Native and Latin American texts: "A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings" and "Yellow Woman"

After reading this text by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, I found it very confusing so I had to go back and read it a second time. I think it is interesting that the title of this short story is very literal of the main character in the story. It makes me wonder was this character really an angel, or was he just some abnormal figure, literally an old man with enormous wings? This story is centered around a family. One day when getting rid of crabs, a man named Pelayo discovers a dirty and ravaged old man lying on the ground, covered in mud. Pelayo notices that this man has something unsual protruding out of his back that looks like wings. Not sure of what to do, Pelayo and his wife, Elisenda seek help in an old neighborhood woman who informs them that this man is an angel who had come for their sick child. The news about this mysterious creature quickly spread throughout the town as people come to their house and are eager to see it. People are constantly poking at it, asking it questions and trying to get it to do tricks, all the while the man with enormous wings just sits there, trying to ignore them and not to be bothered and with people coming to see this attraction Pelayo and Elisenda profit from it, making money. Luckily for him a new attraction comes into town and draws the people's attention. This creature is known as "Spider Girl" and everyone started to leave the old man alone because spider girl was attentive to them and entertaining them with the story of how she ended up that way. Slowly but surely, the old man starts to regain his strength and he begins to realize there is no longer a reason for him to stay. So, one day he begins to try to use his wings to fly off and is successful. All the while Elisenda is watching him and from the story, we gathered that she is relieved. I think one of the possible themes for this story could be how human life reacts to life's miracles. Often times people take things for granted and have a tendency to move on to something else once they become bored with something. "Be careful when you entertain strangers as you may be entertaining angels unawawares." This quote from the movie made about this story definitely contributes to what I think about the story. Many people in the story just thought of the old man as an odd looking creature not really knowing or thinking of him as an angel. I think this can be applied to real life because every day we meet new people and interact with different people and think nothing of it but their can be a part of God or an angel in many people that we interact with we just don't know it.

"Yellow Woman" by Leslie Marmon Silko is a story about the Laguna Pueblo culture and an old folk tale told about someone known as a "yellow woman". In this story and culture, a yellow woman is known as a female fantasy. She is seen as a heroic and sexual figure that protects her people with heroism and sexuality. This character is also known to have both femal and male traits being aggressive as well as desirable. In this story the narrator tells a tale of her encounter with a spirit known as a ka'tsina and how she leaves her domestic life at home with her husband and family and embarks on a passionate love affair with this ka'tsina whose name is Silva. Throughout the text Silva refers to her a "yellow woman" and the continue to have one passionate encounter after another, not really getting to know each other. After reading this story I felt as though none of it was real, the narrator was not really a yellow woman and that the whole story was a fantasy made up in her head. The narrator is irresponsible and lives in a fantasy world and has been told the story of the "Yellow Woman" by her late grandfather so I think this was just based off of one of her fantasies conjured up in her head. In the end of the story she returns to her family telling them that she had been kidnapped by a Navajo.