The Tortilla Curtain

by

T. Coraghessan Boyle

Teachers and parents! Our Teacher Edition on The Tortilla Curtain makes teaching easy.

América Rincón Character Analysis

América is Cándido’s wife, the mother of Socorro, and the sister of Resurrección. She is seventeen years old and four months pregnant at the start of the novel. América is incredibly resilient. Though she is close to her mother and extremely connected to her life and culture in Tepoztlán, América is emotionally devoted to Cándido and supports him in his effort to make a better life for his family and immigrates with him to the States despite being pregnant. América even tolerates Cándido’s physical abuse of her because she understands that it comes from a place of “frustration” and “fear.” Nevertheless, América does express frustration at Cándido’s frequent ineptitude, and she stands up to him when he tries to forbid her from seeking work to support them when they need it most. After José Navidad and his friend rape her, América becomes depressed and fearful of leaving their secluded camp. Though she is fiercely strong, she is also an emotionally guarded character, rarely expressing her true feelings to her husband or others. Still, her rich inner life, her hopefulness, and her imperviousness to the hatred directed at her by others make her the emotional heart of the novel.

América Rincón Quotes in The Tortilla Curtain

The The Tortilla Curtain quotes below are all either spoken by América Rincón or refer to América Rincón. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Anger, Hatred, and Bigotry Theme Icon
).
Part 1, Chapter 4 Quotes

He sat up and railed […] he told her his fears, outlined the wickedness of the gabacho world and the perfidy of his fellow braceros at the labor exchange, tried to work the kind of apprehension into her heart that would make her stay here with him, where it was safe, but she wouldn’t listen. Or rather, she listened—“I’m afraid,” she told him, “afraid of this place and the people in it, afraid to walk out on the street”—but it had no effect.

Related Characters: Cándido Rincón, América Rincón
Related Symbols: The Canyon Road
Page Number: 49
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 1, Chapter 6 Quotes

His skin was light, so light he could almost have passed for one of them, but it was his eyes that gave him away, hard burnished unblinking eyes the color of calf’s liver. He’d been damaged somehow, she could see that, damaged in the way of a man who has to scrape and grovel and kiss the hind end of some irrecusable yankee boss, and his eyes showed it, jabbing out at the world like two weapons. He was Mexican, all right.

Related Characters: América Rincón, José Navidad
Page Number: 81
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 1, Chapter 8 Quotes

A moment ago she’d been out there on the road, exposed and vulnerable—frightened, always frightened—and now she was safe. But the thought of that frightened her too: what kind of life was it when you felt safe in the bushes, crouching to piss in the dirt like a dog? Was that what she’d left Tepoztlán for?

Related Characters: América Rincón
Page Number: 139
Explanation and Analysis:

There, in the quickening night, with his dirty fingers inside her as if they belonged there and the Indian waiting his turn, he stopped to put a stick of gum in his mouth and casually drop the wrapper on the exposed skin of her back, no more concerned than if he were sitting on a stool in a bar.

Related Characters: América Rincón, José Navidad
Page Number: 141-2
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 2, Chapter 2 Quotes

She looked at that coyote so long and so hard that she began to hallucinate, to imagine herself inside those eyes looking out, to know that men were her enemies—men in uniform, men with their hats reversed, men with fat bloated hands and fat bloated necks, men with traps and guns and poisoned bait—and she saw the den full of pups and the hills shrunk to nothing under the hot quick quadrupedal gait. She never moved. Never blinked. But finally, no matter how hard she stared, she realized the animal was no longer there.

Related Characters: América Rincón
Related Symbols: Coyotes
Page Number: 179
Explanation and Analysis:

Seventeen years old, and she was the one who’d found work when he couldn’t, she was the one who’d had them sniffing after her like dogs, she was the one whose husband made her live in a hut of sticks and then called her a liar, a whore and worse. But as he lay there […] he knew how it was going to be, how it had to be, knew he would follow her into that hut and slap his own pain out of her, and that was so sick and so bad he wanted nothing more in that moment than to die.

Related Characters: Cándido Rincón, América Rincón
Page Number: 182
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 2, Chapter 4 Quotes

There was a long silence, and she knew they were both thinking about that inadmissible day and what she couldn’t tell him and how he knew it in his heart and how it shamed him. If they lived together a hundred years she could never bring that up to him, never go further than she just had. Still, how could he argue with the fact of that? This was no safe haven, this was the wild woods.

Related Characters: Cándido Rincón, América Rincón
Page Number: 204
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 2, Chapter 7 Quotes

The baby moved inside her and her stomach dipped and fluttered. All she wanted was to belong in one of those houses, any of them, even for a night. The people who lived in those houses had beds to stretch out on, they had toilets that flushed and hot and cold running water, and most important of all, they were home, in their own private space, safe from the world.

Related Characters: América Rincón
Page Number: 233
Explanation and Analysis:

All she could see was the image of those animals at the border, the half-a-gringo and his evil eyes and filthy insinuating fingers, the fat white man with his fat white hands, and she withdrew into herself, dwelled there deep inside where nobody could touch her. “Hey, baby,” they called when they saw her there trying to melt into the darkness, “hey, ruca, hey, sexy, ¿quieres joder conmigo?

Related Characters: América Rincón, José Navidad, Jim Shirley
Page Number: 234
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 3, Chapter 8 Quotes

América was screaming and the baby was screaming and he could hear his own voice raised in a thin mournful drone, and that was nothing compared to the shrieks of the uprooted trees and the nightmarish roar of the boulders rolling along beneath them.

Related Characters: Cándido Rincón, América Rincón, Socorro
Page Number: 353
Explanation and Analysis:
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The Tortilla Curtain PDF

América Rincón Quotes in The Tortilla Curtain

The The Tortilla Curtain quotes below are all either spoken by América Rincón or refer to América Rincón. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Anger, Hatred, and Bigotry Theme Icon
).
Part 1, Chapter 4 Quotes

He sat up and railed […] he told her his fears, outlined the wickedness of the gabacho world and the perfidy of his fellow braceros at the labor exchange, tried to work the kind of apprehension into her heart that would make her stay here with him, where it was safe, but she wouldn’t listen. Or rather, she listened—“I’m afraid,” she told him, “afraid of this place and the people in it, afraid to walk out on the street”—but it had no effect.

Related Characters: Cándido Rincón, América Rincón
Related Symbols: The Canyon Road
Page Number: 49
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 1, Chapter 6 Quotes

His skin was light, so light he could almost have passed for one of them, but it was his eyes that gave him away, hard burnished unblinking eyes the color of calf’s liver. He’d been damaged somehow, she could see that, damaged in the way of a man who has to scrape and grovel and kiss the hind end of some irrecusable yankee boss, and his eyes showed it, jabbing out at the world like two weapons. He was Mexican, all right.

Related Characters: América Rincón, José Navidad
Page Number: 81
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 1, Chapter 8 Quotes

A moment ago she’d been out there on the road, exposed and vulnerable—frightened, always frightened—and now she was safe. But the thought of that frightened her too: what kind of life was it when you felt safe in the bushes, crouching to piss in the dirt like a dog? Was that what she’d left Tepoztlán for?

Related Characters: América Rincón
Page Number: 139
Explanation and Analysis:

There, in the quickening night, with his dirty fingers inside her as if they belonged there and the Indian waiting his turn, he stopped to put a stick of gum in his mouth and casually drop the wrapper on the exposed skin of her back, no more concerned than if he were sitting on a stool in a bar.

Related Characters: América Rincón, José Navidad
Page Number: 141-2
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 2, Chapter 2 Quotes

She looked at that coyote so long and so hard that she began to hallucinate, to imagine herself inside those eyes looking out, to know that men were her enemies—men in uniform, men with their hats reversed, men with fat bloated hands and fat bloated necks, men with traps and guns and poisoned bait—and she saw the den full of pups and the hills shrunk to nothing under the hot quick quadrupedal gait. She never moved. Never blinked. But finally, no matter how hard she stared, she realized the animal was no longer there.

Related Characters: América Rincón
Related Symbols: Coyotes
Page Number: 179
Explanation and Analysis:

Seventeen years old, and she was the one who’d found work when he couldn’t, she was the one who’d had them sniffing after her like dogs, she was the one whose husband made her live in a hut of sticks and then called her a liar, a whore and worse. But as he lay there […] he knew how it was going to be, how it had to be, knew he would follow her into that hut and slap his own pain out of her, and that was so sick and so bad he wanted nothing more in that moment than to die.

Related Characters: Cándido Rincón, América Rincón
Page Number: 182
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 2, Chapter 4 Quotes

There was a long silence, and she knew they were both thinking about that inadmissible day and what she couldn’t tell him and how he knew it in his heart and how it shamed him. If they lived together a hundred years she could never bring that up to him, never go further than she just had. Still, how could he argue with the fact of that? This was no safe haven, this was the wild woods.

Related Characters: Cándido Rincón, América Rincón
Page Number: 204
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 2, Chapter 7 Quotes

The baby moved inside her and her stomach dipped and fluttered. All she wanted was to belong in one of those houses, any of them, even for a night. The people who lived in those houses had beds to stretch out on, they had toilets that flushed and hot and cold running water, and most important of all, they were home, in their own private space, safe from the world.

Related Characters: América Rincón
Page Number: 233
Explanation and Analysis:

All she could see was the image of those animals at the border, the half-a-gringo and his evil eyes and filthy insinuating fingers, the fat white man with his fat white hands, and she withdrew into herself, dwelled there deep inside where nobody could touch her. “Hey, baby,” they called when they saw her there trying to melt into the darkness, “hey, ruca, hey, sexy, ¿quieres joder conmigo?

Related Characters: América Rincón, José Navidad, Jim Shirley
Page Number: 234
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 3, Chapter 8 Quotes

América was screaming and the baby was screaming and he could hear his own voice raised in a thin mournful drone, and that was nothing compared to the shrieks of the uprooted trees and the nightmarish roar of the boulders rolling along beneath them.

Related Characters: Cándido Rincón, América Rincón, Socorro
Page Number: 353
Explanation and Analysis: