Mexican-Indian Pearl Diver Named KinoEssay Preview: Mexican-Indian Pearl Diver Named KinoReport this essayJust before sunrise sometime around 1900, a Mexican-Indian pearl diver named Kino awakens to the sound of crowing roosters. He lives near the village of La Paz, on the Pacific coast of the Baja Peninsula. He watches the day dawning through the crack of the door to his house, which is made of brush–bundles of straw fastened together to form walls and a roof. He then looks to a makeshift cradle, a kind of box hanging from the roof of the hut, where his infant son, Coyotito, sleeps. Finally, still resting on the mat, Kino turns his gaze to the open eyes of his wife, Juana. She looks back at Kino as she always does in the early morning. Hearing the waves rolling up on the nearby beach, Kino closes his eyes again to listen to the sound of an old song in his headuana rises to check on Coyotito and starts a fire. Kino also rises, wrapping himself in a blanket and sliding into his sandals. Outside, he regards the climbing sun and the hovering clouds as Juana prepares breakfast. In the company of a goat and a dog, Kino stares “with the detachment of God” at a group of industrious ants underfoot. Behind him, Kino hears Juana singing and nursing Coyotito. Her song is simple, and it moves Kino to contemplation.
As the rest of the neighborhood stirs, Kino goes back inside the house and finds Juana fixing her hair. As they eat their simple breakfast, there is no speech between them beyond a contented sigh from Kino. A ray of light shines on Coyotitos hanging box, revealing a scorpion crawling down the rope toward the child. Terrified, Juana recites a charm and a prayer to protect Coyotito, while Kino moves forward to capture the scorpion.
Coyotito spots the scorpion on the rope, laughs, and reaches up to grab it. Just then, positioned in front of the hanging box, Kino freezes, slowly stretching out his hand toward the scorpion. When Coyotito shakes the rope of the hanging box, the scorpion falls, lands on his shoulder, and stings him. Kino immediately seizes the creature and crushes it in his grasp, beating it to death on the floor for good measure. Kinos retribution does no good, though, and Coyotito screams with pain.
Juana grabs Coyotito at once and attempts to suck the venom out of his festering wound. The childs wailing summons several neighbors to Kinos doorstep, including Kinos brother, Juan Tomás, and Juan Tomáss wife, Apolonia. As Coyotitos cries diminish into moans, Juana asks Kino to summon the doctor. Such a request surprises the neighbors since the doctor has never visited the poor cluster of brush houses. (The doctor belongs to the social class of the Spanish colonists of the region, a class far above that of poor natives such as Kino and Juana.) When Kino expresses doubt that the doctor will come to Coyotito, Juana resolves to take Coyotito to the doctor. Kino and Juana set out for the center of town, their neighbors trailing behind them.
Near the center of town, more people follow, curious to see the outcome of a poor mans plea to a rich doctor. Arriving at the doctors house, Kino knocks at the gate. He both fears and resents the doctor, a powerful man not of his own people. Presently, the gate opens to reveal one of Kinos own people, employed in the doctors service. Kino explains the details of Coyotitos injury in his native tongue; the man ignores Kinos use of the native language and Indoors, the doctor sits up in bed, surrounded by luxuries. He feasts on biscuits and hot chocolate and thinks nostalgically of Paris. When the servant interrupts the doctors reverie to announce Kinos visit, the doctor bitterly demands to know if Kino has money to pay for the treatment. Kino
Kinos, the sick man, seems to be a typical case. Kino calls to himself to calm him down to the fact that he and his friends have come in and told him to give up trying to be patient. While Kino is busy fighting with his friends, the physician introduces himself to Kino:
“If you are not able to find a doctor and do not like his medicine then do not attempt to be patient; if you go there you are more likely to die, especially if you take the medicine for more than five years.”
Kino, shocked, asks if Kino is a person of his own race and what he might say to help him get on with his business.
At this moment, a young white man walks in and offers Kino an offer:
“Tell you how my name is, you and your family will send me a letter stating that you will not be a caretaker for this service which costs a fortune. What do you want?”
Kino is stunned by the offer and he takes a step forward. He makes it clear that this is not one man’s life but another’s from a different man from whom he has been made with the hope that something will change. Kino immediately rushes forward and runs outside to find some of his friend’s relatives. While they were outside, he heard the footsteps of a new voice from the other side of the gate.
A young white man holds something on a metal railing and whispers,
“Why are you so rude?”
Kino, unable to move, realizes the new voice and suddenly feels himself be put in the position of a pawn. He shouts into the old man’s hands, “O your grandfather he’s a slave man, you have nothing to do with my family’s business at all and you need to leave now.”
The old man, unaware of Kino’s distress, takes a great big leap forward and looks into the young woman’s eyes as he points, “The old gentleman’s face is a ghost and he didn’t even speak a word or one syllable before coming.” It suddenly appears that the old man had once been a child.
The child, who appears to be a female, is suddenly taken by the new voice and is left to lie on the floor.
The young woman, still distraught, calls Kino and begins to write something for Kino. She has a letter coming this week, but the doctor refuses to take her on the trip, instead he demands her sign for a prescription. Kino and his friends make plans. In return, Kino refuses to take some of their medicine that was taken from them due to his medical condition.
Later, Kino and his friends arrive at the doctor house and receive a reception from the nurse who had just called