Butterfly Boy: Memories of a Chicano Mariposa

Rigoberto arrives in Indio, California, where his paternal grandparents live, to join up with his father to make the rest of the trip down to Zacapu, Michoacán, México, where his maternal grandparents live. He will be turning 20 years old during this trip, which makes it “more significant” (10). During the bus trip to Indio, Rigoberto reflects on his difficult relationship with his father and his lover. He reveals that his father has a new wife and children and that his brother, Alex, has warned him that it might be a difficult trip to Zacapu.

Rigoberto arrives at his paternal grandparents’ house in the Fred Young Farm Labor Camp where his grandfather greets him and offers him something to eat. Soon after, his father, brother, and grandmother arrive from picking grapes. They have an awkward reintroduction with no physical contact. Soon after, Rigoberto gets into an argument with his father because a photograph of his parents that he treasured has gotten water damage. His father doesn’t seem to care that the picture is ruined or that it is so important to his son. Rigoberto storms outside and thinks about how when he was a child, he dreamed of getting away from it all. Now that he is a young adult, though, he “know[s] [he] ha[sn’t] ventured very far because [he’s] back. And [he] keep[s] going back” (16).

The sections entitled “Ghost Whisper to My Lover” are addressed to Rigoberto’s unnamed lover. Later, Rigoberto says that “ghost whispers” are what he calls the “game” he and his lover play in which he shares intimate details about his life after sex. In the “Ghost Whisper” of Chapter 3, Rigoberto describes to his lover a dream he had after he fell asleep as a child while watching his father perform in his rock band, Dinastía. Rigoberto was five years old and he fell asleep under a table near the stage while his father played. In the dream, Rigoberto was naked and he went up on stage, where the crowd demanded to hear him speak. He felt scared and vulnerable and wet himself. When he woke up, he found that he really had wet his pants. Rigoberto tried to get his father’s attention, but his father was entirely focused on the crowd.

Rigoberto and his father are at the Mexicali bus station in Baja California in northern Mexico, near the US–Mexico border. They are going to get a bus to Zacapu in Michoacán, much further south. Rigoberto and his father argue over what kind of bus tickets to get. Rigoberto wants to take a first-class bus because it won’t make as many stops and the bus itself won’t be as likely to break down. His father says that he can’t afford first-class tickets, so Rigoberto lends him the money. Despite this, Rigoberto’s father buys second-class tickets and asks to “borrow” the difference (20). Rigoberto decides not to argue this time, because lending his father money gives him some leverage over his father’s behavior.

They board the run-down bus that will take them to Zacapu. Rigoberto estimates that the trip will take three or four days. Even though he has some misgivings, Rigoberto feels some excitement at leaving. The only entertainment that he will have during the trip is conversation with his father, and it goes poorly almost immediately. His father asks him if he remembers his mother, which Rigoberto finds a ridiculous question—of course he does. While his father talks to the other passengers, Rigoberto reflects on his mother and her relationship with his father.

Rigoberto describes how his father tried to teach his mother how to drive, because his mother wanted to learn as a sign of her independence. However, his father berated his mother every time she made a mistake and made her cry. But, “like the good suffering wife, she forgave him” (25). His mother made an effort to learn English after work, even though she could barely read or write, like many of his family members. She dictated her letters to her mother to Rigoberto, since she had dropped out of school in the third grade to support her family and writing was a painstaking process for her.

Rigoberto falls asleep on the bus as it drives through small, poor towns. Later, while driving along the Pacific Ocean in Sinaloa, his father makes an effort to talk to Rigoberto about his studies, even though he doesn’t really understand them. Then, he tells Rigoberto a tall tale about the time that he slept through a bus being held up. When Rigoberto fails to appreciate the story, his father stops trying and passes the time chatting with the other passengers, with whom he is very popular. During a stop, Rigoberto watches a man help his ailing mother go to the restroom. A little while later, the bus breaks down on the side of the road and they have to wait for another bus to continue the journey.

On the second bus, Rigoberto’s father starts drinking and then falls asleep. Rigoberto curls up against him and reflects on his relationship with his lover; he wishes that he could tell his father about it. He describes his lover as “a man twenty years [his] senior” who always wanted to hear his stories (37). Rigoberto’s father wakes up and they ask each other to tell a story.

Rigoberto talks about his father’s obsession with UFOs, or OVNIs in Spanish. Rigoberto’s father told him how one of his fantasies is to be abducted by a UFO. When Rigoberto asked why, his father said, “just to know” (39). Rigoberto says that even after all these years, he suspects that his father still looks for UFOs as an escape from “the turmoil of worries and responsibilities” (39).