The Perez Family
(Christine Bell)
Dottie wants John Wayne, Elvis Presley, rock and roll, blue jeans and nail polish. She lands in America with a dance that is ?freedom and violence?. She has been denied too much so she decides to get it all by force. How? She frankensteins together a family so as to sustain her new-found freedom.
Dottie?s Perez family consists of Juan Raul Perez, a recently released political prisoner who has not seen his wife and daughter for the twenty years he has been in prison. To him, America seems like another prison. Dottie becomes his anchor in this new and unfamiliar land they call America.
?Papa? poses as the patriarch of the Perez family. He is an ?old man dressed in camouflage clothing? who never utters a word and sometimes does not take off his clothes when he is being bathed. He follows Juan Raul Perez puppy-like but he also has a tendency to wander off, forcing Juan Raul Perez to always keep an eye on him.
Felipe is the final member of this farcical family. He is a successful businessman, selling anything from cigarettes to clothes to Chiclets to ?cheap watches with fake brand names? from his shopping cart. His relationship with Dottie begins when he sells her nail polish. He later becomes Dottie?s ?son?.
Loss is a predominant theme in the Perez Family. There is the loss of freedom and the loss of loved ones. Juan Raul Perez lost twenty years of his life in prison. His daughter, Teresa, lost a father and his wife Carmelia, lost a husband. With the help of her over-protective brother, Angel, Carmelia loses her freedom and becomes a prisoner in her own house.
Christine Bell writes in a simple and engaging manner that draws you into the story and glues you there. The colourful characters in the Perez family stand out and will linger on in the mind long after saying goodbye to them. Their story will make you consider them to be family.
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- The Grapes Of Wrath
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- The Grapes Of Wrath
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