Essay on the Miraculous Day of Amalia Gomez

The Miraculous Day of Amalia Gomez by John Rechy delves into the life of Amalia Gomez; a Mexican-American woman living in a poor rural area of Hollywood. The structure of her family is falling apart due to conflict between the characters and Amalia’s lack of involvement in their lives. Her youngest son Juan is a male prostitute known as a “maricÓn”, her daughter Gloria is falling dangerously close to following in Amalia’s footsteps, and her oldest son Manny although well intentioned starts to clone his father’s criminal tendencies even though he has no recollections of his father. Amalia’s selective perspective also leads to conflict within herself since she is content not knowing the truth as long as the false reality fits her ideal world. Amalia’s parenting skills and obliviousness is the direct cause of her children’s transgressions. Amalia recollects memories of her past jumping from one event to another without regard of any constant timeline. One reoccurring concept throughout her life is her dependency upon her lover or husband to support her. This dependency stemmed from a deep rooted psychological value that prevented Amalia from realizing there was more options that relying on a man for income. In the instances of her first marriage she was forced to marry because she would not be able to support a child and she was now too impure for any man to love her. Her first husband Salvador mistreated her as his wife which led to Amalia’s attraction to Gabriel because of his kind heart and tenderness, also his name was a religious one which Amalia relied on Gabriel’s religious ties to convince herself that a man with a holy name could not be aggressive. Many of the causes of Amalia’s problems stem from her barbaric viewpoint on life and past tendencies. Amalia is satisfied living an oblivious life because she believes that as long as she isn’t fully aware of the situation that everything will turn out fine. Comparatively speaking, Amalia and her mother have