América Rincón

Appearance:                                                                                                                    América's apperance is described as beautiful, even perfect by Cándido. She is 17 years old and pregnant. She is married to C. During the course of the story América of course gets corpulent beacuse of her pregnancy.

Gender Roles:                                                                                                                           América stays at “home, she is subordinated to C. and protected by him. But she accepts her role in partnership. This attitude changes and América gets more selfconfident and is able  to defend her position towards Cándido.

Attitude to work:                                                                                                                                                                América wants to go working although it contradicts what she’s been taught at home and she's willing to take every work she can get => supply family (baby).

Both, América and Cándido are very hard-working and diligent. 

Food and lifestyle:                                                                                                                                                             The couple is very poor, but content with little (América only wants a small house (p.35)) but they starve because they don’t have enough money to buy the cheap tortillas they normally eat.

Important Events concerning América's Development in the 1st Part of the Book

América decides to go working but Cándido gets very angry about that and they argue. She’s disappointed because Cándido didn’t keep his promise to get her a nice house. Cándido slaps América into her face as she wants to go working because they hadn’t had enough food (you’re no better than your sister, no better than a whore!” ll.46f.); Then she goes working to keep them from starving.

América returns to her place of waiting to get work, and accepts a coffee from a man (José Navidad) who wants to get to know her better, she tells him that she is married and refuses his offer. Soon a fat gringo employs her and she is taken to her place of work. América is able to earn money but is cheated for the two extra hours of work (p 103, ll.54-55) (=> After getting her first wage she becomes much more selfconfident and independent in her decisions.)

The next day América again works at the fat man’s house. The acid cleanser makes the skin of her hands peel and hurts very much while scrubbing buddhas. She is afraid to ask for gloves, but finally she receives gloves from the fat man and is able to continue working. In the evening she has earned 25 dolars for 6-8 hours (cf. p. 136 - 142 ). This time the fat man doesn’t try to get close to her ( “put his hand in her lap” ; cf. p. 142 ll. 17 )

After work América waits ravenously for Cándido at the supermarket but he does not come. She trys to reach the new camping place. On her way there she is ambushed by two men, one of them is José Navidad and she is raped by him and his friend.

Important Events concerning América's Development in the 2nd Part of the Book

América doesn't tell Cándido anything about the rape except the fact that they stole her money. She withdraws from her husband and gets homesick because she can't come to terms with the rape. And also later on Cándido repeatedly asks her of the "robbery" because he suspects that the men not only stole her money. He gets very angry and slaps her to forget his desperation. América feels lonely and desperate therefore she wants to return to México and dreams of changes in her life. While staying at home she recognizes a coyote and feels some kind of connection between her and the animal (=> gap between Cándido and América gets bigger).

The next important change is that the labour exchange is closed and they have to go to the city to get work. América persuades Cándido to take her with him to the city and is happy and feels relieved because of the change of environment (=> she gets stronger towards Cándido). The walk is very exhausting and América hardly manages the tour but in the end she is happy by achieving their aim.

Arriving in the town a man offers the couple a room for the night but after América was waiting for hours Cándido returns and lost all the money because he was robbed. Now they have to eat the rest out of the garbage containers and have to return to the canyon. América is absolutely desperate (=> they hit rock bottom).

During the course of the story América is numb and doesn't want to talk to Cándido anymore. She just sits on the ground and doesn't do anything. All the presents and the fact that Cándido has work again and tries to cheer her up don't help her. Only in the end when Cándido takes a gifted turkey for thanksgiving home she shows the first smile for a long time. 

by Frauke, Evelina, Insa