Documente Academic
Documente Profesional
Documente Cultură
Gabrielle Olivieri
Professor Batty
English 101
10 May 2017
patience, kindness and expresses an extreme amount of gratitude toward others in return for
nothing. Perla Portillo is a great example of what a saint is and should be. Perla is the main
character in the novel Still Water Saints by Alex Espinoza. I recognize her as a saint because she
fills various roles for different members of her community by serving as a teacher, a healer and a
spiritual leader.
Perla lives in a town called Agua Mansa, a town with a large latino population on the
outskirts of Los Angeles. It is home to a botanica, a shop that sells herbs, candles, incense and
other items for spiritual healing purposes. Perla, the owner is well known throughout the
community for providing her clients with the things they need to overcome their problems.
When members of the community have problems of any kind, they go to the botanica to see the
local healer, Perla. There she practices her own special kind of white magic. White magic is
good and is for the sake of helping others unlike black magic which is used for bad purposes and
is considered evil. After a brief chat, she gives each customer a package consisting of teas, herbs
Each section of the book focuses on one character and and how Perla interacts with them
to help them with their problems. We come across many lucky people have the opportunity to
receive help from Perla. Perla treats all different people of all different ages, race and ethnic
backgrounds. She helps an overweight teenager named Rosa by giving her a special tea to help
her loose weight. She comes back often for Perla to check up on her. Even though Rosa stops
drinking the tea for personal reasons, Perla is still always there for Rosa when she needs
someone to talk to and she continues to visit and bond with her until they become very close
friends. Perla also provides medicine for people that she does not know. Perla also provides a
woman Nancy with medicine for her sick father. She even teaches a boy named Rodrigo how to
speak English and tries to guide him down the right path.
The most interesting person she treats is a therapist named Teresa. Teresa isn't just a
therapist, she is Perlas therapist. One day, Nancy came to be botanica looking for tea.
She said I need some tea, its my turn to be the paitent Still Water Saints (40) I think this is
interesting because they are both healers but in different ways. Teresa uses modern medicine
where Perla uses her white magic. In the second section of the book, we found out some
shocking information about Perla. She is a very lonely woman. She never had any children, her
parents passed away and her husband passed away. Perla wanted to have children but her
husband unfortunately could not have any. He did not want to look into second options like
Perla did. This left Perla alone with nothing left except the Botanica and the company of others
coming for help. You can tell that Perla genuinely loved helping others and that was the one
thing that made her happy. Dennis Thompson, HealthDay reporter states that positive activity
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interventions" -- like helping someone with groceries, writing a thank you note or even counting
your blessings -- can serve as an effective, low-cost treatment for depression. This is very similar
to what Perla does. She enjoys helping others at the botanical and treating them with what they
need, but she just doesnt give them herbs and teas, she takes time and gets to know each patient.
and every one of her patients that visit her. They see her as a mother figure or someone look up
to or talk to when they need help, especially Rosa. Everyone in the book just assumed that Perla
was happy with her life but were shocked when they found out how lonely she was. I believe
that Perla is depressed but suffers from smiling depression. Smiling depression is basically a
mask that people wear to hide their sadness. Approximately 10 percent of the United States
population is suffering from depression, which is 10 times more than those suffering from
bipolar disorder (1 percent) and schizophrenia (1 percent). Rita Labeaune argues. So it is very
easy to believe that Perla is suffering from some sort of depression. Perla interacting with people
and helping them out at the Botanica is an example of this. Some signs of smiling depression is
depressed mood (feeling extremely sad, hopeless, discouraged or empty) most of the day, every
day and also Feelings of worthlessness or excessive guilt. This is why Perla goes to Teresa for
therapy. Teresa also goes to Perla for tea so they both serve as patients towards each other.
Along with all of these characteristics, Perla is also a teacher. One day, a boy
mysteriously shows up at her shop in the pouring rain. She tells him to come back the next day
so he did. When he came back, he introduced himself as Rodrigo. Perla was curious to where he
lived and where he came from. She was concerned about the burn marks all over his body and
found out that he was from the slums. He told her that he didt speak english well and the only
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words he knew in English were bad words. He wanted her to teach him how to speak English so
she did.
Out of all of the characters Espinosa mentions in Still Water Saints, I have come to a
conclusion that Perla is the most helpful, caring, selfless individual in the book. All of these
characteristics are what makes her a saint. She may have many problems of her own but will
do anything to help anyone. She interacts with each and every individual and doing this makes
her happy.
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Works Cited
Dattilo, Natalie. "Are You Suffering From." IU Health. IU Health Psycians, 2016. Web. 02 May
2017. This website is titled " Are you Suffering from Smiling depression?
"Depression In the Elderly." WebMD. WebMD, 2009. Web. 02 May 2017. This source is from the
website Web.md".
Espinoza, Alex. "Page 26." Still Water Saints: A Novel. London: Picador, 2013. 26. Print.
Espinoza, Alex. Page 40. Still Water Saints: A Novel. London: Picador, 2013. 40. Print.
Espinoza, Alex. Page 79. Still Water Saints: A Novel. London: Picador, 2013. 79. Print.
Thompson, Dennis. "With Depression, Helping Others May in Turn Help You." Consumer
HealthDay. N.p., 02 Jan. 2012. Web. 23 May 2017.
"UNC Center for Excellence in Community Mental Health." Major Depression - UNC Center for
Excellence in Community Mental Health. University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, 10
Oct. 2012. Web. 02 May 2017.