Caramelo

Rating:
Summary: Caramelo
Review: In Caramelo, Sandra Cisneros does an amazing job to describe the typical Mexican family. She shows our family values, our culture, and the essence of who the Mexican people are. She makes a trip down memory lane and at the same time emphasizes the meaning of love. Cisneros shows all this through the eyes of Celaya "lala", who is the main character of the book.
The story begins when Lalas family takes the yearly trip to Mexico, and gathers for the family reunion. All throughout the ride she constantly reminds what we
Mexicans do on our trips with our families to Mexico. We sing songs and bug our parents till they freak out. Through Celaya, the reader acquires much of the Latino culture. Whether it's the food, the games that we play, or the music that we listen too. Caramelo deals with the dysfunction and history of her family, whom of which represents almost every Latino family.
There is an awful grandmother who is always constantly bothering Lalas mother, Zoila, and her father, Inocencio, never says anything to discourage his mother from doing so. The book makes a fascinating turn that gives the reader much emotion and forces them to continue on reading with the story. The family is in Mexico and are on their way back to the grandmothers home from Acapulco. The mother and father get engaged in a harsh argument in which Zoila storms out of the car. Inocencio rushes out and its running chase of trying to catch up to his wife. When they finally come to a rest, a decision is going to have to be made by Inocencio. Zoila and the awful grandmother, Soledad, force him to choose between them. Just as the answer is about to be dished out, the book makes a turn that creates many emotions for the reader, it starts from the very beginning of the Reyes family history and would eventually have to lead up to the argument between Zoila and Inocencio. This angers and fascinates the reader, we learn all the important facts of the Reyes family, but we want to know a certain secret that sparked the argument amongst the parents of Lala.
In describing the Reyes family, we hear about the many love stories that the family has encountered. Every single story has much similarity amongst the others. Cisneros portrays love as equivalent to misery. Every relationship that is describes has a form of agony and pain with it. With everything new that the reader finds in regards to the Reyes family, the reader notices and feels some sort of sympathy for the awful grandmother. We understand why she is the way she is. She had a strenuous life, and lives by the telenovelas that she reads.
Caramelo has the essence the typical Latino family, but also has the theme of love as a connection. This book makes the reader feel the pain and love that the characters experience. We see how history repeats itself. The characters love a person, but once they have them, the person whom they love cheats on them or leaves them. That happens to all the mothers or fathers of the Reyes family. The reader connects the meaning of love for Cisneros. That with love, misery is not to far away.
We learn so much of the Latino culture, and our desire to know of a particular secrete that sparked the argument, lead up to a very dramatic ending. Caramelo is such an incredible book to read, once your read up page seventeen, you will not want to put that book down. It makes a trip down to history lane for the Reyes family, and sparks many themes of love and deception all along the way. It has a conclusion that will move the reader. All these qualities make Caramelo an excellent reed.