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| Retrieved from www.amazon.com |
McCall, Guadalupe G. Under the Mesquite. New York: Lee & Low Books Inc., 2011. ISBN 9781600604294
Review and Critical Analysis:
Under the Mesquite tells the coming of age story of Lupita, the oldest of eight siblings, who faces the terror of her Mami’s cancer diagnosis and eventual death to cancer. By writing this book in verse, Guadalupe Garcia McCall gives Lupita’s story a beautiful rhythm that could not be matched with any other style of writing. McCall captures all the emotion that comes with this difficult topic and creates a tragic and hopeful story. She uses Lupita’s story to show how teens are able to endure the most unthinkable difficulties with incredible resilience.
The book begins with the word “mesquite.” McCall includes its pronunciation, origin, definition, and further description of the tree. She says, “To survive in harsh climates, the mesquite can adapt to almost any soil, can endure droughts by reading deeper than other trees to find water, and can grow back from even a small piece of root left in the ground.” The mesquite is a symbol throughout this novel in verse, and this beautiful description is not just a description of the tree, but of Lupita’s endurance. In the story, Mami tries to get rid of the mesquite tree in her garden, but with great resilience it keeps growing until Mami gives in and lets it grow into a beautiful tree. It’s under that same tree that Lupita comes to find her escape by writing poetry. She says, “No matter how bad things get, / I can always be found here, / planted firmly in what’s left / of Mamie’s rose garden, / with a pen in my hand, / leaning against this same sturdy trunk, / still writing poems / in the shade of the mesquite.”
This book is divided into six parts, which offers opportunities to look back into Lupita’s childhood and for time to pass more quickly when necessary. The story is written in English, but many Spanish words are mixed into the story. Lupita is fluent in English and Spanish, and the mixture of languages throughout the story allows readers to see into Lupita’s two different worlds - the one her family left behind in Mexico and their new one in los Estados Unidos. It helps readers experience Lupita’s struggle of being uprooted from her home and laying down new roots. McCall concludes the book with a “Names, Spanish Words, and Cultural References” section to help readers understand the Spanish language and other cultural references throughout the book. Personally, I found this unnecessary, but I also understand how it might be very helpful to those less familiar with Spanish language and culture.
McCall wrote this book in free verse, which gives the story beautiful flow and freedom. Each poem is unique, including stanzas of different lengths. For the story of a girl who has so much freedom stolen from her, yet who walks away from the novel with a newfound freedom, the freedom of free verse is a perfect fit. Lupita’s final words of the book as she leaves for college to find a new life exemplify this perfectly. She says, “I don’t know where I’ll go from here, / but I want to make my own way. / This feels right to me -- / starting to walk toward the doors, / holding Mami’s old, blue suitcase, / and remembering / the love I carry with me.”
Poem Used to Support Critical Analysis:
Señorita
Mami said life would change
after I turned fifteen,
when I became a señorita.
But señorita means different things
to different people.
For my friends Mireya and Sarita,
who turned fifteen last summer,
señorita means wearing lipstick,
which when I put it on
is sticky and messy,
like strawberry jam on my lips.
For Mami, señorita means
making me try on high-heeled shoes
two inches high
and meant to break my neck.
For Mami’s sisters, my tîas
Maritza and Belén, who live in Mexico,
señorita means measure me,
turning me this way and that
as they fit me for the floral dresses
they cheerfully stitch together
on their sewing machines.
For the aunts, señorita also means
insisting I wear pantyhose,
the cruel invention that makes
my thick, trunklike thighs
into bulging sausages.
When my tîas are done dressing me up
like a big Mexican Barbie doll,
I look at myself in the mirror.
Mami stands behind me
as I pull at the starched
glowered fabric and argue
with Mami’s reflection.
“Why do I have to wear this stuff?
This is your style, not mine!
I like jeans and tennis shoes.
Why can’t I just dress
like a normal teenager?
En los Estados Unidos, girls
don’t dress up like muñecas.”
“Señoritas don’t talk back
to their mothers,” Mami warns.
When my aunts aren’t looking,
she gives me a tiny pinch,
like a bee sting on the inside
of my upper arm. “Señoritas know
when to be quiet and let their
elders make the decisions.”
For my father, señorita means
he has to be a guard dog
when boys are around.
According to my parents,
I won’t be allowed to date
until I graduate from high school.
That’s fine with me.
I have better things to do
than think about boys --
like prepare for my future.
I want to be the first on in our family
to earn a college degree.
For my sisters, señorita means
having someone to worship:
it is the wonder of
seeing their oldest sister
looking like cinderella
on her way to the ball.
But for me, señorita means
melancolîa: settling into sadness.
It is the end of wild laughter.
The end of chewing bubble gum
and giggling over nothing
with my friends at the movies, our feet up
on the backs of the theater seats.
Señorita is very boring
when we go to a fancy restaurant
decorated with Christmas lights
for the upcoming Posadas.
We sit properly, Papi, Mami
and I, quietly celebrating
my fifteenth birthday
with due etiquette because
I’m trying my best
to be a good daughter and accept
the clipping of my wings,
the taming of my heart.
Being a señorita
Is not as much fun
as I’d expected it to be.
It means composure and dignity.
Señorita is a niña,
the girl I used to be,
who has lost her voice.
“Señorita” captures the essence of McCall’s free verse poetry in this novel. It shows Lupita’s struggle and loss of innocence. She should be enjoying her newfound life as a señorita, but instead she’s facing great responsibility as the caregiver of her younger sisters and brothers during her mother’s battle with cancer. The word “señorita” is not the thrilling word to her that it should be, and that it is for most teenage girls.
During our reading of this book as a class, I would spend more time on this poem. We would review all the different meanings of señorita for different people in Lupita’s life. We would talk about how one word can mean many different things to different people. I would ask the students what other words they can think of that might have different meanings to different people like señorita has in this story. What are the reasons they mean different things to different people? What circumstances change their meaning?
Students would then choose a word to write about. First, they would spend time brainstorming all the different meanings of the words and the different circumstances that might change its meaning. Then, students would write a free verse poem about the word, including 4-5 stanzas, showing how it means different things to different people.
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