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  • Essay / Milagro Beanfield War

    The novel begins with the residents of John Nichol's Milagro speculating on the motivations of a local native, Joe Mondragón, after he begins illegally propagating a barren bean field using a system irrigation while the rest of the city withered due to drought. . The people of Milagro shared their opinions and took on the motivations of Joe Mondragón, introducing several characters from The Milagro Beanfield War, demonstrating their characters and personal stories in relation to each other and to Joe Mondragón himself. The novel takes place in 1970, mixing several sociocultural, economic, environmental and individual perspectives that occurred in the region. Joe Mondragón's trivial action was anything but trivial, revealing the strain the event placed on the city and the pressures induced by the featured antagonist, Mondragón. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”?Get the original essayBernabé Montoya, the town sheriff was first introduced after Mondragón, describing his motivations as being immature in nature and childish, “with a king-sized chip on her shoulder, going slightly crazy” (Nichols 3). Tranquilino Jeantete, the owner of the Frontier Bar, provided comic relief in describing Joe Mondragón's intention being the need for a homemade enchilada with real Milagro beans, despite the Devine Company, the company that essentially runs the town of Milagro. Nick, the shopkeeper, was introduced and explained Joe Mondragón's actions due to his inability to repay his debt and a plot to bankrupt his store. Indian Creek Dam was the primary operator of Milagro's success, with Ladd Devine III as leader believing Mondragón's motivations were personal and wanted to attack the dam, him personally, and Milagro's fate. Amarante Códova, a compatriot, suggested that the motive was to provoke a roar and a “revolution without further delay” (3). The real Joe Mondragón was shared with readers, as John Nichols described him as a thirty-six-year-old man. , with no real job, with a wife, three children and his own house, built by himself, demonstrating his hardworking character although he lacks the basic defining characteristic, a job. Lacking work, he learned a range of skills, but stuck to his knowledge of house building and plumbing: "he could tear down a useless tractor and put it back together so skillfully that he plowed like balls of fire for at least at least a week…” (24-25). Just like its owner's nature, Joe Mondragón's house was cluttered with clutter. He was a man Nichols described as willing to fix anything, being the man everyone would call no matter the weather, rummaging around town in his yellow pickup truck. He expressed his frustration with the government, he was tired of having to work so hard, traveling for work and having to pay the high expenses required of the city. Most of all, he resented Ladd Devine III, the current owner of his grandfather's old land, the old land on which he was now required to have a deer hunting license (26). Joe Mondragón's character has been described as chaotic, given that he was imprisoned multiple times, ignored laws, broke his fingers, and claimed to be unafraid. When Joe Mondragón was just a year old, the Interstate Water Compact was passed in 1935, reallocating the water of Indian Creek, Milagro's lifeline, to the South's largest farmers, "leavingpeople like Joe Mondragón in limbo and much too dry” (28). . Joe Mondragón decided to farm an irrigated bean field right across the street from his parents' "decaying west side house", as described by Nichols, seemingly harmless, but was described by Nichols as "irrevocable as the invasion of Poland by Hitler, Castro's trip on the Granma or the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand…” (28). This bean field was not just a bean field for the town of Milagro, it was an uproar, symbolism for the start of a war, a sign of attack on the Devine company and upheaval in the community of Milagro. Joe Mondragón's Bean Field seemed silly at first, but as the novel continues we learn the depth of the town of Milagro, the history of the land and the community with underlying implications on water, land, access, environment and people. The residents' debate on the topic of Joe Mondragón was a hot topic, discussed at every opportunity residents had to talk about him. “This dam, this conservation district, has the farmers out there on pins and needles. Arresting Joe Mondragón for a symbolic act like this could trigger something unpleasant” (51). It was interesting to read this deliberation, because this quote was given by Ladd Devine III, presented by the novel as a key enemy of Joe Mondragón's family. It was possible that Joe Mondragón simply wanted revenge, that he wanted Ladd Devine III to pay for the evil that had been administered to him in his life, because Mondragón's family was a typical Hispanic family, like everyone else in Milagro, with a beautiful house. and some land, while Mondragón saw them stripped away, leaving him with the small, cluttered house on the outskirts of town, raising his children in an unstable environment, learning many types of crafts to get by. Much of Milagro was the same, having similar histories, similar colonization methods, identifying primarily as hispanos, "a native of a resident of the southwest United States descended from Spaniards who settled there before annexation” (“Definition of Hispano”). Given the similarities in their past, most citizens banded together to sell their land on the west side to the Devine Company, with all but Joe Mondragón and his parents' house residing on the west side, keeping the rest of the town in the 'ignorance. on the future dam which will be built on the west side by the Devine company. There were discussions about taxing the residents of Milagro to fund the dam, and news of a resort to be built was also circulating in the town. The major problem in the Devine Company's plan was Joe Mondragón, the man who stopped the Devine Company's plans. The manner in which Joe Mondragón's actions were described by the townspeople provided a sense of foreshadowing that built up to the revelation of the dam, the resort, and the betrayal that the Devine Company would soon administer. As the war began with Joe Mondragón leading the charge, he soon gathered supporters, defenders of himself and the town of Milagro. As the war began, the two sides clearly fell into place, and the book states that the two sides were not defined by immigration, race, or religion, but by wealth and community influence. The town of Milagro was founded and recognized as a place of Hispanos and Anglo-Saxons. Likewise, to the actual history of the State of New Mexico and the importance of history and culture as it relates to the Hispanos and early settlers who founded the land of New Mexico and supported..