The Tequila Worm is a story of a young girl Sofia, portraying the thoughts and experiences through her perspective about the various things that she goes through in life. While reading the story, I could relate with various events of Sofia’s life and found myself comparing my thoughts to her. While similarities between her and my life do exist, and in abundance, there were also some stark differences. This paper analyzes the thoughts and experiences of the protagonist of The Tequila Worm while drawing comparisons from my own life.
One of the main comparisons between Sofia’s life and mine can be her relationship with her friend Berta, which I see reflected in my friend Anna. Just like Sofia considers Berta to be every bit as opposite of her as one can be, my friend Anna is the same. Our taste in movies, books, TV shows, and pretty much everything differs as much as it can. Berta, like my friend Anna, is fond of chick flicks and cheesy movies. They both look their best each and every day while I don’t give as much thought to my appearance, just as Sofia. Sofia wondered about how Berta is carefully dressed, looking her best, much unlike Sofia herself.
“Her curly light brown hair was neatly tied back with a red ribbon, and she had on a bright blue dress with glass buttons in front. She was even wearing make-up” (Canales 75)
“I looked down at my torn jeans and white t-shirt, my old white sneakers. My hair still looked like apache hair, as papa called it-long dark and wild.” (Canales 75)
Berta loves to talk about wedding just like Anna, while I would much rather talk about something else, same as Sofia. I find myself wondering why and how we became such good friends in the first place. This is when I remember the initial rivalry that we had between each other growing up, somewhat similar to the kind of rivalry Sofia had with her friend Berta. To top it all, Anna and I are cousins just like Berta and Sofia were.
Another similarity between Sofia and my life is the struggle about identity regarding the ethnicity each of us belongs to. Both of us belong to Hispanic backgrounds which is also a defining factor in both of our lives. This is important to mention because much of the perspective about things that we see from Sofia’s eyes is because of the ethnicity she belonged to, such as living in a place and coming from a family that wasn’t well off financially. This must be a common thing in Hispanics because, growing up, I have also faced similar financial patterns as observed by Sofia in the book. Not only that, Hispanics and Blacks have higher poverty rate as compared to others, nationwide ("National Poverty Center | University Of Michigan").
While noting the similarities between the lives of Sofia and me, one thing that particularly stands out is how similar our traditions were due to the same ethnic background both of us had. Be it the preparations of quinceanera of a cousin (which I was always fond of, for some reasons) or the celebrations of the day of the dead, I remember having the similar events in home as Sofia did. This particular thing brought me closer to the character of Sofia than probably any other similarity could.
One of the major differences between Sofia’s life and mine can be seen in her loss of her father while mine is still around. She had to make a tough decision that had lasting consequences about leaving her father and go seek her dreams out, something I didn’t have to choose. Growing up, my relationship with my father was always a little cold but with a warm feeling of knowing he has my back and he won’t fail me. I can’t say that Sofia didn’t have that security growing up but my relationship in early years with my father seems different than hers. There is also the factor of her losing her father while mine is still very much alive, thankfully, and a huge part of my life, unlike he was when I was growing up. I must say that I am thankful that things didn’t turn out as hard for me as they did for her in this regard as it must have really hard for Sofia to deal with the tragedy of her father’s death, as it would have been for me if something were to happen to my father.
Another difference between Sofia’s perspective and wants of the world and mine is how differently we see the rich people and money. Since she was a little girl, Sophia has had an obsession with money and things that she could not enjoy due to her family’s financial condition, things that were out of her reach like nice backyards, huge houses, and luxurious possessions one could buy if they had money. She wanted to live on the side of town where rich people lived because of all the attractions and glamor there. I, on the other hand, didn’t find much interest in the rich people and their possessions. I used to be healthy and well-fed, thanks to my grandparents and while I did long for simple things we couldn’t buy, like a bicycle, I never found myself yearning to be richer than we were specifically for the possessions that we owned. The idea of being anywhere but this homely family and my house didn’t interest me at all, let alone attract me as I was in love with both my neighborhood and my family.
Another stark difference was the feeling of sense of closed-knit community always felt by Sofia that was always missing from my life. While I was close with my extended family like Sofia was, I lacked the feeling of protection and affection that resonated through Sofia from her community. Maybe it was the repeated fights or the rude behavior of people with each other that left its marks probably deeper than the truth, but I always found the people of my community to be weaker as a unit than how Sofia portrayed her community on the whole. However, it could also be the seemingly sheltered way that I was raised in as opposed to familial troubles that Sofia had to go through that enhanced her sense of community more than it was felt by me. She had a healthy relationship with her father, but she was forced to part with him and her neighborhood people were all she had in that time of need. Those people rose to help her the best they could which increased her sense of community while my father never left my side, in better or the worst days, which might have made me more sensitive and sheltered towards problems in the community than they actually were.
Works Cited
Canales, Viola. The Tequila Worm. New York: Wendy Lamb Books, 2005. Print.
"National Poverty Center | University Of Michigan". Npc.umich.edu. N.p., 2016. Web. 5 Sept. 2016.
