even if he chooses to go, his heart will not be in it, and he will not take part in many of the ceremonies, such as Communion. Thus, he will be an outcast and different, someone who does not fit into the culture and society, and those around him will never allow him to forget it. Some may make him feel guilty, and others may just ignore him, but he will never be free of the stigma of someone who no longer believes in God.
In addition, the Church is an important, even vital aspect of the Hispanic community. Church services are only a part of the ways the people interact with the Church. There are Catholic schools, charities and societies, and many families work as laypeople in the Church. It is present in many aspects of daily life, so Richard will never be able to leave it completely behind him. It will have a hold on him no matter what he does, and he cannot escape it unless he escapes the community and his family, too. Family, guilt, society, and culture will all conspire to create a feeling of not fitting in and conforming to what is normal in Hispanic society. He will be on the outside looking in, and those who love him will never let him forget it. He cannot escape, because the Church's trappings and insinuations of guilt and sin will always eat away at him as well. He will always suspect that because he is a non-believer, he is the cause of his family's pain, suffering, and loss, and this will eat away at him as well. The Church is such an important part of Hispanic life that it is difficult for anyone to escape its grasp, or truly be free from the Church.
Both of the men see themselves as Americans, too. They grew up at a time when there were major race issues in the country, but they are both somewhat sheltered from those issues. Thus, they do not see themselves as different, they are simply Americans. Richard tells the fight promoter, "I'm an American" (Villarreal 135). The promoter replies, "All right, you know what I mean. Mexicans don't get too much
Down These Mean Streets believe that every child is born a poet, and every poet is a child. Poetry to me was always a very sacred form of expression. (qtd. In Fisher 2003) Introduction / Background History Born Juan Pedro Tomas, of Puerto Rican and Cuban parents in New York City's Spanish Harlem in 1928, Piri Thomas began his struggle for survival, identity, and recognition at an early age. The vicious street
Like Monte in Rodriguez's Pigeons, Lucia recognizes that immigrant Mexican men feel like failures is they cannot take care of their families once they arrive in America. The author uses this described tension related to income and support to show Lucia's need to be independent and depend on no man. In these seven passages, I found it interesting that each character maintained personality while focusing on a similar goal. Each