Under The Mesquite

“I was born at home, in our little blue house on Avenida López Mateos, in Piedras Negras, Coahuila, Mexico. Even though there was no doctor there because I came so quickly and unexpectedly, I arrived perfectly healthy. Mami says I was so strong, I didn’t act like a newborn.” 

This quote identifies Lupita’s important origin story. Born in Mexico, her home country will continue to be crucial to the formation of her identity. Furthermore, the characterization of Lupita’s birth parallels the descriptions of the mesquite tree, foreshadowing Lupita’s strong connection with the symbol. 

“It’s been more than eight years since my parents transplanted us, and our family has grown.” 

In this quote, the motif of planting and growing is established. The use of the words “transplant” and “grow” as descriptors of the family’s migration and welcoming new children echoes the vocabulary of gardening, one of Lupita’s parents’ hobbies. Lupita’s parents figuratively and literally grow and plant, highlighting the importance and beauty of family, as well as the loving commitment Lupita’s parents have to fostering their family environment.

“Papi says the mesquite is nice to have. He says someday when the eight of us kids are all grown and the tree is sturdy and tall, Mami will come to appreciate its simple beauty among her delicate roses.”

This quote is important because it precisely foreshadows Mami’s shifting opinion on the mesquite. Eventually, she will appreciate its beauty and its juxtaposition of strength with her “delicate roses.” In fact, it will be a major moment of role reversal between Mami and Lupita. 

“Mami led the way. We stood at the edge of the road as vehicle roared by and drove that hot, summer wind right into our faces. It felt as if we waited a lifetime before we could finally cross – four baby chicks clinging to the Little Red Hen by the hem of her skirt, with her clucking the whole time.” 

In this quote, an early memory of her Mother, Lupita reveals the faith the children place in their mother. They follow her like little chicks follow a hen, a natural biological trust in a mother who leads the way. This quote reveals the way Mami was before her cancer, when she was the protector and not the one who needed care.

“It was Papi who first told me I had the gift of words. One night he said it was time to put them on paper. He opened Mami’s old blue suitcase, pulled out his notebook, and leafed through his sketches of horses, which he worked on at night.”

This quote demonstrates several important symbols. The first is the importance of language, a motif that will inspire Lupita to find therapy in the intricacies of words. The second is the old blue suitcase that holds the family’s prized possessions, the very same suitcase that Lupita will one day use to move to college. The suitcase holds notebooks, green cards, and dreams.

“‘You have a talent for letters,’ Papa said, speaking softly in my ear. His hands were rough and scratchy against my skin, and the bits of sawdust clinging to his work clothes were tiny mosquitoes biting into my arms. But his voice was sweet and gentle. My pencil whispered the letters onto the paper like magic.” 

In this first description of Lupita’s father, his physical scruffiness is contrasted with his soft voice and sweet disposition. This quote shows how important her father is in her development as a writer, and how much value the family places in learning.

“It made me sad to know that from our new home I could not hear their voices if they sang my name to the wind. And I doubted los girasoles would understand me anymore, because now I was speaking a different language.” 

This quote explores child Lupita’s homesickness upon moving to Texas. She misses the sunflowers of Mexico and wonders if they miss her back, which signifies her family’s special connection with plants. This quote also reveals an early worry of the immigrant family: learning a new language and becoming unrecognizable to those in your past life. This quote shows the reader how Lupita wonders if she will lose a sense of herself in taking on her new English-language identity.

“En los Estados Unidos I copied Colonial maps from a social studies book with pictures of white men wearing powdered wigs and stately white women in old-fashioned dresses. Their costumes were never as colorful as the feathers of the matachines dancing at sunset in the Christmas parade, dressed like our Aztec ancestors.”

Here, Lupita reflects on the extreme change she undergoes when she moves to the United States. The white men and women of her textbooks are strangers to her, colorless compared to her rich Aztec history. The more she learns about living in the US, the more she misses Mexico. This quote therefore highlights the initial struggle of immigrant life, when having to learn foreign ideas, names, and histories challenges the immigrant’s own secure sense of self. 

“Later we would lie on Abuelita’s bed in her one-room house, listening to Mami talk about America and all that she loved about it: about having children who belonged to two countries, spoke two language, and would someday be at home on either side.”

In contrast with Lupita’s own misgivings about moving to the United States, Mami is proud of her children’s new languages, and she’s eager to help them grow into people with two identities. This contrast highlights the expectations and dreams immigrant parents have for their children, as well as the breadth of diverse experiences immigrants go through. While Lupita sees the new move as an intrusion and unwelcome change in her life, her mother sees it as an opportunity for growth. 

“The six of us sisters were round beads knotted side by side, like pearls on a necklace, strung so close together we always make one another cry.” 

This simile comparing the five sisters to pearls on a necklace highlights the distinct relationship the sisters have within their tight-knit family. The closeness of the sisters, like tight pearls on a necklace, can feel suffocating at times. The sisters love as deeply and fiercely as they fight with one another. It’s one of the first and only symbolic moments that hint towards a less than idyllic family life, but the relationships between the sisters is genuine and important. This childhood memory of fighting with the sisters is actually a foreshadowing of how crucial their closeness will be when their mother suffers through her illness.

“We spent our summer watching Mami come and go back and forth from the hospital in a nauseated haze. The season slipped by us undetected and unmourned. The fact that it’s gone doesn’t even matter.”

This quote emphasizes the tragedy behind Mami’s illness in that Lupita and her siblings were counting time instead of moments. Their lives passed them by while they were worrying over their mother’s life passing away. This conflict will eventually inspire Lupita to live her life fully and with passion, but in the context of Chapter 14, it foreshadows the years that will fly by in anguish.

“Los elotes calientitos – what Papi calls Mexican gold – taste better after offering our hopeful prayers and leaving church without the anxiety we felt before.” 

Here, McCall references two important influences in the family’s life and sense of identity: Culture and religion. Although the family has moved to the United States, they are very much in touch with their home country and return to their Mexican church and to the food that informs their culture, particularly in times of stress. The small but crucial taste of los elotes calientitos and the refuge of their iglesia, all points towards the family’s need for Mexico to rejuvenate their spirits, and the importance of an immigrant family’s first home, life, language, and culture. 

“I am no wilting violet, no Spanish rose. I’m tough, sturdy, and strong. I want mine like my papi’s, big and firm. Like Paco, I want to work hard at that first bite, want my teeth to press against my gums as I conquer it…” 

In this quote, McCall uses a metaphor to emphasize how out of control Lupita feels and how badly she wants to fix what’s wrong in her family. While Lupita is literally biting into the corn, the firmness of her Papi’s corn, her desire to work hard like Paco, and her need to conquer the corn are all metaphors for Lupita’s life. Lupita, as the first born, wants to take on a strong leadership role for her family and wants to be able to conquer problems instead of wilting away from them. This quote is important, as it aptly describes Lupita’s own sense of burgeoning self as she learns to deal with her mother’s illness and the huge responsibility that a family truly is.

“I’m trying my best to be a good daughter and accept the clipping of my wings, the taming of my heart…Señorita is a niña, the girl I used to be, who has lost her voice.” 

The conclusion of Chapter 15 reveals a deep insecurity in Lupita’s growth into young womanhood. She wants to do well by her family and follow their lead, but she feels that being a good daughter in this context is equivalent to clipping her wings and losing her voice. This is one of the first moments McCall reveals that Lupita feels burdened by her role as eldest in the family, a twist in her typical characterization.

“Being Mexican means more than that. It means being there for each other. It’s togetherness, like a familia. We should be helping one another, cheering out friends on, not trying to bring them down.” 

This quote is Lupita’s declaration at the end of Chapter 19, after Sarita mocks her new “whiteness.” It asserts McCall’s message about Mexican heritage and the importance of family in Mexican culture. At this point in the book, Lupita has been stressed by family and personal changes, and now that Sarita is challenging her very identity; Lupita feels defensive.

“Cancer has more than invaded our home. It has closed the doors behind itself, drawn the curtain, and locked us in for good.”

At the start of Part 4, the family learns that Mami’s cancer is back. This quote foreshadows that this time, everything will be different. The metaphor of cancer as a colonizing force informs the reader that the cancer is worse than expected and will continue to hurt the family. 

“Even though the second round of chemo treatments is weakening her, Mami keeps tending her garden. Another spring has arrived, and there are many roses now, sitting prettily under the high canopy of the tall mesquite: white ones, yellow ones, red ones, even a mauve one that she’s afraid she might never see bloom again.” 

This quote exemplifies the motif of the growing garden, only now the metaphor has a tinge of sorrow to it. Now that Mami is clearly sicker than her first bout with the cancer, every moment is precious. The roses she is growing, symbols of her children, take up her minute attention, and the bloom “she might never see…again” is actually her young, growing children. 

“I lean back against its sturdy trunk and read aloud every word imprinted en mi corazón. The mesquite listens quietly – as if the poems budding in my heart, then blossoming in my notebook, are Scripture – and never tells a soul the things I write.”

When Lupita needs respite the most, she finds her peaceful place underneath the stubborn mesquite tree that, ironically, her mother finds invasive. When it first grew in the carefully curated garden, Mami was distressed over the stubborn and ugly plant. But now, Lupita is like one with the mesquite. The imagery in this quote suggests that the mesquite is an extension of Lupita’s heart.

“‘Look at it, all grown up,’ says Mami, mesmerized by the sight of the mesquite swaying sensually outside the bedroom window. With heavy pruning and much-needed guidance, the tree has become a graceful and imposing presence in Mami’s beloved rose garden.” 

The juxtaposition of Mami’s worsened health is symbolized through her new appreciation of the mesquite, and indeed in the mesquite’s health itself. While Mami’s life is fading, the opposite effect is occurring in the mesquite. Now that Mami can see its beauty and resiliency, she admires the plant she once hated. This newfound respect also demonstrates Mami’s changed understanding of the world around her, motivated by her decline. She also seems to be making the connection between Lupita and the tree, as her words “all grown up” are usually reserved for children who have grown.

“I agree, but it isn’t its beauty that strikes me. I envy the mesquite its undaunted spirit, its ability to turn even a disabling pruning into an unexpected opportunity to veer in a different direction, flourishing more profusely than before.” 

In this quote, McCall further emphasizes the parallel between Lupita and the mesquite. Lupita doesn’t seek beauty for herself, just as she doesn’t worship it in the mesquite. Instead, Lupita wants her challenges in life to strengthen her and help her find pathways she never considered before. That Lupita’s interpretation of the mesquite is different than her mother’s further highlights their changing roles.

“I pick up the script again and thank him on my way out, knowing no matter what happens, onstage or off, the show must go on.” 

In this quote, Lupita literally and figuratively knows “the show must go on.” The play, literally, has to be performed even if she’s feeling sad in her life offstage. Figuratively, her life must go on even if Mami’s will not.

“But this morning, at the viewing, mi madre was as silent as a statue: cold and perfectly still, waxed in beauty for eternity.” 

This quote is the last image of Mami, after a beautiful life full of joy and love. At the end of Part 5, Lupita remembers Mami in all her layers. But this quote, the last sentence/stanza of Part 5 depicting Lupita’s dead mother, is the climax of the story. 

“Standing there with nothing but the mute wind to keep me company, at last I feel something unfurl within me. Like a shoot growing from what remains – a tiny piece of buried mesquite root – determination flourishes.”