In Helena Maria Viramonte’s, “The Cariboo Cafe”, she constructs a powerful story that brings the reader to face hard reality’s, deal with current issues, an illustrates how many people live today. Throughout the past several weeks, “The Cariboo Cafe” has stuck out of the stories we have read to me, because of the intense reality that is shown. Hopelessness, Family, Immigration, Horror.
In many ways Viramonte’s story is not pleasant, but it strikes with a certain power. A Power to provide a fictional story but also display images in the readers head that truly stick. As of 2018, ICE held more than “42,000 people in custody each day” (CNN). All of these people that are detained in these horrible conditions are in search of a better life. Sadly, the characters within “The Cariboo Cafe” do the same, stuck in horrible conditions and try to persevere.
In the closing of Helena Maria Viramonte’s story, the third perspective shows a desperate mother who has grown so sick of pain, that she still is in search of her dead child. Many people like the woman of the third perspective face these very real problems and in the world that we live in, we do not always see that. Overall Helena’s story is most powerful to me because it shows a very real situation.
https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/12/politics/ice-detention/index.html
Story Power 
I got the same feeling when I read this story. Helena does a good job bringing the lives of the 4 characters we’re introduced to similar lifestyles in reality. Helena also seems to emphasize or rather expose these awful lifestyles that exist in the US and the unfair treatment of certain people.
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When reading “The Cariboo Cafe” I also related most of the perspectives to how people view and live in today’s modern world. I find it interesting that she wrote this piece in 1995 but it is very relative to our lives today. I love how she places the reader in the viewpoint of a white cafe owner, a child, and a suffering mother who lost her child in search of a brighter future to give the story a sort of variety.
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I agree that Cariboo cafe showed the most similar world to ours, and that made it stick out for me too. By showing real problems that actual people encounter today it made me think about my privilege and how I should be more grateful for what I have.
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I completely agree with this analysis of the story. The way the author was able to connect you with the different people was very interesting. Near the middle of the story I really started to try and gain an understanding of how these people in these situations actually feel. This story really brought me into a different world, and one that I should know more about.
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