The Squatter and The Don

Sing Ruby Siu
English 48B
February 6, 2009
Journal #10 Maria Amparo Ruiz De Burton

QUOTE:
“And by a sad subversion of purposes, all the private land titles became unsettled. It ought to have been said, ‘An Act to unsettle land titles, and to upset the rights of the Spanish population of the State of California” (93).

SUMMARY:

From the background of the story, Don Mariano represents a wealthy Spanish landowner who loses his authority over his own land after Mexican War and the Land Act. The author, Ruiz de Burton, in the first place states her own synopsis of Charles Dickens’ quote, and then she relates the English law to the American law. Then, she bitterly and sarcastically points out that the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo and the Land Act were distorted from their original values, which were to settle the private land claims, into some contradictory purposes that was beneficial to the U.S. only.

RESPONSE:

According to one of the reviews online, someone mentions that “The Squatter and the Don was written to appeal to a wide audience of people, no matter their color, class, or ethnicity” (megaessay.com). This is true because the story has a storyline, symbolic values, underline moral and even historical implications. Therefore, it is interesting to see how Ruiz de Burton changes her tone to suit different audiences and to solidify her thesis. In the introduction of the chapter, Ruiz de Burton purposefully opens her line by quoting Charles Dickens’ quote. I believe this descent of Spanish wished to prove her knowledge in the white’s literature so as to establish a bond with the white readers. Therefore, she quoted an Englishman’s famous saying in the opening. At the same time, this quote is very juicy as she uses it not only to build connection with the reader, but also to rebuke the U.S. government’s selfish aims to expand national territory by literally “changing” laws and neglecting justice to force Spanish descents to give up their lands. Ruiz de Burton at this point acted like an objective third-party critically analyzing the deeds of U.S. government because she does not insert any personal opinions or anecdotes up to this point.

Then, she begins to continue depict the story happens in John Gasbang’s rancho. She transits her objective viewpoints into a personal experience that happens to Don Mariano. She introduced Don Mariano as someone who has experienced the humanitarian treatment of the government but now “had found a cruel stepmother” (93). By this, she reveals a little opinion about how the Spanish-Mexicans just like her felt about the “stepmother”—the United States. In the rest of the chapters, I believe Ruiz de Burton makes Don her speaker, which means that the conversation between Don and the settlers (Squatters) actually reflects her values and actions. The second step Ruiz de Burton would like to take is to establish a gentle, polite, friendly and humble character of her people through Don’s personality. For example, Don addresses the “squatters” the “gentlemen” and compliments them for being “very kind” (95). He even excused his foreign accents in English and helped conceal the wrongdoings of the settlers. Ruiz de Burton at this point is very polite to Americans who read her book with a tender heart, but she is very sarcastic to those American squatters who are doing the same to the Spanish-Mexican people.

It is even more apparent at the end when the Clarence admitted that “ ‘So it would be wiser to make laws to suit this country, and not expect that the country will change its character to suit absurd laws” (100). Ruiz de Burton at this point has officially finished the proposing part of Don, and therefore it comes to a point that Anglo settlers are the ones to consider about the offer. This saying of Clarence reminds readers the theory of Charles Dickens: Americans would love to make laws in favor of their own place, politics or interest. And in this case, Clarence on behalf of the Americans admits this and utters it on his own. Therefore, I believe Ruiz de Burton has successfully proved and reinforced the opening quote by the story of Don. More importantly, it is not she who restates the theory, but the American himself.