The Gate - Tortilla Analogy

In the novel, “Tortilla Curtain,” by T.C. Boyle, we see the putting up of a gate around Arroyo Blanco. The building of the gate must have been like putting up a border between all the people that lived in Arroyo Blanco to everybody else. Although Delaney disapproved of the gate and did not want it to be put up, others in the community felt safe if there was something that separated them from the outside dangers. The gate can be related to a border because it kept the people, or Mexicans, out of Arroyo Blanco. But Delaney did not like this idea. He felt as if he had moved to Arroyo Blanco because he wanted to feel free, in an open community. By putting up the gate, to Delaney it was as if he had been stuck in a prison. He needed a kind of permission, to get out and to get in to his home. This gate was a border, and just like any border, people were trying to get in. There was a constant struggle for people like Candido and Jose Navidad to get around Arroyo Blanco, much like Meixcans coming to America and trying to survive. There was also a constant struggle by Candido and America to not get caught by “La Migra” for they would be deported and sent back to Mexico. The gate must have felt like a border between Mexico and the United Sates because there’s people inside of the gate, who are white, and then there’s people who are trying to get into the gate, who are Mexican.