“What have I done to deserve this, Lord?” There are countless immigrants who have asked themselves this same question and one of them happens to be a character from Helena Maria Viramontes’s short story, The Cariboo Café (176). Viramontes’s implementation of Mexican legend in this text represents the dissolution of immigrant families. This paper will firstly introduce the concept of intertextuality and how it is present in this text, then it will focus on the Mexican legend in the story, and finally, it will discuss the multicultural aesthetic of the piece.
The Cariboo Café is seasoned with intertextuality and peppered with references to real life events that impacted the lives of Central American immigrants residing in the United States. Intertextuality, “the complex interrelationship between …show more content…
Her last thoughts are “But I hold onto his hand. That I can feel, you see, I’ll never let go. Because we are going home. My son and I” (Viramontes 180). Much like La Llorona, who died searching for her children, this woman met the same fate. Viramontes’s use of intertextuality in this short story was imperative so that the reader could understand the grief of this one woman, was the grief of many and forever preserved in legend. It only emphasized the unjust fragmentation of this woman’s family. The tale of La Llorona was an emotional and heart-wrenching backdrop to the real experience of this unnamed woman from Central America. Many immigrants left their homes in search of peace and salvation but were met with discrimination and disillusionment. Viramontes points out this discrimination when a character notices the woman and makes his own assumptions: “In the next booth, I’m twisting the black crud off the top of the ketchup bottle when I hear the lady saying something in Spanish. Right off I know she’s illegal, which explains why she looks like a weirdo” (Viramontes
The Cariboo Café is seasoned with intertextuality and peppered with references to real life events that impacted the lives of Central American immigrants residing in the United States. Intertextuality, “the complex interrelationship between …show more content…
Her last thoughts are “But I hold onto his hand. That I can feel, you see, I’ll never let go. Because we are going home. My son and I” (Viramontes 180). Much like La Llorona, who died searching for her children, this woman met the same fate. Viramontes’s use of intertextuality in this short story was imperative so that the reader could understand the grief of this one woman, was the grief of many and forever preserved in legend. It only emphasized the unjust fragmentation of this woman’s family. The tale of La Llorona was an emotional and heart-wrenching backdrop to the real experience of this unnamed woman from Central America. Many immigrants left their homes in search of peace and salvation but were met with discrimination and disillusionment. Viramontes points out this discrimination when a character notices the woman and makes his own assumptions: “In the next booth, I’m twisting the black crud off the top of the ketchup bottle when I hear the lady saying something in Spanish. Right off I know she’s illegal, which explains why she looks like a weirdo” (Viramontes