Rosaura Sánchez and Beatrice Pita

"Introduction to The Squatter and the don.

1. What is the difference between monopoly and entrepreneurial capitalism?

2. What does Rosaura Sánchez and Beatrice Pita conclude regarding Ruiz de Burton's discourse of ethnicity and class?

3. How do the dual tracks (historical and romantic) in the novel complement, contradict, negate each other?

4. How is Ruiz de Burton's own biography represented in the novel?

5. What is the typical characterization of Mexican culture in the 19th century, and how does Ruiz de Burton's differ from this characterization?

6. Please find the section in the text that detail the main historical changes going on in the 19th century, according to Sánchez and Pita?

7. How does Sánchez's and Pita's definition of the romance apply to the novel?

... a romance often focuses on the moment of transition between two distinct modes of production in which the incompatibility of the older aristocratic traditions and the new capitalist situation is made clear. The conqueror thus condescends to see the "enemy," that is, the precapitalist society, as "heroic" but primitive and even as unfortunate and abused by local authorities. In effect, the perspective is close to that expressed by Royce: it is a strategic reading by an "organic intellectual," one who provides a critique contained within the dominant ideological framework to ensure the reproduction of the hegemonic order. (20)

8. Sánchez and Pita frequently allude to the emasculation of the Latinos (to write "latino male"ⁱ is redundant) in the novel? Which examples can you provide of this "emasculation"?

9. Why does the "Battle of Alamar" depict a transition?

10. Sánchez and Pita believe that women are viewed in the novel in relation to land and power. What proof do Pita and Sánchez provide?

11. Sánchez and Pita refer to Ruiz de Burton as a "proto-feminist" (46). What does the term mean?