Dalrick Sambula

Caribbean Literature

September 12th 2019

Annotation

Dear editor is a sort Belizean story which highlighted the injustices which the people
from the Mayan Toledo village face when in need of help. The story show how happy the
Mayans are despite being poor in their village and how well off they live. It also shifts as their
anger or disappointment emerges as they come to Punta Gorda town just to be looked at as
minorities. The people ( Valentino Choc and his wife Maria) went against their typical “norm”
which was and still is to “Shut up while we treat you Mayan people how we want and feel”.
After their son dies however, the story goes blank as it comes to an end not knowing ( While still
having a strong idea) of what happens from there.

The story highlights some strong theme which are” Injustices in society”. When the
happy poor Mayan couple came to Punta Gorda in an optimistic manner. They are treated like
trash right away. Nobody cared that his wife was pregnant or dead on her feet. Nor did anybody
care that she was in labor and to add insult to injury when was still being bullied and yelled at
during the time of her delivery. Political power/corruption was also another strong theme in this
story. When Valentino started writing about the incident. He was fond by a political driver who
not only warned him, but also treated hi to keep quiet. He was trying to intimidate valentine and
reminded him that he still hasn’t received his land. This however only got Valentine more
furious as he went and wrote to the prime minister. The final theme in the story is neglect, many
hospital around Belize see people die because of the staffs’ abandonment of their jobs. This
causes outrage in society and when they get highlighted on the media, only for a couple of hours
do people respond to them then after they go right back to square one. The story has many issues
but these are the most common ones in our society today.