Angie Grajeda

Professor Lao
College One
October 9, 2014
RRJ: Six
1. In chapter 5 from the novel Modonnas of Echo Park by Brando Skyhorse we read about the intense
life of a character named Manny Mendoza, who we learned a little bit of in the previous chapter. In
this chapter of the novel, we enhance loads of information from a character named Manny Mendoza.
We learned how he grew up in gangs due to his father, he been a Loco since he was 14. At one point
in the chapter, we meet Juan (son), and Ofelia (wife), who we discovered to be Mannys own family.
At the beginning, we mostly see Manny live the life of a Loco and lastly we see how his life has been
since he left the gang. The major event that happened in this chapter is how Manny recognizes that
he did badly, in his mind he apologizes to his son Juan for being a worthless father, not loving Ofelia,
stumbling home late at night drunk, and punching him, etc. Another one was we learned that Manny
Sr. was a killer; he shot a three year old. This chapter entitles much more scenes such as when we
learn that his father died of AIDS and his wife died from a stroke, Juan fell in love with a Chinita, Phoc
killed his wife, etc.
2. While reading this chapter, I found it to be intriguing since the beginning of the chapter until the end. I
was tormented by the fact that Manny killed a girl and said he was not afraid of killing again. It gave
me chills to have your own father say to you that he is not afraid and willing to kill you if he has to. I
would hate to have a relative like him. One thing that really disturbed and angry me was the fact that
the mother did not want Juan to be with a Chinese girl but one of his own kinds. I understand her as a
mother, but he is old enough and he has the right to do whatever he likes with his life. Till today we
can still see a little bit of this kind of things were the mother wants their child to marry a person of their
kind. For example, I know in some parts of Mexico for a fact the people are forced to marry someone
of their kind. Although it is less seen here in America, we still encountered people of that kind of
mentality somewhat in todays society.
3. -Was Manny the killer of Alma?
-What caused Juan not want to be like his father, was he like Efren Mendoza who liked books, etc.?
-What made Juan fall in love with a Chinita, was he mother right in saying that he like Chinese girls
because that was all he saw, in the restaurant?
4. While I was reading, I was confused on who were Angie, and Duchess, although Duchess was
mentioned in a previous chapter. I kept confusing Angie with Tran too. At first I thought Angie was
Tran, but I figured out that they are two different people because in the chapter Manny and his son
say something about how his mother would have loved Angie. Then later he mentioned Tran, who I
learned was a Chinese girl Juan fallen in love with. I also had a bit of struggle trying to switch from
one story to another, although I manage to follow carefully. I also found it challenging when I did not
know the meaning to a specific word in a sentence. The strategies that I use while reading was
rereading on things that I had trouble understanding, made connections to events and characters
from previous chapters, and lastly visualize the part when Manny Sr. told his son he killed a girl. The
most important strategies I always do while reading any sort of context is side taking notes of things
that I felt were important to know or refer back to when I need information from a chapter.
5. As I was reading this chapter, I encountered a few words that I did not know the meaning of I felt the
need to look up the word in the dictionary to get a clear understanding of the context. I felt that there
is a highly importance of words that you do not know because it can mislead you to not fully
understanding what is being said by the author, character, etc. A few words from this chapter that I
wrote down on my side notes were elegy, elope, Orientals. I choose these words as good words
because I did not know what these words meant in the context of the chapter. These words kept me
from moving on because I did not understand what the character was saying at the moment when the
word appeared in the sentence. I have never heard Elegy and Elope so I did not know what it meant,
and I have seen the word Orientals but was not sure what the meaning of the word was.
Elegy: a mournful, melancholy, or plaintive poem, especially a funeral song or a lament for the
dead.
Elope: to run off secretly to be married, usually without the consent or knowledge of one's
parents.
Orientals: of the orient or east; eastern.