Stories about breaking the family curse — High Country News – Know the West

Rubén Degollado’s linked story assortment, The Household Izquierdo, reveals household troubles and secrets and techniques that span generations. He explores the conflicting dualities of Catholicism and curanderismo, what it means to be Mexican on each side of the border, and the wealthy complexity of the Spanish language, each pure and pocho. 

There’s additionally a brujo’s curse! When Papa Tavo falls in poor health, his household instantly blames their neighbor, Brujo Contreras. In line with Contreras, “Izquierdo means from the left or left-handed. … In Latin, the phrase for on the left-hand aspect is advert sinistrum, which in Spanish is siniestro. That’s one other phrase for evil. It’s the identical in English. So that could be a curse in at the least three languages.” With this proclamation, the brujo denies any position within the Izquierdo household’s ongoing struggles. The Izquierdos, nonetheless, proceed to consider that Contreras is on the root of all their issues.

Every a part of the gathering begins by situating Papa Tavo and Abuelita in essential conditions, together with their 1958 migration to the U.S. aspect of the border and their thirty fifth marriage ceremony anniversary get together. There’s each tenderness and pressure. The tales that comply with de-center the patriarch and matriarch, permitting every member of the family to look at his or her actions extra intently and share the truths they consider in. Solely then can they start to know the supply of the household curse. In “Turroco,” Little Gonzalo hints on the household historical past of psychological sickness, one thing that might not be prevented by innumerable rosaries or talking in tongues. At a younger age, he watched his father and a curandero dig up a photograph of Gonzalo and Papa Tavo with Xs by way of their torsos, set it on fireplace, and recite maldiciones towards Brujo Contreras. However their efforts couldn’t undo the harm that had already been performed.

The writer experiments with standpoint all through this assortment. The tales about Papa Tavo and Abuelita that open every half are informed within the third individual, for instance, however the cousins’ era is represented by way of first-person plural. In “Our Story Frays,” the cousins must resolve in the event that they consider devoutly Catholic Abuelita’s model of Brujo Contreras’s demise, or if what charismatic Tía Victoria informed them is nearer to the reality. Or do they consider their very own model of the story? One that provides them energy over Contreras’ descendants. One which they’ll inform “over beers within the yard” whereas somebody “strums corridos on an out-of-tune guitar.” By utilizing this multiple-voice perspective, the writer captures the way in which folks in all households have totally different variations of the identical story. How we sit round sharing cuentos, whispering chisme, and preserving household histories alive — even when that historical past is typically embellished.

By utilizing this multiple-voice perspective, the writer captures the way in which folks in all households have totally different variations of the identical story. 

The epistolary story, “La Milagrosa Selena,” hints on the struggles of the oldest daughter, Marisol. It’s informed by Marisol’s good friend, Lourdes, who exposes Marisol’s consuming dysfunction and her susto. Lourdes swears that each sicknesses have been cured at a Selena live performance. She writes to the Bishop requesting canonization for Selena, though Selena was a Jehovah’s Witness, not a Roman Catholic. Clearly, Selena is a part of the familia, too.

“In Seven Songs,” the youthful daughter, Dina, speaks on to her non secular daughters, Teresa, Dianira and Yesenia, explaining her personal self-imposed isolation and calling them her poderosas — her highly effective ones — as a result of she believes them robust sufficient to beat the “unhealthy Izquierdo blood.” 

Day 10 with #TheFamilyIzquierdo
Faith and Religion

Like many within the Mexican American neighborhood, their religion spans from conventional Catholicism to Charismatic Christianity. Their love of God is what sustains them by way of their trials. pic.twitter.com/t5MvFsozjd

— 🇲🇽 Rubén Degollado 🇺🇸 (@ruben_degollado) September 4, 2022

Essentially the most stunning character is the rebellious daughter-in-law, Victoria, who wields extra energy within the household than anticipated. She is married to the oldest son, Gonzalo, an alcoholic. When he accuses her of being too pleasant along with his nephew, she leaves him to show she doesn’t want his monetary assist. Solely when Gonzalo curbs his unhealthy habits does she return residence, the place she will host a peaceable meal for the Izquierdo household on the eve of Mom’s Day. However the household’s presence in her residence reminds her of the emotional turmoil she felt after she gave delivery to Little Gonzalo, the suicidal ideations that she by no means shared as a result of she didn’t wish to face any criticism from her husband’s household. She is ready to benefit from the get together solely when her sisters-in-law pull her into the circle of household on the makeshift dance flooring for some washing-machine movidas, Tejano type. As soon as once more, Selena helps to alleviate the curse. Regardless that Victoria isn’t Catholic, she is the individual Abuelita depends on when Papa Tavo’s cirrhosis progresses. Victoria is the one who calms Gonzalo when he can’t deal with his father’s demise and continues the Lord’s Prayer when Abuelita can’t go on.

By providing such diverse factors of view, Degollado illuminates the conflicts between religion and household frequent in Latinx tradition with out making any judgment, permitting readers to formulate their very own conclusions about guilt and innocence.

Chicana Feminist and former rodeo queen, Tisha Marie Reichle-Aguilera (she/her) writes so the desert panorama of her childhood might be heard as loudly because the city chaos of her maturity. Her tales have been anthologized in Made in L.A. Quantity 4, Ramblings & Reflections: SouthWest Writers Profitable Phrases Anthology, and Puro Chicanx Writers of the twenty first Century. Her flash fiction has been included in Finest Small Fictions 2022. You may learn her revealed tales and essays at http://tishareichle.com/

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