I noticed that the edition of our current novel that was prescribed in class does not contain the subtitle that mine does. The title of the edition that I read includes a subtitle: The Squatter and The Don—A Novel Descriptive of Contemporary Occurrences in California. I find it interesting that subtitles maybe omitted from some editions and not others. I think the subtitle on the edition I read is well befitting of the novel itself. It is certainly one of the oddest novels I’ve ever read, structurally speaking. The author assigns a great deal of real estate (as it were) to the laws and treaties of the time in which the narrative takes place, exploring both sides of the implications of them. For the Alamar and Mechlin families, the laws have dire consequences rendering each family rather destitute. It is noteworthy, I think, that these families represent the goodness of society, the law-abiding, community conscious folks who care about others and not just their own gains. The other families, those of Roper and Gasbang (and a few more whose names I can’t offhandedly recall) benefit from the unfairness and corruption despite their moral turpitude. So back to why I find this novel odd…while there is a plot that unfolds, Ruiz de Burton provides it to the reader from multiple points of view. We see first hand how the Alamar and Mechlin families are affected by the events that unfold, but we also get to experience the point of view of Gasbang and his thugs, their attitudes and thoughts which drive their behaviour. So not only does Ruiz de Burton provide a one-sided perspective to the contemporary occurrences in California, she provides what she believes are the opposing points of view.

One of the main motifs in the novel that really stands out to me is “the least said, soonest mended”. My mother used to tell me this all the time as a kid. It never made sense to me, especially in this day and age when it is en vogue to talk about one’s emotions and feelings. This meaning of this ‘pearl of wisdom’ is that if you don’t talk about a problem, it will simply go away. Look how well that worked out for Don Mariano and Clarence. Look how much time was wasted for Clarence and Mercedes when Clarence decided not to defend himself after his father’s hissy fit. In the words of Freddie Mercury’s song, ‘time waits for no one’, so do what you have to do and make the most of time while you have it. For me, this is the most important take-away from Ruiz de Burton’s story.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGjt291COa0

I found a few Spanishism in the second half, one in particular caught my eye. Again, the page reference may not apply to the edition prescribed for class, but on page 361 of the one I read, at the end of Chapter XXXII—A False Friend Sent to Deceive the Southerners, Mr. Mechlin states “[t]he earnings of the Central Pacific this last year were seventeen millions of dollars” while speaking with Governor Stanford and Mr. Perin. This is how it would be literally translated into English from the Spanish (something to the effect of: Los ingresos del Pacífico Central este año pasado fueron diecisiete millones de dólares). In English, million is not plural and the preposition ‘of’ is merely implied and not included; whereas in Spanish, millones is plural and the preposition de is required. Further, it is amusing to me, as someone keen on linguistics, to see Mr. Mechlin make this utterance and not Don Mariano. I could see Don Mariano making this type of Spanishism, but not so much Mr. Mechlin.

So many things fill my cabeza upon reflection of this novel. The first thing I’ll mention is Amparo Ruiz de Burton (ARB)’s use of the word ‘unmolested’ on page 27 (in the edition I’m reading) or in Chapter III…when she mentions Darrell avoiding the travellers; that he is “think[ing] of home unmolested”. When I first read this, I chuckled thinking about when my husband and I arrived in Cuba the first time and he saw the ‘do not disturb’ sign on the hotel room door, finding it quite amusing to see the word ‘molestar’. Thinking back to what Jon mentioned in our first class, that there are examples in the writings that we’ll be looking at of Spanishisms brought to English and vice versa. Of course, ARB didn’t mean the English sense of ‘molest’ as we know it today; rather, the more antiquated definition to “pester or harass (someone) in an aggressive or persistent manner” https://www.lexico.com/definition/molest . If I didn’t have an awareness of Spanish, this would have been rather shocking appearance in the text, wondering where Darrell was that molestation (in the current sense) would be an issue.

My main thoughts are on the notion of liminality. I could go on for pages about this, but I will try to keep this as succinct as possible. ARB was a native Spanish speaker, writing in English. Yet there are some idiomatic expressions and syntactical structures used that demonstrate her Spanish knowledge as she applies her thoughts in an English context. Regardless of which language structures or thoughts originate, they culminate in this narrative as something we, the reader, can relate to—regardless of our experience with either language. That’s pretty amazing to be able to do that.

Liminality also comes into play about the ancestry/ nationalism of the setting of the novel. Don Mariano’s family has been on their land for some amount of time prior to the beginning of the story—when the land was part of Mexico. Then the Mexican–American War happened and suddenly the limits/ borders of each country changed. Even though Don Mariano’s property didn’t move, the national boundary did…so too did the governance, language, cultural and social norms, each of which have their own figurative limits. The landowners and residents had no say in this, yet it was their limits that were changing, at the will of someone else. And as we see, outsiders are now entering this space, without limit/ border/ boundary, and taking it as their own, because they can.

Anyway, those are my thoughts. I am most curious to see how liminality exists in our readings…limits re: identity, culture, beliefs, space. It seems to be a prevalent notion in Latin American literature.