Previous
Wendell
Gonzalo is a teenager from Guatemala and narrates one chapter of Seedfolks. He opens his chapter with his views on how the experience of immigrating to the U.S. changes depending on a person’s age. He proposes that since he was a kid when he arrived in the U.S., it was easier for him to learn English—he had the neuroplasticity to pick up a new language by playing with English-speaking kids on the playground and watching cartoons inn English. Learning English, he suggests, effectively made him an adult. In contrast, people who immigrate as adults struggle to learn English and so “get younger”—steep language barriers, the novel suggests, often strip immigrants of their independence and pride. This theory guides Gonzalo’s view of his parents and especially his great-uncle, Tío Juan, who speaks a regional dialect that only Gonzalo’s mom speaks. Gonzalo is put in charge of babysitting Tío Juan after the old man disappears one day, and he describes his great-uncle as a helpless baby. Gonzalo’s thoughts on his great-uncle begin to change, though, as he helps Tío Juan start a plot in the community garden. Seeing how expertly Tío Juan handles his seeds and the soil makes Gonzalo understand that his uncle has a wealth of knowledge to pass on. Further, Gonzalo realizes that he’s woefully ignorant about the natural world, and especially where his food comes from. Spending time in the garden gives Gonzalo the humility to see that he doesn’t know everything, and it also gives him the opportunity to see his great-uncle in a new light and appreciate his expertise.
Gonzalo Quotes in Seedfolks
The Seedfolks quotes below are all either spoken by Gonzalo or refer to Gonzalo. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 4: Gonzalo
Quotes
He’d been a farmer, but here he couldn’t work. He couldn’t sit out in the plaza and talk—there aren’t any plazas here, and if you sit out in public some gang driving by might use you for target practice. He couldn’t understand TV. So he wandered around the apartment all day, in and out of rooms, talking to himself, just like a kid in diapers.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Watching him carefully sprinkling [the seeds] into the troughs he’d made, I realized that I didn’t know anything about growing food and that he knew everything. I stared at his busy fingers, then his eyes. They were focused, not faraway or confused. He’d changed from a baby back into a man.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 6: Sam
Quotes
Sometimes I think I’ve actually had more effect on the world since I retired. What do I do? I smile at people, especially black people and the ones from different countries. I get ‘em looking up at me instead of down or off to the side. I start up conversations in lines and on the bus and with cashiers. People see I’m friendly, no matter what they’ve heard about whites or Jews. If I’m lucky, I get ‘em talking to each other. Sewing up the rips in the neighborhood.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire Seedfolks LitChart as a printable PDF.
Gonzalo Quotes in Seedfolks
The Seedfolks quotes below are all either spoken by Gonzalo or refer to Gonzalo. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 4: Gonzalo
Quotes
He’d been a farmer, but here he couldn’t work. He couldn’t sit out in the plaza and talk—there aren’t any plazas here, and if you sit out in public some gang driving by might use you for target practice. He couldn’t understand TV. So he wandered around the apartment all day, in and out of rooms, talking to himself, just like a kid in diapers.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Watching him carefully sprinkling [the seeds] into the troughs he’d made, I realized that I didn’t know anything about growing food and that he knew everything. I stared at his busy fingers, then his eyes. They were focused, not faraway or confused. He’d changed from a baby back into a man.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 6: Sam
Quotes
Sometimes I think I’ve actually had more effect on the world since I retired. What do I do? I smile at people, especially black people and the ones from different countries. I get ‘em looking up at me instead of down or off to the side. I start up conversations in lines and on the bus and with cashiers. People see I’m friendly, no matter what they’ve heard about whites or Jews. If I’m lucky, I get ‘em talking to each other. Sewing up the rips in the neighborhood.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
