"Notebooks of a Chile Verde Smuggler"-J.F. Herrera (81-105) QR

"The invisble skull on the desolate hills of every California town opens its jaws of arranged imprisonments and decapitations. But, who listens?" (Herrera, 83)

-This quote is Herrera expressing his thoughts about the communities of California, and the world. The invisible skull is the mass culture that everyone is so imprisoned in and that seems to take everyones independence and along with it their happiness. The way the jaw of the skull opens is to Herrera a stirring in society but do they actually stir or do they just like the idea? No one truly listens to the poets lyrics, they just take novely in the idea of poetry, not the unique meanings of the words and emotions.

"This sounds religious and pious again, a bad Chicano habit." (Herrera, 86)

-The above shows Herrera really identifying with something that makes Chicano's different in his mind, makes his community unique. He doesn't necessarily despise it even though he calls it a "bad habit", he is only trying to express that it's something that defines him, and his relatives, his culture. The way he describes this habit and religious and pious is interesting because the words have very similar meanings so it must be that he is trying to draw attention to this religious factor. He doesn't necessarily embrace it but states it as a fact. Simply something that happens whether you try or not.