The Cariboo Cafe
by Helena Viramontes
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"Raising a child is like building a kite.You must bend the twigs enough, but not too much, for you might break them... It is such delicate work, Lord, being a mother."
The Cariboo Cafe is a story that details the delicacy of raising a child. Unfortunately, the mother is forced to do so in an extremely dangerous environment. All throughout the story, the mother is described as incredibly diligent in regards to her work ethic. She does everything she possibly can to provide for her children and her family, washing dishes and picking up additional shifts on the weekends and during odd hours.
This story has strong themes of Nature vs. Nurture. The "polie" -- the antagonists of the story -- are terrible people who take them away to Tijuana and do terrible things to them. The people are forced to work endless hours for their food and relinquish any sentiment of a normal lifestyle. The reason that I began to consider the theme of Nature vs. Nurture resulted from the way the mother described these evildoers as "farts out of the Devil's ass". I wonder: were these people born evil or did societal influence push them to be such evil characters?
In my opinion, The Cariboo Cafe was a story describing the power and intensity of a mother's love for her child. It details the extent of how far the mother will go to protect her child. She throws hot coffee in the polies' faces right before they put the barrel of a gun to her head and kill her at the end of the story while she held her child's hand. The end of the story was very powerful in terms of describing the mother's love for her child.
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