Though he’s long dead by the time Cantú joins Border Patrol, Cantú’s grandfather is an important figure in his life, symbolizing his Mexican heritage and all its complexity. Cantu’s mother didn’t meet her father until she was an adult, and then she rejected him because he didn’t live up to her dreams—he wasn’t adventurous or strong, like the Mexican archetype she’d imagined, but was instead conservative and very committed to his family and home life. Only later did she realize that there is a strength in embracing one’s roots in this conservative way.
Get the entire The Line Becomes a River LitChart as a printable PDF.
Cantú’s Grandfather Character Timeline in The Line Becomes a River
The timeline below shows where the character Cantú’s Grandfather appears in The Line Becomes a River. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Part 2
...family arriving in the United States: during the Mexican Revolution, Frances and her brother ( Cantú’s grandfather ) were only children. Their family hopped on a freight train going north late at...
(full context)
Cantú goes to visit his grandfather in the mausoleum. He calls his mom, who asks him to speak to her father...
(full context)
...before the revolution, Halley’s Comet had passed through the sky, and his own family (including his grandfather as a fetus) might have gathered on a rooftop elsewhere in Mexico to gaze in...
(full context)
