Thursday, October 20, 2011

What eight English words does Mamacita know in The House on Mango Street?

The eight words (or more accurately, phrases) Mamacita
knows are: He not here, No speak english, and holy
smokes
.


Mamacita says, he no
here
when the landlord comes which may indicate that her husband pays the
rent and they are sometimes behind in rent.  No speak english is
when anyone who doesn't speak Spanish tries to speak to her, which indicates that she
doesn't have an interest in speaking to anyone who doesn't speak Spanish and doesn't
want to learn English because she misses Mexico.  Holy smokes
likely indicates that she could learn English if she wanted to because it's
an idiom which is a difficult part to pick up in a language, but she doesn't want
to. 

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