Disconnect
Tomas Rivera’s book …And the Earth did not Devour Him captures the pains and triumphs of stories of Mexican farm workers told from an unnamed protagonist. Tomas Rivera’s book deals with many social problems, such as class, religion, sexism, and race, and finds a way to highlight each one through the young boy’s stories. The protagonist, who is young, tells these stories at a time in his life when he is transforming from an adolescent to an adult. The young boy, whom is the main character, seems to observe or deal with all of these issues. The issue that is most pronounced within him is folk religion; folk religion deals with superstitions and practices that are done by the believer which are not authorized by their church or religion. The young boy’s family, who are migrant workers from Mexico, finds much support for their lives through folk religion, particular the folk Religion of Catholicism. The family uses their folk religion and religion to not only help them through their struggles, but cover up the truth of their difficult situation. The young boy’s life is so consumed with religion, religion superstitions, and it faultiness that he begins to question their religion’s very ideals. The young protagonist comes to the realization that religion and its unauthorized practices only hinder him and his families’ very existence and in response disconnects from religion entirely.
The first step to understanding the protagonists religious disconnect, and realization of its faultiness, is to go back and see what may have been the first experience that showed the young protagonist just this. The second page of “…And the World did not Devour Him” immediately brings up a superstitious story, that although does not directly correlate with the bible, the idea of spirits existing in it does. The superstitious story is that if you leave a glass of water under your bed while you are sleeping, it will help capture any bad spirits that may be around you during the night. The protagonist mother leaves a glass of water under his bed for the “spirits to drink” and never realizes that it is not the spirits that drink the water, but her own son. It is in this short story that you can see the protagonist realizing that there is no spirits like his mother or the bible say, but just him in his bed. Rivera’s book deals with many instances where the young boy realizes that his religion is not exactly what he thought. Even Hector Calderon, an editor of the book Criticism in the Borderlands, argues that the first part of the novel immediately begins questioning faith: “Through the first half the novel’s changing structure calls into question commonly held beliefs” (Calderon and Saldivar 108). The protagonist is not only realizing his mother’s beliefs as are untrue, but that religion is too.
Another fault, this one being more pronounced and even more of a realization for the protagonist that his faith is not true, is when the protagonist tempts the devil. For the longest time the protagonist was told that if you called out to the devil he would come and evil would prevail over you until it was too late. The boy, who wants to find out if this statement is true or not, finally gets the courage to call out to the devil and realizes that there is no such thing. The boy patiently waits for the repercussions of calling the devil by numerous names and encounters none. It is at this time when the boy realizes that there is no devil. After he calls out for the devil he realizes nothing happened. There is no devil because after he taunted the devil and called out to him, nothing happened like what the elders said would. The boy realizes that since the devil did not come and he did not get punished, then there is no devil at all. The boy realizes that since there is no devil than there is nothing, particularly no God: “There is no devil, there is nothing” (Rivera 106). This scene is important because it not only capitalizes on the fact that the young boy is realizing his religion is not true, but shows his disconnect with religion as well. This moment in the protagonist life is very important because it is a major discovery that he makes that there is no devil. This is such an important discovery because he now realizes what the elders say is not true, but that the bible as well has no credit. Even in the story Rivera seems to make an analogy with nature of how the young boy’s inner feelings feel after such a discovery: “He fell asleep gazing at the moon as it jumped through the clouds and the trees, as if it were extremely content about something (Rivera 106). It is in this statement that a reader can infer that the young boy is in a way “content” with disconnecting from his religion and its faultiness.
After discussing two stories that enabled the character to see the faults in his religion, we must now discuss the moment in which pushes the character so far over the edge, that he loses his faith altogether. This moment that cause the character to disconnect from his religion entirely is during a time that is probably the most depressing in the young boy’s life. His family are migrant workers, which is very hard work, but there is no need for them to live in the conditions that they live in. His family is not treated like equals in society, but treated like they are animals. Their living conditions are horrid, they are barely supplied enough drinking water and they are worked like dogs. For most of the young boy’s life all he witness is his family asking God for help and thanking him for their lives, but never once does this improve anything. The young boy witnesses his mom praying every night crying to “God” to bring back her son, the protagonists brother, from the war and never once does “God” answer her prayer and send him back. The combination of his parents having so much faith in “God” and what is literally happening to them makes the boy furious. The boy is furious of the way they are living, and furious in the way that his family believes that “God” will make it better. It is in this moment of extreme frustration that the young boy realizes that it is not up to “God” to help them, but rather up to them. “God” cannot help them because if he could he would not let them keep suffering the way they do. The young boy stands there watching his family members barely grasp on to life, and looks for a reason why to stay alive, other than to just to get swallowed by the world. It is the realization of his family horrid living conditions, and his father and brother almost dying from working in the blistering heat, that the young boy comes to the realization that their God does not care: “God doesn’t care about us…I am certain that God has no concern for us.”(Rivera 109). This part of the story is vital in explaining that the protagonist has lost all connection with religion. It is in this scene that the protagonist yells to his mother his true feelings about God not caring and how they do not deserve any of this including herself: “God could care less about the poor (his family). Tell me, why must we live here like this? What have we done to deserve this? You’re so good and yet you have to suffer so much” (Rivera 109). It is import to know that in Mexican/American families that are really religious to have someone from the family flat out say that “God does not care” is unheard of, especially from a young boy.
One can tell that the boy does not believe in religion or God when he says “the only hope we have is coming out here every year” (Rivera 109). It is in this statement the young boy is making the comparison between God and the actual world. God has no control over anything that they do. The only ones with control over their lives are themselves. The boy has pulled apart faith and reality and only believes in the reality. The protagonist is saying that one cannot rely on God for success but one’s own self. The young boy seems to have pushed all religion aside and says that nothing but ourselves have to do to with where we are in our own life. The young boy finds contentment by cursing God and even feels better after doing so: “He felt at peace more than ever before” (Rivera 111). Even in Calderon’s essay in The Borderlands he comments on the protagonists sense of “freedom” after his cursing and “separation” with God: “With that act of rebellion against fatalism, the central character simultaneously acknowledges the materiality of space (the earth does not part) and affirms his own reason and freedom. As an individual subject, he feels capable of doing whatever he desires” (Calderon and Saldivar). The protagonist feels that he has separated himself from everything. The boy no longer has to keep asking himself “why us God,” but now “what can I do to better myself?”
Tomas Rivera’s Book, …And the Earth did not Devour Him is hard hitting in the fact that it shows a young boy not only questioning his very existence, but faith itself. The young boy is growing up and realizing the hindrance that faith has had not only on him but his family as well. The conclusion of the story stating that he had “lost nothing” only reaffirms the argument that the young boy’s disconnect and questioning of his own religion caused him to lose nothing. The protagonist does disconnect from his religion whether it was for a long time or just a bit, and does it with feeling content after doing so. This disconnect comes from finding out falseness in his religion, folk religion and the realization that religion will not help him or his family well being but only themselves can do that. Works Cited Calderon, Hector, and Jose David Saldivar. Criticism in the Borderlands Studies in Chicano Literature, Culture, and Ideology. N.p.: Duke University Press, 1991.
Rivera, Thomas. ...And the Earth Did Not Devour Him. Houston: Arte Publico Press, 1992.