Reflection of Culture

I chose to speak on the daydreaming scene in the banana grove. I also find this one to be particular for two reasons. One i feel he is at the height of his malleability mentally and it is the only one where he is fully conscious throughout his entire daydream.
This part of the book is interesting because i feel it reflects the mentality and historical relationship between Mexicotexans and Anglos. Children at this age do not come up with these specific concepts by themselves, they take in influences from their surroundings. The history of the family that he has been brought up in takes root in a revolutionary ideology. He is being raised by man who participated in this and many men of his community very likely follow the same ideology because of the abuse the endure at the hands of anglos. I think this is an important reflection because at this point we don't see a novel solution or a great leader, we see a repeated process of unsuccessful attempts at destroying an enemy side.
A technique that Peredes uses he is important to understanding the scene as well, he starts to take on almost a first person view to embody the imagination of Gualinto, to make it real. At first Paredes shows us the reality of a boy playing in the banana grove,"The banana trunk was silent, but it seemed to cringe with the passing of a gust of wind," and " perhaps the switching of the last name confounded the banana trunk." Then we see a shift in perspective and enter Gualinto's mind, "...the champion turned to leave the treacherous rinche went for his 44. Gualinto spun around and burried his dagger into the rinche's side..." Here we see the banana tree really come to life and leave the imaginiary status.