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Josselyn Molina

Professor Batty

English 101

09 May 2017

Perla the Light and Hope of Agua Mansa

The book "Still Water Saints" was written by Alex Espinoza, who in his book he included stories

from different people in the town of "Agua Mansa." Many of the character face obstacles that

they have to get through. One character can stand out more than any other, and that character is

Perla. Perla is known for being a "Medium, Prophet, and a Healer." she was able to do a lot for

her people and her community.Perla owned a Botanica where everybody would go to ask for

help whether it was for healing purposes or just to talk about the future the people knew to go to

her without any hesitation. Even though Perla helps everybody with their problems she has her

problems too, she faces depression, fertility, and losing Rodrigo. From chapter to chapter she

learns to deal with her problems. To me, she is saint-like because she gives hope to everybody

even when she doesn't know how to deal with her own problems. Although some people may

argue that she is not saint-like because she is a "Bruja."

As human beings, we have many problems to face throughout our life, and Perla is not the

exception. One of the main problems she has is having to deal with depression. Depression has

many combinations, for example, being lonely, sad and overthinking problems or situations you

may be in and that sometimes you have no control over. Depression "is a common but serious

mood disorder. It causes severe symptoms that affect how you feel, think, and handle daily
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activities, such as sleeping, eating, or working."(N.D NIMH) Perla dealt with depression for a

really long time the only thing was that nobody was there for her when she needed people and

even her husband was not there for her. She was always lonely, but she willingly helps

everybody that asked for her help. Perla was like a saint for everybody because she was pushing

every character on the book to be a better version of themselves. Perla had depression also for

not being able to have a baby and not having anyone who she could count on, to tell someone

everything that was going through her mind.

Many women wish that at some point in their life they can become mothers. Well, that was the

case of Perla she anxiously desired to become a mother, but she had fertility problems. She was

not the only one affected by this her husband was also affected because they both desired to

become parents and they knew that there was no possibility of that happening. "Infertility or

reproductive problems include disease and aging. Male infertility is as common as female

infertility. Infertility or reproductive problems are often treatable with infertility drugs and high-

tech procedures."(N.D Infertility&Reproduction) Many of this fertility problems can be treated

today but in Agua Mansa where timed seemed to be stopped, and they didn't have the resources

they needed. Having to know that the thing that you most wish for can't happen to you it's

devastating, but she didn't give up on herself she was able to find other people who were like her

kids and who she helped.

Rodrigo was the youngest of four children. Rodrigo at a really young age decided to leave his

family and go out to find a job because his family needed money. Rodrigo had gone through

some really tough times while looking for a job sometimes the police would chase him, and he
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had no other choice but to buy the cops losing everything he had earned that day. Until Perla

found Rodrigo, who had been raped she instantly decided to help him out by cleaning his cuts

dampening a cloth with alcohol. The situation that Rodrigo was going through affected Perla too

because it is a lot to handle for one single person. She had to hear how he was rape and how he

wanted to kill himself.

"On average, there are 321,500 victims (age 12 or older) of rape and sexual assault each year in

the United States."(N.D Rainn) Many kids nowadays are being raped just like Rodrigo was and

most of the rape cases are not being investigated for the simple reason that the victims are scared

for their lives or their families. On this case, Perla was an angel who tried to help Rodrigo as

much as she could but at the end, Rodrigo dies and this obviously affected Perla because she had

seen everything he had gone through and she got attached to him, and she obviously learned to

love him like the son she couldn't have.

In conclusion, Perla was saint-like for many reasons not only for those I have mentioned in my

essay. Rodrigo was not the only who she helped all of the characters in the book were one way or

another linked with Perla, and each had an amazing story of overcoming obstacles. Perla had her

own struggles that she had to face but she didn't let that stop her from having hope in her

community and seen more than everybody else was seeing. Throughout the book, we see

valuable stories that teach us a lesson, and that is to not give up on others and not to give up each

other because sometimes we only have ourselves to pick us back up. For that and many more

reasons I believe Perla was the most saint-like in the book. Out of anybody else in the book she

was the only one who didn't do the things she did to try to get something in return from it, she

did it because she had the heart to do it. "But if you stood there long enough if you stood there
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and watched and listen, you could see what a river had once been, and you could see so much

life in the still water that remains."( Espinoza p.240) This is what Perla saw in Agua Mansa so

much more life than just what everybody else can see with naked eye. For everybody who reads

this book, Perla is going to live through everybody's life because of she taught us more in a

single story than what we can really imagine because she was a saint.

Works Cited

National Institutes of Health. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, n.d. Web. 09 May

2017.
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"WebMD Infertility Center: Trying to Conceive, Symptoms, Causes in Men and Women, Tests,

and Treatments." WebMD. WebMD, n.d. Web. 10 May 2017

Victims of Sexual Violence: Statistics | RAINN. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 May 2017