Hollywood by Dagoberto Gilb

1066 Words5 Pages
Hollywood by Dagoberto Gilb is a story of a Hispanic family on their first vacation in California. Luis and his wife, Marta, are spending the day with their son, Ramon, at the Santa Monica Beach. Even though it is winter, Luis decided that this was the best possible time to travel to California since it is still warm and the motel prices would be cheaper. The beach is vacant because of the winter weather, and Marta is worried that Ramon will catch a cold, but Luis insures her not to fret because Ramon was happy playing. Luis takes each and every opportunity to teach Ramon about the way of life and hard work. Marta wants to bring Ramon to Disneyland, but Luis believes that it is much too expensive and would not teach Ramon another than cartoons. They notice a commercial for A&W Root Beer being filmed on the pier and Marta insists on watching even though Luis is uncomfortable by the actors. Luis then takes Ramon to buy a hotdog, but when the fry cook asks what he would like on the hot dog in English, Luis is not able to communicate because he only knows Spanish. After a few frustrating moments, Ramon answers the fry cook in English. Luis is baffled by his son’s knowledge of the English language. Ramon ends up catching a cold like Marta worried about, and the family is forced to go home a few days early. The story reveals that when people are outside of their culture they have a difficult time accepting non-traditional values. The main character in this story is the father, Luis. Luis is a second-generation Hispanic man with very traditional values. He believes in hard work and determination. He tends be a bit cheap with his money. This is shown in many instances, for example, him choosing to take the family vacation to California during the winter because of the lower prices and then refusing to go to Disneyland. Another instance in which he is stingy is when he
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