Contemporary World Literature contemplates an array of different political, societal and cultural issues. In this globalization era where the imminent information revolution has taken place, magically unifying the entire world. Migration among countries has created a cultural blend of races and ethnicities. Diverse countries now face problems involving political refugees, immigrants, and health concerns. Literature has accompanied this era with important contemporary writers such as Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Leslie Marmon Silko, Junot Diaz and Hanan Al Shaykh. Twentieth century author Virginia Woolf referred to these changes that modernist generations face: “All human relations have shifted – those between masters and servants, …show more content…
Sanchez is the typical corrupt politician who only does the necessary to stay in power. His political campaign is a sham and travels around the country promoting himself through a theatrical act of a perfect town with an empty promise of prosperity. Sanchez is forty-two years old, happily married to a German woman who is the mother of his five children. It is only after finding out that he is going to die that he has an epiphany about his life. Marquez satirically gives with precision the date of Sanchez’s death as the opening sentence of the story. “Senator Onesimo Sanchez had six months and eleven days to go before his death when he found the woman of his life” (Marquez 988). This new woman in his life is Laura, the daughter of Nelson Farina and illegal immigrant. Sanchez keeps the news of this death a secret from everybody and not necessarily because of pride but out of shame. Nelson has frequently asked Sanchez to provide him with documents to legalize his immigration status. It is only after meeting his daughter that Sanchez is willing to listen to his …show more content…
It is a more recent short story narrating the struggles of a young boy. This is a first-person narrator story which emphasizes the fact that the main character has no name, making the story universal and reaching a global audience. The main character is an immigrant drug dealer who has not gone to college that lives with his mother in a suburban neighborhood. He despises his father that lives with another woman in Florida, while his mother stills holds on to the hope of his return. He also has a best friend Beto, who is attending college. The most important aspect of the description of Beto is that he is openly gay. The story describes two occasions in where the main character and Beto are engaged in a sexual act. This is a taboo topic within society and is still under scrutiny among cultures. Due to his upbringing he is unable to break free from his cultural imposed limitations. Beto represents a way out of his current circumstances, showing a better path to the future. At the end of the story, Beto hands him a book as a gift, but he does not open it and throws it away (Diaz 1249). This gift can be interpreted as the key to break free from his current situation. Nevertheless, the main character is reluctant to accept another alternative and prefers to live in denial of his own sexuality at the cost of being accepted in his Latino