...y no se lo trago la tierra

The book itself was considerably less scary than the cover, however it was no less emotional. The book was, if I dare say, realistically surreal, I in the sense that it was so reminiscent of youth I had a funny feeling of strange nostalgia I rarely experience as I read it. I found myself identifying with thoughts from the narrator that I previously had forgotten I had had when I was younger. The idea of demon or devil is common in the mind of many children regardless of religious upbringing, and Rivera is surprisinly in touch with that idea of childhood fear, of darkness, of being left alone for unknown periods of time, only to wake up in the daylight to face a whole different array of troubles.

I didn't have a childhood much like that of our protagonist, yet his thoughts and fears ring true regardless. Every child wants to please their parents, and in a way every child fears how their parents will receive them...the idea of disappointing the ideals of your parents exists within everyone, and Rivera's character is no exception. The book highlights social injustice and isolation as did "Who would have thought it?" and the first person narration made it more emotional than the former for me to read. When we read "I don't like Mexicans because they steal", it is very vivid...probably one of the more piercing racist remarks I've read in literature, despite its simplicity. While I felt "Who would have thought it?" was more composed in a more complex, eloquent manner, the shrill but simple dialogue of this piece worked to the author's advantage. The two books engage different parts of my sensitive persona.

What Rivera accomplishes is interpreting an unjust society through the eyes of someone too young to be sure of what that is. Rather than preaching to his readers, he edifies us in a manner both vivid and vicarious; using the symbolism of a child's imagination to express emotion on issues that do not begin in the middle of life, rather at the start.