I personally did not enjoy this novel. It just went on and on telling events here and there. As mentioned in class, this felt more like a diary and thus there wasn’t this structure and I just got a bit bored. Nevertheless, as usual there were some interesting parts that I would like to share. On page 9 there is this section that says “He didn’t hate the Jefe (Villa), he told her, but he never liked to hear people praise him. He thought that Villa was just like anyone else and that when the day came for him to die, he would die just like the others”. It is interesting how here we are being challenged to not idolize Villa as some sort of heroic unique figure and to treat him like a commoner. I think has become a common antic where in history people have praised a particular figure only to find out that he/she was no better than anyone else or did not accomplish what he/she promised to do. Maybe people are starting to lose faith in leaders, such as politicians. Yes, we see that happening a lot nowadays. We become disenchanted and lose faith in them. And the problem with idolizing someone is we steer away from what’s really important such as ideals or goals that as a society, we are striving to achieve. We see this exact problem of idolizing on the same page further down. It says, “He was such a bully that he terrified them all. One day he said to Mama, this bird is a real Pancho Villa. Mama didn’t say anything, but when Bustillos left, she would caress her Pancho Villa every day. The dove, after his reputation as Pancho Villa got around, was found dead one day with his head shot off”. This dove, which is usually associated as a peaceful animal, is given these qualities of power, might, fear, traits that are associated to Pancho Villa. We are being asked to idolize and praise Villa for such qualities. And yet, in this quote, there is also a bit of foreshadowing when it mentions that the dove dies. This could be taken as Villa being killed by the Mexican government. And once again showing that in the end he was just a regular guy, or someone who was actually not that strong as people thought, that he got killed. Finally, page 18 shows us another interesting quote, “Herrera railed on against the accused who, standing in front of the cemetery wall and facing a firing squad, raised his hat aloft, stood up straight, and said that he was dying for a cause different from the revolution”. This is interesting because we are being challenged to think what the revolution meant, what were really its goals. Because, here it says that this man was dying for a cause different from the revolution. Could this be possible?? Overall, these examples that I’ve chosen to select seem to challenge this idolizing of leaders and of the revolution, asking us to have an open mind and not see/view the revolution as one thing or in black and white. This is just one aspect of the novel that I found interesting to address.