Latin American Short Stories

12 responses so far ↓

•   danona // Oct 11th 2014 at 9:41 pm

  “Then she tears a sheet of paper from her pad, anxiously writes a few lines while glancing up at him. She taps the side of her glass with the spoon. The waiter approaches the table, listens to the girl’s request, steps back, gestures, responds with indignation, and retreats haughtily.”

  1. She proceeds to rip the paper from her notepad, nervously scribbling something while peeking at the man. She gently raps the side of her lemonade glass with her spoon. The waiter walks towards the table, listens to the girl’s wish, is appalled, signals, answers angrily, and turns around, frustrated.
  2. She goes on to split the paper from her pad, eagerly scrawls a few lines while peeping up at him. She gently hits the side of her glass with the spoon. The waiter makes his way towards the table, listens to the girl’s desire, retreats, motions, responds with outrage and exits arrogantly.
  3. She continues to tear a sheet from her notepad, enthusiastically writing something while sneaking a peek at the man. She gently beats the side of her glass with her spoon. The waiter heads towards the tables, listens to the girl’s hope, is shocked, signals, responds with annoyance, and storms away.

  The first version would be the most plausible restatement of the original statements. In the second version, the waiter seems more arrogant than annoyed at the girl and in the third version, the girl seems more excited than nervous, diverging from the original text. Returning to the original passage it is now clear that the waiter’s reaction is central to this passage. If the waiter did not act so appalled towards the girl’s request, her and the man sitting outside might have met. This passage also highlights the nervous and quiet nature of the girl in contrast to the annoyed, loud waiter.

•   Kienan // Oct 12th 2014 at 8:17 pm

  “Gate No. 12” by Baldomero Lillo page 106

  “His ears buzzed and the floor sped downward beneath his feet giving him a strange sensation of anguish.”

  1. His sensory receptor sounded and the flooring paced descending below his vertebrate foot giving him an unusual sense experience of torment.

  2. His sense organ measured and the horizontal surface rated downhill under his pedal extremity giving him a different consciousness of torture.

  3. His conscious body part plumbed and the surface charged declining underneath his extremity giving him an odd cognitive state of distress.

  The last paraphrase seems most like the original statement. It is the easiest to understand what is being said compared to the first and second paraphrase.

  I am able to understand the original statement in a different light after the three paraphrases. I am not only able to understand the state of mind that Pablo is in during this statement, but I am able to put myself in his situation when I pull from past experiences. The time where I have felt that kind of distress was when I was about five years old and I lost my mom at a supermarket. My knees were weak and I felt the aisles closing around me because of the legitimate fear that I had that I would never see my mom again.

  Another meaning for this sentence is Pablo falling into a state of unconsciousness or death where he is not sure about what is going on. Although there is nothing being done to him, mentally he is not in a good place and that is why he feels the torture of the mine.

•   Cailin // Oct 12th 2014 at 9:23 pm

  “It is impossible to know, just as it is impossible to know why she is alone and with nowhere to go on a Sunday afternoon. She might also be ageless: she could be fourteen as well as eighteen or twenty.” -from Acheron

  1. It is not possible to understand, and it is also not possible to find out the reason for her being alone with no destination after the morning this Sunday. She could also not have an age: it is possible for her to be between fourteen and eighteen, or she could be twenty.

  2. There is no way to be certain, in the same way the reason for her being in solitude and without a destination this Sunday afternoon cannot be certain. Her age is also uncertain: she could be a young teenager, old teenager, have reached twenty, or anything in between.

  3. Realizing is unattainable, and so is perceiving her reason for not having company, without an agenda for a Sunday afternoon. She cannot be described with a definite age: whether she is a very young juvenile, or a late teen, or a young adult.

  The second paraphrase, I think, is the most similar to the original and produces more meanings, while the first did not really accomplish the task as much as the other two. Comparing to the original passage, I now understand how the uncertainty is a prominent, important theme, and adds mystery to the character. These two sentences are a very strong foundation for her characterization, as her mysteriousness becomes crucial once she starts interacting with the young man. He will never get to know her, and neither will the reader, which leaves her being forever intriguing.

•   chicasi // Oct 12th 2014 at 10:24 pm

  “You Wouldn’t Understand” by Jose Emilio Pacheco, Page 45.

  “He looked at me without answering. He wiped the blood of with the cuffs of his checkered shirt. I offered him a handkerchief. Not even a no: disgust in his eyes.”

  1) He glared at me without answering. He brushes off the blood from his face with the sleeves of his checkered shirt. I attempted to give him a handkerchief. He continued staring at me with eyes full of unspoken hatred.

  2) He noticed me without answer. He removed the blood using his checked shirt. I presented him a handkerchief. Without expressing a word, he cast his attention to me with hostility in his eyes.

  3) He glances at me without answering. He smeared the blood off with a garment of his checkered shirt. I brought him a handkerchief to use instead. He never responded, watching me with eyes of repulsion.

  I believe the first paraphrase is the most similar to how I interpreted the original statement. The importance of this scene is the boy’s reaction to the narrator’s presence. The first statement gives more detail to the original statement’s lack of detail. It explains how angry the boy is and how he directs his angry toward the narrator. The second statement has less detail and implies that the boy will attack the narrator, which doesn’t occur in the story. The third statement is much different that the first and second, suggesting that the boy wants to avoid the narrator as much as possible.

•   Madeleine // Oct 13th 2014 at 12:26 am

  From Acheron by José Emilio Pacheco, “The waiter approaches the table, listens to the girl’s request, steps back, gestures, responds with indignation, and retreats haughtily” (76).

  -The server comes to the table, hears the girl’s appeal, moves back, motions with his hands, reacts with annoyance, and withdraws arrogantly.

  -The staff moves towards the counter, takes into consideration the young lady’s plea, backs up, replies with resentment, and turns away with a condescending attitude.

  -The worker draws near the bar to attend to the young woman’s demand, but then draws back, acts exasperated, and snobbishly walks away.

  After paraphrasing and thinking differently about this sentence from the story, I started to wonder what made the waiter so rude. Was he already in a bad mood when he approached the girl’s table, or was it something she said that set him off? Also, what did he gesture? Was it an angry gesture or did he blow her off and turn away as if ignoring her? Then, I realized that “indignation” can have varying meanings. Was the server annoyed with her request? Was it particularly difficult or time consuming and he did not want to deal with it? Or was he more resentful and thought her request was below him? I think that this passage not only presents questions about the waiter, but also the girl. What was her request and what about it made the server respond so negatively? Was the waiter acting ridiculous, or was she with her question?

•   applegsa // Oct 13th 2014 at 1:31 am

  From Souls in Distress: “In a country where guns and knives seem to be a part of the wardrobe, is it any wonder that a boy will mourn the botched execution of a cat?”

  1. In a nation where owning and carrying weapons is the norm, is it strange that a boy would become upset about the messed up killing of a cat?

  2. In a country where guns and knives appear to be part of every day life, is it astonishing that a boy will cry over the butchered life-taking of a cat?

  3. In a country where guns and knives are regular items to own, is it peculiar that a boy will grieve the fumbled assassination of a cat?

  Although this quote was already fairly straightforward, using the “paraphrase x3” technique helped me to further interpret what it was saying. I think that the point the author is trying to get across is children are affected emotionally by the prevalent violence in the mentioned country. This makes them even more sensitive to things such as a cat being killed. I think that this take-away is most evident in the second paraphrase.

•   Hannah // Oct 13th 2014 at 1:56 am

  “Finally he looks at her openly and smiles once again. She tries to hide, conceal the fear, the desire, or the mystery that prevents a natural encounter.”

  1. At last, he looks right at her and smiles another time. She attempts to shrink herself away, hide the fear, the desire, or the mystery that stops meeting by chance.

  2. Then he looks at her clearly and smiles for a second occasion. She tries to go away, hide the hesitancy, the longing, or the mystery that avoids and ordinary meeting.

  3. In the end, he regards directly her and smiles for another time. She makes an attempt to hide, cover the fear, the impulse, or the mystery that avoids a casual encounter.

  The paraphrase that I think most accurately depicts the meaning of the original sentence is the third paraphrase I crafted. I think that the first sentence of the first paraphrase I made also competed with the third because the beginning of the first one also got across the real point of the original sentence. When I paraphrased, I realized that neither of them had previously made real eye contact, because he “finally (…) looks at her openly.” Also I realized that she wasn’t trying to avoid meeting him; she wanted to meet him. I thought at first that she wanted to hide and therefore avoid a “natural encounter.” But I realized that was an incorrect interpretation.

•   jacobsoh // Oct 13th 2014 at 2:04 am

  From “You Wouldn’t Understand” By José Emilio Pacheco, “She had figured it out: I was accountable to her. At the same time, my daughter represented an alibi, a defense against fear and excessive guilt” (44).

  1) My daughter had come to the realization that I was responsible for her. She also gave me a justification against my anxiety and extreme remorse.
  2) She knew that I was to answer for her. She also was an excuse for my panic and culpability in the situation.
  3) She knew it; I was answerable to her. At that same time she served as a defense, she excused my trepidation and tremendous shame

  I think my third paraphrase best represents the original sentence. It captures the realization the daughter had that her father was in charge of protecting her. It also captures that dad’s relief that with his daughter she became his excuse for not intervening in the fight. She relieved the fear he had of intervening as well as the guilt he had about it. The different paraphrasing of the sentence helps reveal these emotions.

•   Estiven // Oct 13th 2014 at 2:56 am

  The sentence I decided to paraphrased is from “Acheron” when Pacheco says “ Or perhaps it is her air of innocence and helplessness or the gravity of someone who carries a secret”(75)
  Paraphrase 1-
  Or maybe it is her way of being virtuous and harmless or the weight of someone who has something to hide that makes me feel attracted towards her.
  Paraphrase 2-
  The way she looks is attractive; she looks like she can’t do anything wrong, but look very shy because of how secretive she is trying to be.
  Paraphrase 3-
  She is not attractive because of her looks she is attractive because she is not acting a normal person, she is not disclosing something and like other people she is benign.

  Paraphrase 1 is probably the closest to what the actual sentence is trying to say because in the story she is writing something in a piece of paper that only she knows what she is writing but everybody else in the room has not idea what she is writing. Also after the young man came he couldn’t keep his eyes of her, he was so attracted to her he couldn’t look away from her and it made her feel like she had eyes watching her every move.

•   grandam // Oct 13th 2014 at 3:14 am

  I chose the following passage from Souls in Distress.
  “History, says Pacheco, matters, and it weights like a millstone upon the living. It crushes all those who are unable to attain that selective amnesia that is a prerequisite for success.”
  The past, says Pacheco, is important, and it burdens like an albatross on the breathing. It kills everyone who is incapable of achieving that discriminating forgetfulness that is a requirement for accomplishment.
  Times gone by, says Pacheco, is substantial, and it hangs like a deadweight upon the contemporary. It flattens all who are powerless to accomplish that worked at obliviousness which is a qualification for victory.
  Times past, says Pacheco, are crucial, and they press like a shackle upon those in the present. They squelch all those who are inept at conquering that choosy memory loss that is a condition for attainment.
  Finding synonyms for the word “living” was one of the hardest parts. Life itself is hard to quantify and so to change it to another word as if it had the same signification seemed demeaning. Are “the living” only those who live in the time of the reader? Or are they any who have lived and had a history, in that case all those since the begging of time. Paraphrasing also helped me to see the importance of work choice in conveying one’s true meaning. Selective amnesia seems more accidental, where as word choices such as “discriminating forgetfulness” or “choosy memory loss” make it clear that forgetting the past is purposeful. The author states that this amnesia is a “prerequisite for success”. This statement gave me pause because normally I think of history is an important tool to inform the future.

•   Aden // Oct 13th 2014 at 3:34 am

  “I felt obscenely liberated. I cherished the cowardly hope that my daughter would think they had run away from me.”
  1. I felt deceitfully free. I clung to the sad hope that my daughter would think they left in fear of me.
  2. I felt terribly fake. I prayed my fraudulent actions would trick my daughter and uphold my image.
  3. I felt emasculated. I set a pitiful example for my daughter and I hope she did not realize it.
  I believe that version 2 is the most accurate. Version 1 is too similar to the original and version 3 is taking liberties that are unfounded. I am not sure he feels emasculated, although I can strongly infer that he does. I do know he feels guilty for his inactions as a father and that he feels fake.
  I realize that he feels much more than what he says he does. I can see that he feels unmanly and false as a father figure. He feels he is not providing his daughter the lessons she deserves. He wants to teach her that injustices should be righted and the weak of this world protected, but he does not have the courage to do it. He may not have had a chance to rectify the situation, but he sees that he could have tried and did not. The “obscenely liberated” part means that he is embarrassed yet extremely happy that the hoodlums did not make it painfully obvious of his lack of conviction.

•   medinaeg // Oct 13th 2014 at 3:53 am

  The sentence I chose to paraphrase is from Pacheco “You Wouldn’t Understand.” “The others are the bad ones because of what they did?”

  – The bad ones are the one who did it right?
  – What they did made them bad?
  – Their actions made them bad?
  I believe the third paraphrase fits best with the situation that occurred. The daughter of the narrator is wondering how life works. Her perception is from a good or evil viewpoint. She does not truly understand why the boys would hit another to the point of blood and why no one intervened to stop it. The paraphrase follows her train of thought as she is trying to comprehend actions and what they mean in life. Her father hesitated earlier when she brought up the idea of good and bad, how does one decide who is good or bad from one set of actions.

Leave a Comment