payment page
The day Don Serafín gave Juan Pedro Martinez Sanchez permission to take Cleófilas Enriqueta DeLeon Hernandez as his bride, across her father's threshold, over several miles of dirt road and several miles of paved, over one border and beyond to a town en el otro lado—on the other side—already did he divine the morning his daughter would raise her hand over her eyes, look south, and dream of returning to the chores that never ended, six good-for-nothing brothers, and one old man's complaints.
When Juan Pedro takes Cleófilas for his bride, she goes “across her father’s threshold,” leaving behind her family, her childhood, and her safety. When Cleófilas crosses this border, she looks to escape never-ending chores and her family. Next, she must cross the U.S.–Mexico border, leaving behind the Mexican culture with which she is familiar to enter into a new unfamiliar culture in the United States. The town which will be her new home is “en el otro lado—on the other side.” The “other” is different and alien from what Cleófilas knows.
Don Serafín foresees Cleófilas’s wish to return, recrossing the borders to home, where she can again be safe. The routines and safety of her family will no longer be something Cleófilas runs from but instead something she runs to.
This paragraph is one long sentence, reflecting the miles and miles Cleófilas must travel to cross the borders to enter her new life. The sentence contains its own borders, too. The em-dashes around on the other side break the sentence in two, separating thoughts of the present on one side in contrast to thoughts of the future on the other.
La Gritona. Such a funny name for such a lovely arroyo. But that's what they called the creek that ran behind the house. Though no one could say whether the woman had hollered from anger or pain. The natives only knew the arroyo one crossed on the way to San Antonio, and then once again on the way back, was called Woman Hollering, a name no one from these parts questioned, little less understood.
La Gritona, or Woman Hollering Creek, marks another border that Cleófilas must cross. On one side of the creek is San Antonio. On the other side is Seguin. The border marks the inside and the outside of the town, suggesting a barrier between Cleófilas’s confinement and freedom. The creek runs behind Cleófilas’s new home, implying that she lives on the outskirts of the town. She can look across it to see where she had once been and will later wish to return. Cleófilas wonders about the significance of the creek’s name, Woman Hollering. She thinks that the woman must have “hollered from anger or pain.” This foreshadows the anger and pain Cleófilas will find on the other side of this border. Because Cleófilas comes from one side of the creek, she is an outsider. She is curious about its name. The people from the other side of the creek, those “from these parts,” are insiders. To them, the border has no great meaning, so they do not know or care about its name.
