Review Questions for The Milagro Beanfield War

As you read, please answer the following questions, one paragraph response for each question. Due Feb. 13th

Vocabulary (Just read and make a mental note, nothing else to do)

Borracheras: the stupid things you say when you are drunk

Camposanto: cemetery

Chingadera: a bad deal

Chota: police

Gabachos: Anglos

Gente: people

Marrana: pig

Milagro: miracle

Osha: wild parsnip root

Pachuco: street-wise young man; juvenile delinquent

Pendejo: fool, idiot, nincompoop

Sopapilla: puffed pastry

Zopilote: vulture

The Haves and the Have Nots

  1. Why do you think that Joe Mondragon watered the beanfield? Did Joe know why he did it at the time? Would you have watered the field?
  1. Ray Gusdorf, the rancher, in a discussion of how the conservation district will bring “prosperity,” says, “I can live with hunger a hell of a lot better than I can live with fat.” Do you agree? What are the disadvantages of fat/prosperity?
  1. Devine tries to remember: “Why it is so important to keep growing, building, expanding and absorbing and accumulating things and power and making money...What did it all add up to?” Do you agree that these are important to our communities? To our country? Why or why not?
  1. Clearly the concept of “progress” in our society is generally considered a positive thing. Are some forms of progress better than others? In what ways? Is the postponing of the water district “progress” in Ladd’s point of view? In Ruby’s? In yours?
  1. Was the watering of the beanfield a matter of necessity, or a political act? When is an action not a political act?

Truth, Justice and the American Way

  1. There are bumper stickers that read “Question Authority.” In the book Eusebio Lavadie, ‘the town’s only rich Chicano rancher,” says Joe’s “got no respect” when Joe hints that if Lavadie stops the irrigation Lavadie’s workers may not show up. Is Joe questioning authority? When is it permissible to defy authority?
  1. In Milagro the water laws exist, but when challenged, no one seems to want to enforce them. Why? If the law was unenforceable, why had people been obeying it up until Joe’s time? How much does the effectiveness of a law depend on the citizens’ willingness to obey it?
  1. Water rights had been divided “in direct relationship to a region’s political clout and economic pull.” What are the factors that go into the creation of “economic clout” and “political pull”? How are they changed? What is Ladd Devine’s clout at the beginning of the book? At the end?
  1. No one stops Amarante from wearing his gun. He has a “right” to wear it, even though everyone thinks it’s foolish. How does his assertion of his right affect the community? How does it affect the perception of power?
  1. Gun sales boom in Milagro, and the fear/expectation of violence predominates. Could the beanfield war have been won without guns? Clearly the “law enforcement” people had guns all along, but so did many of the citizens, even before Joe watered his field. Though no one is killed, some people are injured. Would it have been possible to “win” any other way? How does this affect your views on gun control?
  1. In Milagro, who are the good guys and who are the bad guys? Was the robbery at the poker game a good thing or a bad thing? Was Rael’s selling Herbie a gun to shoot skunks a good thing or a bad thing? What measure do you use to determine the “goodness” of an event?
  1. Ruby Archuleta seems to be the only resident of Milagro who has a successful business that is not tied to the Ladd Devine empire in some way. How does that affect her role in the beanfield war? Ruby’s personal empire includes her son, her lover, and her mechanic. How was power distributed among them?
  1. Clearly Ruby has the skills to get the job done in a number of areas. What motivated Ruby? What were her methods? How does Ruby fit in your perception of women’s roles? Are your expectations affected by her being a Chicana? In which of Ruby’s roles in the beanfield war was it an advantage being female? In which was it a disadvantage?
  1. There were no women at the first meeting at the Governor’s. Why was there a woman at the last meeting? What was Nancy Mondragon’s role in the beanfield war? What was Flossie Devine’s role? To what extent were the differences in their roles cultural, and how much was personality? How might your personality be different if you lived in another culture?

Good Ole Boys (Elders)

  1. What role did the “Senile Brigade” play in the outcome of the beanfield war? Would that have been different if Milagro had had nursing homes and “retirement communities”?
  1. For the most part the cantankerous characters in Milagro are male and “brown.” How do different cultural groups within our society place different values on their older citizens? Why? How does that affect the segment of the culture?

Signs and Symbols

  1. Sheriff Montoya doesn’t act right away to stop Joe watering the field because it was “an instant and potentially explosive symbol.” What did the watering symbolize? Name other events in history that had symbolic impact.
  1. The sheriff worries about how it is that white stripes painted on the road to look like a cattle guard can fool cows. Were there similar “illusions” in the events before and during the beanfield war? What changed? What illusions might be operating in your own life?
  1. The conservancy district and dam are the catalysts, concludes Ladd Devine, which led to all the trouble. Do you agree? Were there factors in the past that kept the people from uniting? If the dam and the beanfield are both symbols, what do they represent?
  1. When the dust devil distributes the copies of the Voice around town, even Kyril Montana says it was an Act of God. Later, a sudden hailstorm “saves” Montana, and a blasting cap going off too soon saves the Forest Service building. In the novel the only time anyone goes to church is to attend a political rally, and yet everyone is looking for – and experiencing – Acts of God. Why might the writer include these events? What point is he making? How do these events compare to real life and our society? In our society “Acts of God” are even written into insurance policies.

Community

  1. Do the people in Milagro seem familiar to you? Which character do you like most and why?
  1. A number of the couples in the book individually yearn for better understanding of their partners. Joe, early on, is not even sure he loves his family, but by the end he is sure he does. In fact, he loves the whole town. What changed?
  1. When the Forest Service seizes Joe’s cow, he is going to take it out on his neighbor. How come it is, someone asks, that every time one of us gets mad at one of them, we kill another one of us? What role does “taking it out on someone” play in the development of social, economic and political events?
  1. Several people go with Joe to help him get his cow back. When the confrontation is over, one Forest Service employee is stunned because “This has never happened before.” Why had the people never worked together before? At what point do the people of Milagro become more united? What caused the change?
  1. Who would you say were the leaders in the Milagro beanfield war? What qualities made them leaders?
  1. What are the responsibilities of a “dominant” culture or group to a less dominant but co-existing group? To what extent does your community consider the impact of decisions on all groups in the community? How can we determine what actions lead to the “greatest good”? Are there other people you consider when you make personal decisions? Why do you consider the impact on them, and not on others?