#10 Ruiz Burton - The Squatter and the Don

Bila Lee
English 48B
February 6, 2009
Journal #10 Maria Amparo Ruiz de Burton

Quote
“You are too good business men to suppose that I should not reserve some slight advantage for myself, when I am willing you should have many more yourselves. All I want to do is to save the few cattle I have left” (Burton 96).

Summary
The quote was extracted from a negotiation between the Don and the squatters. The Don was the Spanish landowner who owned lands and raised cattles; however his properties were lost partly because of human factors, and partly because of governmental policies. In fact, the U.S. government established some discriminative policies against immigrants to protect its local residents; in her most famous novel, “The Squatter and the Don,” Ruiz Burton explicitly employed the Don (a.k.a. Senor Alamar) and his loss to point a finger at the “no fence law”; but Burton also ironically defended her people from being discriminated. The quote summarized how the Don struggled to achieve what he deserved.

Responses
The novel consolidated the influential status of Ruiz Burton in the Mexican American Literature because her work encouraged a reflection among “the multiple groups under attack by white, capitalist corporate entities” (Burton). In addition to context, the novel is absolutely a pleasure to read because of her excellent writing technique; for instance, Burton created an illusion that each squatter was highly respect to the Don at the beginning of the discussion. The squatters showed their warmest greetings to Alamar, appreciated Alamar’s English pronunciation (it sounds interesting to see the native speakers praise an ESL speaker) and the general meeting atmosphere was harmonious. The entire setting twisted not until the Don proposed his business plan to lease his cattles and the corresponding terms.












His business plan was very generous in the sense that he proposed to share his wealth with the squatters. The act was suspectical and Mathews was the first one to express his concerns, “Pshaw! I knew there was to be something behind all that display of generosity” (Burton 96). Basically, his doubt was raised inaudibly reasonable because most humans make decision for self-interest and there had only a few, if any, altruistic persons existed in reality. The intention of the Don was exceedingly questionable provided that his properties were recently lost, and his cattles were stolen because his squatters refused to build protecting fences. Hence, the squatters possessed every reason to hold reservations for the Don and his “unsuspected hero” behavior.

It was believed that it was a defensive tactic for the Don to introduce these attractive clauses to the squatters, because some governmental policies were suppressing him. The Don was wise to make a concession to share his benefits with his potential enemies – the squatters might play a crucial role in the Don’s loss, as there was an ambiguous statement in the novel, “‘Exactly, we want to look after our cows, too,’ said the Don, laughing. All saw the fine irony of the rejoinder, and laughed heartily.” (Burton 95). I interpret the line as the Don already knew the squatters’ trick in enraging him, but he was well-prepared to fight-back. Instead of any harmful retaliation, the Don calmly chose to propose a practicable method to the squatters, in a hope to retain his most handsome profit. I think he was clever because he pierced the humans’ mind that everyone is self-interest and strive for the biggest returns.