Their actual houses are ugly, in need of repairs, it feels claustrophobic, it is crappy, old and not suitable to those who live under that roof. The many people who live in their discomfortable home have a dream house where eveything is just the way they want it to feel and look. Their dream houses are like different fantasies in which their lives are much easier and perfect.
Even though people think of her as fat and strange she misses her home like any person would. Mamasita is homesick even though she has her baby boy with her, she misses the rest of her family. She sits all day by the window singing sad songs from the spanish radio. The appartment she lives in is really old, ugly, and worn out, its nothing like what she imagined. She dreams her house being " ... a pink house, pink as hollyhocks with lots of startled light." The man who brought Mamasita and her son to this country wanted to please her by painting the house pink just like she imagined, but to her it doesn't feel the same. She was heartbroken when her little boy started to sing the Pepsi commercial, she didn't want her little boy to be attached to this new society she feels they don't belong in.
In the vignette "Rafaela Who Drinks Cocunut & Papaya Juice on Tuesdays" Rafaela is a young beautiful lady who is getting old. She leans out the window a lot because she gets locked indoors by her husband who thinks Rafaela will run away because she's too beautiful to look at, and because of this she's afraid of her husband. She leans out the window on her elbow and dreams of her hair as Rapunzel's. She feels the need to escape out of the house in which to her may feel like a prison. At times Rafaela wishes she could go dance to the music in the bar before she gets old. Sometimes Rafaela is unnoticable unless she makes herself present. The same way Rapunzel lets down her golden hair, Rafaela lets down a clothesline carrying coconut and papaya drinks that she sent Esperanza and the girls to buy at the store. Rafaela wishes the drinks were, "...sweet, like the island, like the dance hall where women much older than her throw green eyes easily like dice and open homes with keys," instead of the drinks being, "... bitter like an empty room."
Sally is young and beautiful with shiny black hair. Her father says to be this beautiful is trouble, they are very strict in their religion they cant go out or dance. She used to be different she would always laugh with her friend, wear make-up and try and look pretty. Now she doesn't laugh she pulls her skirt straight and rubs the blue paint of her eye lids, she looks at her feet and walks to the house she want come out of. Sally is like Rafaela she's always locked in her house wishing to love and be free. But her parents don't allowe her to show her beauty.
In the vignette "Minerva Writes Poems" Minerva is very young only a little bit older than Esperanza but she already has two kids to look after and her husband who is no good at all. She cries all night and day and prays because she feels she's unlucky. After feeding her children and putting them to sleep she writes poetry in little pieces of paper and holds on to them for a long time. She has many problems but the biggest problem is her husband who keeps leaving her alone with their kids. He comes back but disapoints her and leaves again.
None of their houses are like they would have wanted or even imagined . These women, who dream of the best suitable conditions to live life in, have to live with their reality and find ways to improve what they have.
-Gina and Dennise
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