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Karla Hernandez

Professor Batty

English 101

9 May 2017

Where all Saints

Perla was a friend, a mother figure she was seen as multiple things but was often came to

when there was no hope. Besides Perla having issues of her own for example the overcoming her

husband's death leading to her loneliness and is now a widow with no kids, she often put her

problems to the side to help other people which made her saintlike. As the readers we can read

how caing Perla was toward her patiences and the botanica but around her neighborhood she is

seen as a witch or a woman who just runs the botanica. Alex Esponica author from, Still Water

Saints writes short stories of average people dealing with real world problems and explains how

these people overcame the problems they were going through at that moment. Through Pearl's

story we discover how she influenced hope, empowerment and benevolence.

When the doctors failed, when the priest and praying were not enough, the people of

Agua Mansa came to the Botanica Ochun, to Perla. (Esponica1). Miriam a customer of Perlas

explained Perla and her botanica remedies as a sign of hope, a sign that her husband would

overcome his problem which was depression. The reason I found this quote be so significant was

the way she emphasized people coming to the botanica for the last resort for hope. As a reader I

questioned what was a botanica and why are they used? In an article written by Donald M.

Marcus Toxicity of Botanical Medicines:An overlook at Heath Problems it provides

informational background on what is a botanica and the dangers of it as well, Botanical

remedies are used worldwide, especially in regions where a strong culture of traditional healing
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exists and access to conventional health care is limited. Botanicas are normal and because Dario

(former botanica owner) this helps us understand why botanicas were seen as a spiritual aspect as

well. In the novel other characters didn't see the botanica as a sign for hope but just went to the

botanica as the quote stated when everything else failed. Yeah. I think. Thats what she did.

She cursed me. Hayley paused, then laughed (Espinoza 6). As you continue the chapter you

discover that Hayley doubts toward her remedies but keeps going to the botanica acknowledging

the fact that all the remedies Perla gave her helped. You discover somewhere in that chapter that

Hasley found hope she was going to get through her problem. If it wasn't the remedies that were

a sign of hope it was another factor but in each chapter of this novel there was hope, hope was

what helped the characters to overcome their problems.

Loneliness was a huge weak character trait for Perla. Two main factors that caused Perlas

loneliness was her husband's death and the fact the her husband couldn't provide her with any

children. I am ashamed of the fact that I only agreed to do this job because it would get me out

of this house.leaving me alone in the afternoons. No kids. No nothing. I felt like I had no

life.(Espinoza 67). In this quote we get and inside of Perlas thoughts and perspective on her

husband and her life at that time as a married women. As the chapter continues we discover

Perlas loneliness was constant even when her husband was alive because she wanted to be a

mother. Prospective Patterns of Resilience and Maladjustment During Widowhood is a

research article by George A. Bonanno and Camille B. Wortman that did an extensive research

on what widows do and feel after her husband's death and how do they culp with it. Studied

showed that some experienced depression and some replace their husbands in a short period of

time after the death. A fourth set of variables we examined pertained to participants changing

representation of the spouse and marriage during bereavement. Instead of Perla replacing her
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husband she found grief through the botanica which gives us a taste of empowerment through

Perlas character. We get empowerment by the way she culp's with her husband's death which is

by helping other people through the botanica. She realized this when she couldn't save Rodrigo

(another character from the book) but realizing all the other people she helped out and saved as

well. I feel empowered by this act because she faced her obstacles of life and found a better

alternative to it.

Rodrigo was a character where Perlas benevolence stood out the most. Because Perla has

el don to cure people she was constantly showing benevolence throughout the novel but

through the character of Rodrigo is where we see it the most. Rodrigo was found holding onto a

branch in the middle of a storm and Perla took him in and gave him a home. Perla was teaching

Rodrigo english also giving him book to read and quickly became the son she never had. This

quickly changed when she suspected something off about Rodrigo for example the random scars

on his body. He hadn't been back in over a week, and Perla found herself begging to worry

about hi. Something is not right, she told herself. I shouldn't have let him go that night.

(Espinoza 70) This is showing her bevevoelce as a person becasuse she has many reason not to

be worried but she did anyways. An article by Julia Mcquillan called, Frustrated

Fertility:Infertility and Psychological Distress Among Women it talks about all the experience

of fertility women have for the want of motherhood. The experience of infertility is an

unwelcome interruption to those who expect parenthood to be a key identity and adult activity.

As your are auditing parenthood is common and even though Perla could have babies at the end

of the book she never talked about having a kid but this quote supports the the sense of

motherhood was normal.

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Just like a saint you have to be empowering and benevolence and many more

characteristics ,through Perlas character we see she help each individuals overcome their

problems making them saintlike in their own way. Alex Espinoza wrote about average people

with average problems reading the pain and struggle they faced when trying overcome their

problem. Each character is saintlike in their own way because they overcame an obstacle they

thought at the moment they could never solve. Espinoza wrote about problems we have today in

our society, body image issues, depression, being a widow and many more being addressed in

this novel. We all can become our own saints by overcoming our problems we have right now.

You don't need to have el don to help other people with their problems it starts by you and how

you overcome your own struggles.

Work Cite

Marcus, Donald M. and Arthur P. Grollman. "Toxicity of Botanical Medicines: An Overlooked

Global Health Problem." American Journal of Public Health, vol. 106, no. 1, Jan. 2016, pp. 16-

17. EBSCOhost
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Bhat, Amritha, and Nancy Byatt. Infertility and Perinatal Loss: When the Bough

Breaks.SpringerLink, Springer US, 5 Feb. 2016, link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11920-016-0663-

8. Accessed 10 May 2017.

Boannon, George Boannon A. Prospective Patterns of Resilience and Maladjustment During

Widowhood. Prospective Patterns of Resilience and Maladjustment During Widowhood, 1 Dec.

2003, pp. 112.