In \u201cFiesta, 1980\u201d, Junot D\u00edaz highlights the same dynamics we saw in the previous unit\u2060: the power that a man holds in a patriarchal society and the violence that can stem from his effort to maintain this power\u2060\u2014and by extension, prove his masculinity. Though Ram\u00f3n\u2019s abuse is not directly present within the story, the characters\u2019 range of reactions (not only to his anger, but also their hesitancy to disturb his happiness) conveys the severity of its effect on their family as a whole.<\/p>\n
Yunior seems to bear the brunt of the abuse\u2014as he puts it, \u201cIt was like [his] God-given duty to piss [his father] off\u201d (26)\u2014yet he craves Ram\u00f3n\u2019s affection and does not confront him about the abuse or the affair. Yunior also often comes into conflict with Rafa, who has begun to mimic some of their father\u2019s violent behaviour but still avoids his wrath. Even their sister, no more than a few years old, has learned to fear her father\u2019s anger\u2060: \u201cMadai was too scared to open her eyes\u2026 Anytime Papi raised his voice her lip would start trembling\u201d (26)\u2060. Interestingly, though, she seems to be the only character whose relationship with Ram\u00f3n is somewhat positive, as we see when they search for coins in the car. Finally, the mother is the most worn down by the abuse: she tries to protect her children, attempting to de-escalate the situation when Ram\u00f3n begins to yell and consoling them afterwards, but there is only so much she can do without challenging him directly.<\/p>\n
Though each person has their own way of coping with Ram\u00f3n\u2019s abuse, they surrender to it in order to preserve their family\u2060; however broken it may be, they are very few people they can rely on in this new environment, away from the home they are used to.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In \u201cFiesta, 1980\u201d, Junot D\u00edaz highlights the same dynamics we saw in the previous unit\u2060: the power that a man holds in a patriarchal society and the violence that can stem from his effort to maintain this power\u2060\u2014and by extension, prove his masculinity. Though Ram\u00f3n\u2019s abuse is not directly present within the story, the characters\u2019 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":86889,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[143,142],"class_list":["post-426","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-span312","tag-diaz","tag-week11"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/span312\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/span312\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/span312\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/span312\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/86889"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/span312\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=426"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/span312\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":432,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/span312\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426\/revisions\/432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/span312\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=426"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/span312\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=426"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/span312\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=426"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}