3rd,+Patria

Patria, 3rd period Julio Meza Haley Watson Joe Mitchell Chi-Chi Ugwuh Tricia Merlino

Identity Crisis: A moment in ones life in which one discovers different ways to view themselves. Quote: "I had heard, but i had not believed. Snug in my heart, fondling my pearl, I had ignored their cries of desolation. How could our loving, all powerful Father allow us to suffer so? I looked up, challenging Him. And the two faces had emerged!" Analysis: Patria begins to question God. She is also in disbelief, because she can't believe that God can be this cruel.

“I woke up in a panic in the middle of the night, sure that some brujo had put a spell on me and that’s why the baby had died. This from Patria Mercedes, who had always kept herself from such low superstitions.”

“It is the Lord’s will,” I agreed, but the words sounded hollow to my ear.

“That moment, I understood her hatred. My family had not been personally hurt by Trujillo, just as before losing my baby, Jesus had not taken anything away from me. But others had been suffering great losses.”

“So you could say I was born, but I wasn’t really here. One of those spirit babies, alela, as the country people say. My mind, my heart, my soul in the clouds. It took some doing and undoing to bring me down to earth.” Pg. 44 from a young age she was a spiritual being which helps her easily love others in the future

“I’d write out my religious name in all kinds of script-Sor Mercedes- the way other girls were trying out their given names with the surnames of cute boys. I’d see those boys and think, Ah yes, they will come to Sor Mercedes in times of trouble and lay their heads in my lap so I can comfort them.” Pg 45 Patria fantasied of being connected with boys in a spiritual way to help them through hard times. “I woke up in a panic in the middle of the night, sure that some brujo had put a spell on me and that’s why the baby had died. This from Patria Mercedes, who had always kept herself from such low superstitions.”

Patria, who has been raised in a traditional Christain home, free of superstition and beliefs of witchcraft, has began to believe in such things when a traumatic event occurs.

“It is the Lord’s will,” I agreed, but the words sounded hollow to my ear.

Patria begins to doubt the religion she was raised upon, and essentially lived off of after the death of her baby.

“That moment, I understood her hatred. My family had not been personally hurt by Trujillo, just as before losing my baby, Jesus had not taken anything away from me. But others had been suffering great losses.”

Before losing her baby, Patria had never felt personally affected by Trujillo, being from an affluent family. But after feeling a loss, she begins to feel empathy.