Pendeja, You Ain’t Steinback, by Gurba was a very interesting story to read. Going into this, I knew what pendeja meant. I’ve heard some of my family members/random people on the street saying it before. It’s not a positive word and it’s usually used to refer to someone negatively. So, right off the bat I assumed that this story was going to be about someone who did something very questionable.
An author was writing a book about the struggles and injustices at the Mexican border. She wanted another opinion on it and send it to Gurba for further critique. The book was called Dirt, and she realized there was something wrong with the story of the book as soon and she read it and took matters into her own hands. Throughout the story, Gurba was very passionate about what she was writing about. She wasn’t afraid to call the author of Dirt some choice words. However, she was able to modify and make suggestions about the book that would’ve made the whole book better overall (because she was actually educated on the topic).
I agree with your first paragraph, when I red Gurba’s work I also think the same because in the starting she was very angry and telling how other people rudely responded to her when she said her grandfather was a publicist.
I agree that Gurba was passionate about what she was stating. I think thats a really important point to remember so that other people reading do not mistaken her aggressive tone as something bad, instead its the anger she should rightfully have as her home country was made out to be something it is not.
I can relate to knowing what pendeja was as soon as I saw it. I agree that gurba wasn’t afraid of saying anything in her writing. She wanted to let everything out on the author of dirt.
I agree when you said that right off the bat you knew Gurba’s story was going to write about someone’s questionable thoughts. When I read the title I also had a feeling it wasn’t going to be a positive one since the term pendeja isn’t a great word to describe someone.