In the short story "The Visit" by Nick Vaca is about an old man named Don Pedro who lives in the outskirts of the San Joaquin Valley. Don Pedro lives in an old ragged trailer and has a pain in his leg for ten years called rheumatism. He also haves twelve children and one out of those twelve makes a little effort to see their father. Don Pedro's son Ralph comes from the Bay area to come see his father. Ralph loves his father very much and one day Ralph hopes to sacrifice himself for his father's life. But Ralph goes to see Don Pedro with a bottle of Whiskey in his hand. Ralph insists to take his father to the hospital, but later makes some excuse for not taking him. Now that his father really needs him. Ralph will now wonder if he would ever get another chance to sacrifice himself for his father again.

Also in the short story "A Rosary for Dona Marina" by Octavio Romano is about a woman named Dona Marina who lives with Pedro, one of her second cousins, and her niece Lina. Dona Marina took custody of her sister's orphaned daughter. Dona Marina was once married with no children, then her husband had left her, and she never remarried after that. Dona Marina was an old fashion wo

Secondly Don Pedro was abandon by his family because no one wants to take the responsibility of an old man. For example, Vaca asserts, "the reasons for Don Pedro's isolation are too complicated, too old to drag into the sum to examine. Don Pedro's children live far away from him, so they do no take the time to see him. Like Ralph, they must feel like their father's time might be up real soon. They don't want to get close to their father because their afraid to see their father in the condition Don Pedro is in. When Vaca applies that "Ralph, pulling out a recently opened bottle of whiskey. Ralph had been drinking heavily and his speech and actions showed the initial effects of the whiskey". (Par 10) Ralph feels like he has to drink before he sees his father because he doesn't want to see a suffering, hurting, old man like Don Pedro. So when he wakes up the next day he would forget every thing he and his father talked about.

man who went to church every Sunday and went to the Rosary on Fridays. When Dona Marina had found out that Lina was pregnant, she assumed that the father of the baby was Pedro's, and she did not like that one bit. So she gets very upset and destroys Pedro's room, Pedro sees his room and then takes the rest of his belonging and leaves. Then she finds out that Lina had run away from the hospital. Dona Marina had an idea where she was then Lina took off again. Now all Dona Marina does now is just pray for Lina and stay upset at Pedro.

Likewise, Dona Marina's cultural tradition is going to church and the rosaries. Dona Marina is a very religious woman for example; Romano asserts, "others implied that Dona Marina was too religious". (Par 6) She was just a divorced woman who just always went to church. She is an old fashion woman because she did not know what to think after Lina had gotten pregnant, and old fashion women like Dona Marina will not accept that. A woman like that feels that the girl should be married before having a child. Lina was too young to have a child, and Dona Marina saw that, and to make things worse she started thi

Some common words found in the essay are:
Dona Marina, Don Pedro, Don Pedro's, Pedro Vaca, dona marina, don pedro, Pedro's Lina, Lina Pedro, Dona Marina's, Pedro's Pedro, Moreover Ralph, Ralph Par, don pedro's, pedro father, lina pregnant, example romano, found lina, found lina pregnant, pedro father lina's, father ralph, ralph comes, woman church, lina pregnant assumed, dona marina lonely, lina dona marina,
Approximate Word count = 1409
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)