1. The Rain God
By: Arturo Islas
Lead Discussion by: Victoria Breen & Romy
Garcia
Part 2: pages 53-110

2. Significant Events
 Miguel Grande & Juanita have their
25th Anniversary
 Uncle Felix is killed by a soldier who
he tried to make a move on
 Miguel Grande and Lola have a long-
term affair
 Miguel Grande and Juanita separate
and get back together

3. Latino Assimilation in America
 “The man pronounced his name in
English and momentarily confused
him” (79)
 “"In Spain, home of some of their
ancestors, a civil war was going on.
They barely noticed. They were
Americans now, even if privately and
among themselves they still called
each other chicanitos" (59)
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3R6
FXZ_lpQo

4. Preconceptions that males are
automatically gay when they have
feminine qualities
 “„All good dancers are queer and you
know it‟ Miguel shared the macho‟s
distrust of any man who was too
handsome or danced too well” (70)
◦ guys who do hair
◦ guys who stand up for women rights
◦ guys that watch romantic movies “chick
flicks”
◦ guys who care about their appearance
◦ guys who have piercings other than on their
ears
◦ guys who model- remember that clip we
watched in class last week

5. Homophobia that lingered in the
court systems
 “She sat down facing him as he explained
how the evidence convincingly showed that
her father was in fact „excuse me, ma‟am‟ a
homosexual and that he had seduced other
men, some of whom were willing to testify
during a trial. the attorney thought it useless
to subject the family to the shame and
embarrassment of such an investigation.
The young soldier had acted in „self-
defense and understandably,‟ given the
circumstances, and there was no reason to
prosecute him” (87)

6. Relationships:
Miguel Grande and Lola
• “She made love to him better than any
woman he had known, so he did not mind
her unhousewifely ways" (58)
• “He could not understand how she could
speak to him like that. He wanted to kill
her and felt she should be begging him for
mercy after all he had given up for her. He
did not know why he couldn‟t bring himself
to tell her that the things she did hurt him
deeply” (71)

7. Relationships:
Miguel Grande and Juanita
 “When Miguel returned to her Juanita
welcomed him back with open arms.
She promised herself to learn what
pleased him in bed and to devote
more of her free time to him stead of
to friends and social activities” (103)
 “Juanita did not understand her
husband, but she obeyed him” (95)

8. Relationships:
Miguel Grande and Miguel Chico
 “It pained him to see his son walk, and
eventually he invented ways to make
a man of the adolescent boy. One
device had been to ask Miguel Chico‟s
school friends to engage him in
fistfights to that he might learn to
defend himself” (96)

9. Discussion Questions
 What other relationships did you find
interesting in this portion of the
reading and how can they relate to
your personal experiences?

10. Discussion Questions
 If Uncle Felix had been killed for
homosexual attempts in todays
society, how would society react? How
would or wouldn‟t it be different?