Candido and America

Candido and America, a Mexican couple, crosses the border from Mexico to America in search for greener pastures and to fulfill their dreams. Though Candido works hard to achieve his dreams, he becomes so unlucky because everything he tries his hand at fails. He makes so many efforts to but things just do not work. There are so many instances in the novel that show how unlucky Candido is. For instance, after crossing over to America and while struggling to make ends meet, Candido gets knocked down by a car belonging to Delaney, an American. For fear of being deported, Candido refuses to be taken to hospital. He demands money from Delaney and he is given only 20 dollars which he gladly accepts (Boyle 2). However, the money is too little and it fails to take care of his medication and his family. This forces America to start looking for work.

America and Candido meet another misfortune when their dwelling is destroyed by Jack Jardine Jr and his friend. Having no money to leave in a decent house, Candido had been forced to build a campsite for himself and America. However, this dwelling is destroyed and the two are rendered homeless. At the labor exchange, America is also unfortunate because she does not get work. The Mexican immigrants are treated badly because the Americans do not want them. They are treated as lesser human beings and with contempt (Haines 56). At first, America is afraid to venture so much at the labor exchange and fears other workers who glares at her. It is also here that she meets Jose Navidad who later rapes her. After a few days of unlucky trials, America finally gets work. She is picked by one Jim Shirley to do a cleaning job. Though she counts this as a blessing, she meets other misfortunes. In the first day, she is forced to work with a lazy American woman who leaves almost all the work to her. This makes her work for extra hours and hopes to be paid for them (Boyle 10). However, Shirley tries to sexually abuse her and cheats her out of her extra pay. The next day, America is again picked by Shirley who makes her work under tough conditions by coming in contact with harmful chemicals yet wearing no gloves. When she asks for the gloves, unable to bear the burning of the chemicals, Shirley growls at her. He nevertheless gives her the gloves, makes her work extra hours and still pay her 25 dollars. She waits for Candido at the supermarket but decides to go home after he fails to show up. However, another misfortune strikes. She encounters Jose Navidad and his friend and the two rape her. This is another unlucky event that Candido goes through when his wife is raped (Torrans 23). However, he does not get to know about it because America decided not to tell him about it as it would have hurt him.

On his part, Candido is also unlucky with work. On the second day of America’s venture at the labor exchange, Candido, feeling much better, decides to go with her. However, he is unlucky because he fails to get any job. All the employers reject him. However, he is later lucky to get a construction job which is offered by a man called Al Lopez. This elevates his spirits because he now knows that he would be able to provide for America (Gleason 78). However, this luck is short-lived because he loses his job with Al Lopez. This is after the return of Al Lopez’s regular worker who had been injured. This renders him jobless again. It is at the construction job that the reader also learns of other misfortunes that have befallen Candido throughout his life while trying to chase after his American dream (Díaz 76). In trying to sneak through to America, he gets robbed severally and ends up in unpleasant situations. He and other immigrants are constantly hunted by the American police in order to be deported back to Mexico. This makes him to be constantly on the run, sometimes losing his money and job in the process. This also forces him to change places of residence constantly, afraid of being found out by immigrant officers.

Candido runs into some luck again by getting work for five days in a row. This makes the two able to save some money and they hope the money will help them to buy an apartment (Palecek 45). However, the work is not devoid of bad luck as he is cheated out of some of his money by the employer. After five days, his luck dries out and he is jobless. This makes frustrated and angry. He had discovered the truth about America being raped and had therefore barred her from going to look for work. In addition, Candido feels it is his responsibility as a man to look after America and this partly the reason why he forbids her from looking for a job. As fate would have it, the immigration closes the labor exchange which was the source of hope and job for Candido. This means all hopes of getting work and saving for an apartment are cruelly dashed on a rock and Candido is back to the starting point. To make matters worse, the immigration had announced a check of green cards from the immigrants (Schmidt 102). This implies that those who did not have the cards had to be deported back to their countries. Since Candido and America had sneaked illegally into the country, they did not have the green cards and this meant they faced deportation back to Mexico. Candido’s frustrations and misfortunes are made worse by the growing pregnancy of his wife America who would want to be taken care of well after giving birth. He looks for work in other places but he is unsuccessful (Barlett 61). America insists on going with him but her heavy pregnancy slows down her movement and she tires easily. Together, they again fail to get any work.

Candido contemplates going back to Mexico but the situation there is even worse than in America, with high unemployment rates and corruption in government which has made it hard for one to get a job. He runs into another bad luck when a man approaches him and tells him that he has a cheap and nice place that he can live in. however, this man turns out to be a gangster and he and his friends rob Candido of his savings (Barlett 65). This leaves a devastated Candido who resorts to search in dumpsites for food. This enrages America who refuses to touch the food. However, good luck pays the couple a visit and Candido gets work again. This makes their lives a bit bearable and enlivens their dream of buying a home. The fear of immigration officers sometimes frighten Candido from going to work. on a certain day, Candido becomes so lucky because he is given  a turkey by two young men at the supermarket. This makes him and America so happy. However, their happiness is short-lived because wind blows a coal from the fireplace where America is preparing a meal and sets the canyon on fire. This makes for another nasty turn of events for the young couple that is struggling to make ends meet. While scrambling for safety from the raging fire, America goes into labor pains as her delivery day finally arrives. This gets Candido into another bad luck because there is no midwife and himself he has no experience in child delivering babies (Torrans 145). To worsen his situation further, their dwelling had been gutted by the raging fire that had been started by the coal blown by the wind. This coupled with the risk of being arrested by the police for starting made Candido’s life even more miserable.

However, as luck would have it, America delivers safely (Cullen 34). However, another tragedy strikes as the baby who is named as Socorro seems to be blind. This makes America start demanding that they take her to a doctor for checkup but Candido has no money. Efforts to look for money prove to be futile as he is unsuccessful each day. He gets kicked out of every place he visits and this frustrates him so much. America insists that they go back to Mexico but Candido fears that Mexico is far worse than the United States (Torrans 121). He hopes to remain in the US and achieve his dream. He also fears that if he goes back to Mexico, America’s father would marry her off to another man. While desperately looking for a job, Candido comes in contact with Delaney who confronts him and calls the police. Delaney is convinced that Candido is responsible for all the vandalism and theft that has been witnessed (Barlett 83). Even after knowing the true culprit for the offence, his racial biasness still leads to pursue Candido with a gun. Being followed by Delaney with a gun presents another bad luck for Candido. Though trying to live an honest and hardworking life, misfortunes always happen to thwart his hopes of an American dream. While trying to let America into the happenings of the day, Delaney confronts him with a gun. However, before Delaney does anything, floods sweep them all together with Candido’s makeshift building. Though Candido and America scamper to safety, their baby is unfortunately swept away. This pains Candido so much and he curses his bad luck. However, in his moments of pain and despair, he reaches out to help Delaney from drowning.

Generally, Candido is unlucky. Nothing he does goes the right way. Every time, his hopes are dashed on the rock by some unfortunate events. While trying to fend for his family, he gets knocked down by a car. This makes him bedridden for long and this forces his wife America to look for work. However, bad luck follows her also as she mistreated by her boss and gets raped by Jose Navidad (Boyle 158). He meets bad luck again when his dwelling is destroyed by Jack Jr and his friend. His efforts to find employment always end in frustration because he either finds none or when he gets employed, the job is short-lived. His savings also do not last long because he either spends them on buying food during the times he is unemployed, he is robbed or the money gets destroyed by some unfortunate event like fire or floods. Candido is also unlucky because, despite trying to live an honest life, he is always hunted. The immigration officers are always on his tail and this makes him to despair. It seems that there is little Candido can do to avert his unlucky nature. From the story, Candido seems doomed to be met with bad luck. This because, although he struggles hard and tries to live an honest live, he fails to fulfill his dreams. The unlucky events seem to beyond his control.

Candido’s woes represent what people go through trying to achieve their American dreams. These events show that the American dream is almost unachievable. This is because, despite all his efforts, Candido’s hopes of achieving the dream are always curtailed. The hardship in achieving one’s American dream is presented throughout the novel (Gutiérrez 98). Even people who have achieved like Kyra have difficulties in achieving their own American dreams. For instance, Kyra longs to own the Da Ros mansion. However, she does not have enough to buy it. This dream eludes her throughout the novel. Eventually, the property gets destroyed and this kills all her hopes of ever owning it. However, unlike Candido, her hopes of owning something even better are revived when she discovers another property that is even better than the Da Ros property. For Candido, his hopes for realizing his American dream are not clear because the novel ends in suspense. However, maybe his saving of Delaney may change the latter’s view of Mexicans and he may help Candido achieve his dream. However, that can only be speculated. Boyle’s novel reflects the frustration and hopelessness the many immigrants in America go through in their search for their American dreams. Most immigrants in America face many oppositions, some racial based, in trying to achieve their American dreams (Blasko 123).

Works Cited

Barlett, Donald L, and James B. Steele. The Betrayal of the American Dream. New York:             PublicAffairs, 2012. Print.

Blasko, Larry. Opening the Borders: Solving the Mexico/U.S. Immigration Problem for Our Sake            and Mexico’s. Jamul: Level 4 Press, 2007. Print.

Boyle, Tom C. The Tortilla Curtain: New York : Penguin, 1996. Print.

Cullen, Jim. The American Dream: A Short History of an Idea That Shaped a Nation. Oxford:      Oxford Univ. Press, 2004. Print.

Díaz, Rolando J. Tales from the Tortilla Curtain, and Other Stories. Denver: Outskirts Press, Inc,            2007. Print.

Gleason, Paul W. Understanding T.c. Boyle. Columbia, S.C: University of South Carolina Press, 2009. Print.

Gutiérrez, David. Between Two Worlds: Mexican Immigrants in the United States. Wilmington:   Scholarly Resources, 1996. Print.

Haines, David W. Illegal Immigration in America: A Reference Handbook. Westport:       Greenwood Press, 1999. Print.

Palecek, Michael. The American Dream. Fort Lauderdale: CWG Press, 2006. Print

Schmidt, Ronald. Newcomers, Outsiders, & Insiders: Immigrants and American Racial Politics   in the Early Twenty-First Century. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2010. Print.

Shea, Therese. Immigration to America: Identifying Different Points of View About an Issue.        New York: Rosen Pub. Group, 2006. Print.

Torrans, Thomas. Forging the Tortilla Curtain: Cultural Drift and Change Along the United        States-Mexico Border ; from the Spanish Era to the Present. Fort Worth: TCU Press,       2000. Print.

Leadership & Organizational Evaluation Task 2

Health Promotion in Minority Populations