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Sixto Andrade, the young poet in "Spanish Roulette," is fighting the dichotomy between his Latino and western upbringing. His little sister suffered rape; the women call it "the damage". In his culture she might as well be dead, "she was now untouchable, damaged goods. He, her own brother, was already talking as if she was dead, like she was a memory" (573). His sister's pain is unimaginable and he does not know how to deal with this anguish. Sixto, wrapped up in the damage his sister has suffered, cannot act, for he is impotent and cannot move.
How do you play the game of life you grew up with on the streets, fighting against the education that you have received? The education that "enlightened him to truth and beauty and equality and justice" (573), that made him a different man and a poet. He thinks to himself, "It was if he had been programmed early on for the task now facing him" (571). Sixto contemplates the situation as he holds a gun, turning it repeatedly over in his hands, not actually believing that he is holding it, that he is even considering using it. He explores his upbringing as a Latino within various frames of reference, examining all of the different cultures that made up his heritage, the duality of his life. While talking with his friend Willie, Sixto immediately starts "feeling his street manhood surfacing" saying, "I don't care who the dude is. I'm gonna burn him" (572). Back on the roller coaster playing "Spanish Roulette," he "laughs sarcastically at himself thinking he is probably going to back down" (572). Whatever he determines, his life will alter forever and he would rather perish than make the incorrect decision. .
The poem "America" also speaks to dichotomy, the decision to come to America and continue to live here even though you hate it. It is a closed poem, a metaphor with emotions running raw throughout.
