And Now For Something Completely Different - A Heartwarming Story About Refugees
In For Better or For Worse, Lynn Johnston has suddenly decided to do character development on Luis Guzmán by making him a Mexican refugee. I think the refugee must have a special place in Lynn's heart. Duncan Anderson has long had the sweet hint of a Bajan accent, and Eva Abuya's last name is pretty clearly derived from the Abuja, the city in Nigeria. Aside from Gerald, April is then set up to be a girl whose associates in school are (1) one white, male boyfriend, (2) 3 families from foreign countries, (3) one special needs girl. Now I suddenly realize that Becky McGuire was not rejected for being a self-centered brat who had no consideration for April or April's band, but Becky was rejected because she does not come from a refugee family. It kind of puts a different perspective on things.
posted by howard at 11:13 PM
5 Comments:
It is not clear at all that Eva Abuya's name has anything to do with Nigeria. The only weak hint is that her last name is close to the name of a city.
My guess is that she is an enthic supporting character of undetermined ethnicity.
anonymous,
You are right, of course. But I have a lot more fun thinking of her as Nigerian. There is also an Abuya, Mexico; but Nigerian seems more likely. I did a white pages telephone directory check and found 18 instances of someone with the last name Abuya in the United States, but 0 instances in Canada.
Luis couldn't be a Mexican refugee. (Canada and the US and Mexico are all in NAFTA, so that Canada is even ignoring the increasing problems with Canadian tourists being murdered and mugged in Mexico.)
During the 1980s and 1990s, there was a relatively small influx of refugees from Central American countries like El Salvador and Guatemala, who, for political reasons that I really don't want to get into, didn't want to take their chances in the US and passed through the US to the Canadian border. Those who thought they had a choice would have stayed in the US, as you don't hear a lot of Spanish spoken in Canada. If Luis were one of those refugees, he'd probably be working night and day to help his family get established, not living the life of a middle-class teenager. The Spanish-speaking population in Milborough is disproportiately large, which either reflects Lynn's own interests or her desire to make the strip more American-friendly.
What we do have in Toronto are huge communities of refugees from various countries in Africa, the Middle East, and south Asia. According to today's Toronto Star, there are 500,000 south Asian immigrants in Toronto, the majority of whom are probably refugees and their children. For some reason, they are invisible in FBOFW. (I don't count Eva as a child of a refugee, as her father appears to be an economic immigrant from a British commonwealth country.)
Has there ever been a Chinese character in FBOFW? The Chinese community in Toronto is very large and very well-established.
BTW, I'm not the same poster as your first Anon.
anonymous 2,
According to this article , there can be refugees from Mexico. However, if Luis was trying to indicate his situation was bad, then he could be from El Salvador and Guatemala, and then he is just wearing a shirt with Mexican slang on it. I don't know that much about El Salvador and Guatemala, as far as language goes. I work with a few people from Puerto Rico, who are quite adamant that all Spanish-speaking people should not be lumped together, and would never use Mexican slang (or wear it). My guess is that Luis is from Mexico, and he has some kind of refugee story, but if it is realistic, it is not up to the levels of suffering of someone from El Salvador and Guatemala. This would make sense considering Luis does appear to be middle class.
As for Chinese characters, I don't know. The veterinarian who worked on April's rabbit, Mr. B, back in 2002 might have been, but it is difficult to tell, just based on appearance.
Eva's story is completely unknown. April's January monthly letters on the website said that Eva had a very large house, so economic immigrant from a British commonwealth country is definitely possible.
Your source may support my position. 3500 refugee claimants from any particular country is low, and 665 successful claimaints -- which would include family members of successful applicants -- is exceedingly low for a refugee-producing country.
I did forget to mention Colombia, which is a significant source of applicants now.
Why is Luis a Mexican refugee? Did I miss something somewhere in the strip or the monthlies or the bios (entirely possible, as my interest level is very low), or does it have to do with Luis's t-shirt? I've been told by a Spanish speaker that the t-shirt had Mexican slang, but if that's the only evidence, I don't put much weight on it. We all know how much the writer loves her yearly trips to Mexico.
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