The Crossroads of Generations

In the Roads to Change article, Javier says, “My wife does not hear. She does not see. She does not go out.” What I took from this statement was that Javier believes his wife is isolated from the growing Spanish culture around her due to her ignorance of the language and her traditional dress. This disparate becomes more apparent during Jesse’s homestay because she isn’t included in conversation much of the time. It seems that Javier’s idea of being “deaf and dumb” applies to many people that are only spoke K’iche’. Often, in the past, people lived in the same cantón their entire life.

Although, he is adamant about preserving his culture Javier is also aware that to function in a community where people are beginning to interact with the outside world means to speak Spanish and in some cases dress in western clothing. I loved the way Javier described the highway workers as, “waking up and their ideas beginning to grow” (pg14). His explanation is a great way to describe the modernization of these highland communities. Javier describes the workers before as, “ wearing blinders, and had their ears stopped up.” Once the highway came through, with Spanish workers, technology and the increased opportunities for work, “their eyes and ears were opened so they could have a new life.” (pg14)

In a way Javier perfectly captured the transition and assimilation into a larger Spanish. The metaphors and imagery he uses are particularly poignant. The way he describes the transition seemed that he understood it not with anger but as something that was inevitable. Now, Javier is focused on keeping his traditions and culture alive in a way of life that is trying fast to forget them. He is attempting to bridge the gap between two generations.

The relationship between Javier and his stepson Florentín is a great example of this struggle. Javier gives favor to his real son, Mateo, who I believe he feels he can shape more than Florentín. Florentín seems rebellious and looking for something to call his own. He embraces the western culture and I wonder if that is in part from feelings of rejection from Javier. The modernization and westernization happening in larger cities offers opportunities to Florentín that he would not find in his small cantón. This new, larger view of life is exciting to Florentín and gives him a sense of belonging that he may not have experienced in his home.

In general, so many teenagers experience this angst and longing for something novel and I think those longings are reflected well in the Nahualanese youth who welcome the changes occurring in their communities and adopt them as their own. While the elders who are often set in their ways resist. There lies Javier's predicament of standing at the crossroads of change.