Immigre gay.Butterfly Boy * Rigoberto Gonzalez * University of Wisconsin * $24.95 For Gonzalez, butterflies are symbols of both joy and suffering. In his autobiography Butterfly Boy Memories of a Chicano Mariposa, the insect-shaped bruises Bruises Definition Bruises, or ecchymoses, are a discoloration and tenderness of the skin or mucous membranes due to the leakage of blood from an injured blood vessel into the tissues. Pupura refers to bruising as the result of a disease condition. inflicted by his violent older lover reflect the casual abuse and neglect Gonzalez suffered at the hands of his struggling immigrant family. A bus trip to Michoacan, Mexico, with his estranged es·trange tr.v. es·tranged, es·trang·ing, es·trang·es 1. To make hostile, unsympathetic, or indifferent; alienate. 2. To remove from an accustomed place or set of associations. father dredges up harrowing memories of a gay boyhood that occasionally verge on the deadpan (Grandpa enjoys torturing cats; adults rely on a Ouija board Ouija board Device for obtaining messages from the spirit world, sometimes used by a medium during a séance. The name derives from the French and German words for “yes” (oui/ja). for guidance) but never dip into dip into Verb 1. to draw upon: he dipped into his savings 2. to read passages at random from (a book or journal) Verb 1. the circuslike tone of Running With Scissors scissors Cutting instrument or tool consisting of a pair of opposed metal blades that meet and cut when the handles at their ends are brought together. Modern scissors are of two types: the more usual pivoted blades have a rivet or screw connection between the cutting ends . While Gonzalez's arid prose may strike some as undernourished, he's wise to be so unsentimental given how his own family rationalizes their cruelty with sensational stories and superstitions. In the end, most haunting are the glimmers of kindness the clan show when not at war with each other: quiet, solitary acts that share the strange beauty of the swarms of monarchs Gonzalez remembers so fondly. |
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