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Melissa Melendez

Professor Batty

English 101

9 May 2018

Look Beyond the Mirror

You may or may not have noticed, but self-care has become a very popular topic among

millennials; Its almost as if millennials are overly obsessed with their health and wellness these

days. Anywhere you go on social media, you see a bunch of pages of people preaching about

how important self-love and confidence are. However, it is much easier said than done as, in the

real world, many people struggle with having a good self-esteem. Realistically, it could take

months or even years for someone to build up their confidence or even “recover” it from the

mean comments they may receive or even from them just constantly comparing themselves to

others. An example of this is how in the novel Still Water Saints, by Alex Espinoza, a teenage

girl named Rosa Cabrera struggles with confidence due to her weight where not only do people

constantly remind her that she is overweight but she also constantly compares herself to her

sister Blanca. In the world we live in, it is very common to feel self-conscious about anything,

especially with social media depicting everything as “perfect”; However, if we learn to see

ourselves the way others see us and look beyond the mirror, we will learn to feel comfortable in

our own skin just as Rosa did once she started hanging out with Miguel Angel.

In the novel Still Water Saints, Alex Espinoza included many different characters who

each have their own struggles within the small town of Agua Mansa. However, one thing they do

have in common is that they go see Perla Portillo at Botanica Oshun to seek help for any issues

they may have. Well, at least a lot of people in Agua Mansa seek help from Perla, as others fear
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the botanica and think she is an evil witch. Although Perla helps everyone else with their own

problems, ironically, she cannot help herself as she wanted to but cannot have children; This was

her price to pay for her healing abilities. One of Perla’s customers, specifically, is Rosa Cabrera

who struggles with overweight. Rosa’s mother had told Rosa that she herself had also been

overweight when she was younger. Since they had this conversation, Rosa’s mother started

pushing her daughter to lose that weight by constantly telling her things along the lines of “you

don’t wanna go about living your life like this”. When Rosa’s mother took her to go see Perla at

the botanica, Perla gives her a tea that is supposed to help her lose weight. After that, Rosa starts

using her mother’s old exercise tapes and religiously drinking her tea. Rosa had become really

self-conscious about her weight and didn’t want to eat at times because she thought about her

weight. It wasn’t until she met Miguel Angel and started hanging out with him that she started

feeling more comfortable in her skin. An example of how Miguel Angel is accepting of Rosa and

helps her get past her overweight is where Rosa says ““I’m fat,”” (Espinoza 27) and Miguel

Angel replies, ““So you are, So what. You’ve got plenty to feel good about.”” (Espinoza 27).

This shows that Miguel Angel doesn’t see her overweight as a “flaw” necessarily, he sees it as

something normal that she shouldn’t pay much attention to. By having this type of attitude

towards Rosa and her insecurity, he is making Rosa feel accepted for who she is.

Rosa struggles with self-confidence due to her always reminding herself of how she is

overweight. She constantly compares herself to her sister Blanca, who is more of a “girly” girl

who wears makeup, does her hair, and wears different kinds of clothes that Rosa thinks she

couldn’t pull off. By the way she is shown in the novel, it seems as if Rosa feels like she is

defined by her weight. Due to her having a low self-esteem, she feels like she can’t do what her

sister does. She feels as if she cannot pull off bright lipstick or nail polish; Something else that
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she notices is that Blanca is slimmer than her. From how her character’s personal story unfolds,

it seems as if she struggles to find herself because she keeps focusing on what she believes are

“negative” aspects of her appearance such as her overweight and acne. That was until her self-

esteem began to improve as she started hanging out with Miguel Angel, her co-worker. In the

beginning, she doubted that he genuinely wanted to hang out with her. She even told him that she

was sure he could find someone better to spend a Saturday night with. But, as time went on, she

even started learning to dance whereas, in the beginning, she didn’t even want to get up from his

couch to dance because she didn’t feel confident due to her overweight.

Issues with self-confidence due to overweight are actually a very common thing to

experience for adolescents. The article “Perception of Overweight and Self-Esteem during

Adolescence” talks about how although there has been an increase in children and adolescents

that are overweight, the “stigma of overweight” (Perrin) has only worsened within the past 40

years. There is a common misconception of what it means to be overweight among adolescents.

This misconception is leading adolescents of normal weight to begin dieting and later develop

“restrictive eating disorders” which lead to a higher risk for obesity. Although the weight may be

the same, weight distributes differently depending on body types. An example of this is that

someone who weighs 130 pounds may have thicker thighs and a slimmer stomach while

someone else of the same weight may have it the other way around. Even if the person’s weight

for their age is normal, they may consider themselves to be overweight because they see stomach

rolls, thick thighs, etc. This article concluded that “In general, results show that misperceived

overweight was more strongly associated with low self-esteem at a relatively lower BMI [ or

Body Mass Index] range.” (Perrin 451). This shows that although they have a lower BMI, they
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still perceive themselves as being overweight because they see the extra weight in a few places

on their body when they look in the mirror even though they are at a healthy weight range.

It has been found that two factors that affect a person’s self-esteem are how satisfied or

dissatisfied they are with their body and how they feel about their weight. The article “Body

Dissatisfaction, Self-Esteem, and Overweight among Inner-City Hispanic Children and

Adolescents” talks about the correlation between body dissatisfaction, levels of self-esteem, and

overweight found in a study performed on a group of Hispanic children and adolescents from

ages 10 to 18, which just happens to include Rosa’s age group. This article talks about how body

dissatisfaction and low self-esteem are common for children and adolescents who struggle with

being overweight. In this article, it says “Body image distortion and overall dissatisfaction

among adolescents [cause] implications in the development of negative self-worth and negative

affect and may serve as risk factors for the development of adolescent depression.” (Mirza et al.)

This quote shows that it is harmful to both have people reminding you that you are overweight

all the time and restrict your food intake. By doing this, you cause damage to these people that

could later lead them to fall into a depression or even develop eating disorders.

However, by educating children and adolescents on proper diet and nutrition, healthy weight

level, etc., the “stigma of overweight” (Perrin) will only decrease and the rates of depression and

food disorders may soon follow, and that is a good start! The article “Dieting, body weight, body

image, and self-esteem in young women: doctor’s dilemmas” talks about how young women rely

on their body image and weight, specifically, to determine the amount of confidence that they

walk around with. They obsess over how they look and the amount of exercise they do to have a

good self-esteem and be confident. This article states that the way adolescents see the word

“diet” changes between what would be their middle school and high school years. It says,
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“Before [high school], “dieting” is described as “normal healthy eating”; Only after [high school]

does “dieting” include the concept of weight loss.” (Abraham) This shows that during high

school, there is more “pressure” to look a certain way. This causes people to want to change

themselves even if that is just how their bodies are, which could be bad for their health. This

article suggests that “intervention” could improve the self-esteem of adolescents who see

themselves as being overweight. By educating them on different body types and how weight

distributes differently, they will be more understanding of each other which will lessen the

pressure of looking a certain way.

What we can learn from Rosa is that “perfection” does not exist and we should stop

comparing ourselves to others. In the end, we should focus on loving and accepting ourselves as

we are and not changing to fit anyone’s standards but our own. What she feels (low self-esteem)

is actually very common for teens to go through. What Rosa’s character shows us is that for a

girl her age, about sixteen, it can be hard to have a good self-esteem and feel comfortable in her

own skin especially when girls her age are constantly comparing themselves to other girls.

In conclusion, the main takeaway from Rosa’s story is that we shouldn’t compare ourselves

to others or change because others want you to change; Just do whatever makes you happy. We

are each one of a kind and worthy of feeling beautiful in our own skin regardless of what anyone

else thinks because life is too short to care what people think. In the end, she no longer wanted

to lose weight because that’s what her mother wanted her to do, but because she wanted to do it

for herself. By becoming educated on proper diet and nutrition, healthy levels of weight, and

different body types, people will soon learn to ‘look beyond the mirror” and realize that they are

not defined by the number on the scale.

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Works Cited

Abraham, Suzanne F. "Dieting, body weight, body image and self-esteem in young

women: doctors' dilemmas." Medical Journal of Australia 178.12 (2003): 607-611.

Espinoza, Alex. Still Water Saints. Random House, 2008.

Mirza, Nazrat M., Dawnavan Davis, and Jack A. Yanovski. “Body Dissatisfaction, Self-

Esteem, and Overweight among Inner-City Hispanic Children and Adolescents.” The Journal of

adolescent health: official publication of the Society for Adolescent Medicine 36.3 (2005):

267.e16–267.e20. PMC. Web. 1 May 2018.

Perrin, Eliana M., et al. "Perception of Overweight and Self-Esteem during

Adolescence." International Journal of Eating Disorders, vol. 43, no. 5, July 2010, pp. 447-454.

EBSCOhost, doi:10.1002/eat.20710.