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Severo Perez, “Melancholy Baby”

This story is about the main character's journey through catholic school and the introduction of a priest to teach the class. The main character is a jokester and often interrupts class but often with questions that are genuine that the priest cannot answer. After asking difficult questions the answer is often the same "God is good" and therefore would never do anything bad. When Oscar the main character brings up contradictions to this claim he is met with punishments. This continues until there are enough blunders from the priest that Oscar no longer believes. Something about this story that I can relate to is how Oscar no longer believes in god and becomes an atheist, though we had very different paths in life as I've never gone to a catholic school or had a newspaper route I can still relate to asking questions and getting no satisfying answers. Oscar has a spiritual Nepantla as he bridges the gap between how he perceives the world and how he is asked to perceive it by his teachers and peers. Oscar chooses to question and come to his own conclusions surprisingly to the priest's own advice. Embedded is a news story on the rising number of Latinos leaving the church.

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Matt Mendez, “The Astronaut”

This story is about twin brothers, one of them died very young and the older brother now sees his brother on the day of the dead. The father of the boys lives far away trying to escape his life and his family. His mother is single and trying her best to support her son by working late into the night as a waitress. The son now believes that he can join his brother or bring him back from the dead and does this by jumping off their roof. The story ends with the son going into the air and the light. Reuniting with his brother in the afterlife. This story I believe conveys a very literal interpretation of Nepantla as the living brother is a bridge between the living world and the nonliving world as shown by the brother being able to be perceived by him at a time when the barrier between the living and spirit world is weak. The whole idea of the Day of the Dead is when we are able to communicate with our family as they come to visit us. I've added an image and a link to a video explaining this holiday as well as its importance.

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Diana López, “Dutiful Daughter”

The short story follows Juanita a young woman working at a hospital near where she lives with her parents. Her parents are proud of her because she has a job that sounds important and makes good money even though Juanita is not happy with it. The main point the author is trying to convey here is that often in Mexican or any non-white families there is support to an extent when pursuing a higher education and better jobs. The parents in this story are supportive and loving but also don't want their children to pursue risky actions in their life such as going to college or med school. This is likely because they have faced adversity while trying to improve their lives due to discrimination and other limiting factors. They are content with their jobs the dad is a janitor and the mom watches kids with their house being a daycare. Eventually, due to self-doubt and pressure from her parents, Juanita no longer believes that getting educated is urgent and puts it off presumably for the rest of her life. The author wants to convey the trap of not nurturing the want of vertical movement because to the parents that is a dangerous and expensive thing to do. The story takes place in a borderlands area and therefore is a Nepantla place though it is also important to recognize that there are also two competing mindsets in this story, one of the Mexican family and the more striving mindset of the young daughter which is a mental Nepantla. The link embedded is about the different types of support parents give based on they're ethnicity.

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Octavio Quintanilla, “You’re tired of your life,”

The message conveyed in this story is one of self-doubt and letting other people take the reigns of your life because you don't believe you can do it yourself and have always been told what to do. It's also about how sometimes life doesn't work out and that we often hold ourselves back. The author describes not leaving his parent's town as well as sadness. Sadness is the most important part of this story, as it can be assumed that the issues that the author is having are directly caused by sadness, the way his parents raised him is influenced by their loss though he doesn't understand how they continued life after. His life has been turned upside down by loss and now leaves him aimless in life. The Nepantla shown in this text is one of being in an in-between place in life. His life feels like it has no direction and must now be shaped by those around him. Helplessness defines the way he thinks he is perceived as others come to his aid and give him advice on how to live his life. I relate to this story in the way that life can feel directionless and you can feel helpless at some points in your life, wondering how others get through adversity.

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José Antonio Rodríguez, “Letter to the Student Who Asks Me How I Managed to Do It”

This story is about how the Author managed to become a successful writer and he illustrates how with a summary of his young adult life. The author goes over how his life after school was a realization of how life and the American dream are not how we expected them to be when we were younger. He also discusses how being gay was difficult and it made him feel even less confident in his life. He explains how he went days without speaking to anyone, rotting in his room, and forgetting to eat and work. Eventually, he was able to find himself in writing and make a life out of that. A main takeaway for me in this story is his discussion of the American dream and how it did not come to fruition the way the media told him it would and that he was only able to be truly free when he expressed himself the way he wanted to everyone in his life as well as embracing the person that he is and not being embarrassed about his culture. The zone of Nepantla being expressed here I believe is one of mental health where the author is the bridge between his past and future and mentally so I included a TEDx video about Latin mental health by Alejandra Ramos Gómez and growing in the borderlands which is another form of Nepantla.

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Stephanie Li, “Paco”

The story of Paco is about the loss of a family member. The difference between normally losing family and this story is that Stephanie doesn't know who they were but her mother clearly does. The family struggles to identify this loss correctly and console their Mother as they are young and don't understand how to approach the situation. An important takeaway I got from this story was the lack of ability the children and husband had to properly take care of someone close to them. Because they lived in the US and their mother's family lived far away and clearly had a very strong connection with her family. I relate to this story similarly as well as I spent most of my childhood with my white side of the family and had a certain disconnect to my Latin side. The story also talks about how their father being an Asian man felt very out of place with their Mexican side of the family and was obviously not comfortable interacting with them. The zone of Nepantla here is that of identity and location, the children are a combination of cultures and live far away from their family but they still see how this affects people close in their lives. I included the image of a faded photo as I think it best represents the story, you don't know the people in the image and probably wouldn't recognize them if you did seeing as it is old and faded. The link included is about how an outlet like art may have helped the mother in this situation.

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David Dominguez, “Elote Man”

Elote Man follows a day in David Dominguez's life. He enjoys doing yardwork and the fruits of his own labor as well as being able to live the life he does and maintaining his house without contracting people to do it for him. Throughout the story, he reminisces on his childhood and the people he looked up to who could do their own work and support their families. Throughout the story, however, he is continually put down by people as they ask if he does yardwork as a job or car dealing while working on the yard he owns and the luxury car he bought. He is also worried about if he is perceived as Mexican enough as he may dress more white or carry himself a certain way. This is the most important part of the story to me as it can be hard to believe that someone who has their life together still may struggle with the way they are perceived. This culminates when someone assumes he is the elote man when getting food with his family. The zone of Nepantla here is the cultural middle of Mexican and White, he acts both ways and is proud of his culture. He also wishes to be accepted by other Mexican people and seen as one of them, the issue is that he acts and looks both Mexican and White. I've felt similarly to David in this Nepantla with my Latin and White families and cultures being a part of my life. The painting I included is made by Rosa Inés Vera and is inspired by her experiences between two cultures. The link included leads to more of her work and experience of being between two cultures.

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Reyna Grande, “Losing my Mother Tongue”

This story by Reyna Grande is about her experiences with language and its loss. Reyna came to the US very young and found that speaking in her native Spanish was an attribute that was punished and speaking English was one that was rewarded. This led her to have great success in life with writing but led to estrangement from family and the Spanish-speaking community even though much of what she wrote was from that perspective. This story's connection to Nepantla is that of one in between languages, Reyna feels a connection to both English and Spanish but is not truly a part of either. I connect with this story personally as I have family members who speak Spanish exclusively and I feel guilty that I am not able to talk with them without a translator there. I believe Reyna and I have experienced a similar zone of Nepantla but instead of letting her children not learn Spanish and English she pushed for them to learn both and succeeded with one of them. The image included with this entry symbolizes the experience of losing your original language and the disconnection that follows, as you lose your roots the person you have become changes as well. The hyperlink included is to a song that I thought of while reading sharing a similar experience.