Efren Mendoza's Story 'The Madonnas Of Echo Park'

In some poor countries, many children would steal food from stores. The people in those poor countries do not think that stealing food is a bad thing for a child when they are growing up in this situation, because they just want to get some food to survive. They may not think that stealing food is bad to the owner of the stores because they only want food but nothing valuable. Sometimes, people’s lives are messy because it is too difficult for people to distinguish whether things are right or wrong. The story “The Madonnas of Echo Park”, describes a driver named Efren Mendoza who works in one of the largest public transportation companies in America, and he drives a bus for twenty-seven years. Efren carries 1000 to 2000 passengers per day, …show more content…
He is a good guy, and focuses on his driving all the time, but sometimes, he has a prejudice to people because no one is prefect and everyone makes mistakes. It always appears a little bit crack in the balance. When Efren wants to follow the rules and makes it better, some passengers always wants to break the rules and takes some benefit to themselves. He states, “Those socialist Che-worshiping Reconquistadoras complained these strikes hurt poor Mexican workers who cannot afford a car the most. You’re a Mexican, they say, trying to bond with me by speaking Spanish. How can you turn your own kind? They say. But they aren’t my kind. They’re not American. They’re illegals, and the benefits to law-abiding American like me outweigh whatever inconveniences these people face breaking our laws” (72). This shows that Efren does not want to speak his main language to his kind because he thinks people living in American need to speak English and learn American culture. Also, he does not like to be closed to his kind and thinks he needs to help those Mexicans to get a free ride. He does not like using the relative with his kind to break the rules because he always complies with, and he is angry that those people do not follow the rules because they are not American and illegals immigrations. This quotation illustrates the theme of the story that bus driver Efren does not help his own …show more content…
It makes him uncontrollable and brings out his bad side. In “The Madonnas of Echo Park” book, the writer Brando Skyhorse states, “You don’t need to go to MacArthur Park to fine mojados. These men are everywhere— loud, boisterous, and macho when they’re in packs hanging on corners” (78). This quotes shows that he is stereotyping mojados. He thinks they are loud, boisterous and macho in anywhere, and he does not believe they can be quiet on the bus. The bus driver has a lot of preconceptions about the Mexican because he saw a few people acting badly and loud, and now he thinks that all of Mexican people act like this all the time. This quote also reinforces Efren’s frustration when it comes to following the rules. He is angry because it is important for him to follow the rules every day, but he sees some illegal Mexican do not comply with the rules in