Motorcycle Ride on The Sea of a Tranquility: Most Valuable Part

During the last six months I have been reading the novel "Motorcycle Ride on The Sea of a Tranquility, by Patricia Santana. In this post I would like to share my most valuable part about the book. 

The love between a brother and his sister

           First of all, I would like to share with all of you that this novel has caught me up. When I started reading the first chapters, I never imagined that I would cry and laugh along with the characters. The story of “Motorcycle Ride on the Sea of Tranquility” by Patricia Santana is about the life of the members of The Sahagún’s family and takes place in the City of San Diego during the sixties. Chapter one begins with Chuy’s welcoming party. Chuy is a war veteran and one of the nine children of this traditional Mexican-American family. Chuy has returned from the war in Vietnam, but during the party, his attitude was not what everybody was expecting. Soon, the family would start to realize that something is happening with Chuy, especially his sister Yolanda (Yoli) who is telling the story. Yoli always describe him as “her favorite brother”, therefore she is always the most concerned person about the changes in Chuy’s behavior.

          In every chapter, we can clearly feel the love and admiration that these two siblings have for each other, especially in the chapter fourteen, when Chuy took Yoli in a ride in his Harley Davidson motorcycle. “My god this was the life”, she referred to the experience riding on a huge motorcycle and hugging her brother. Some of the routes they took were The Coronado Bridge and downtown San Diego. After that, Chuy stopped in front of Donna’s house. Donna was his girlfriend from high school and probably his first love. He even gave her and engagement ring because they had plans for the future. Before he left, she promised him at the airport that she will wait upon his return, but that didn’t happen. Yoli and her sisters soon found out that Donna was pregnant and took off with the other guy to another state. That is why Chuy shouted “Donnaaaaaa” with agony outside her house and started to howl. Yoli at first could not believe what was happening. Then he howled again while his tears began to fall down his cheeks. Yoli felt bad for him and started to howl too. Their thoughts and feelings crossed paths that night. This scene was very emotional and that it was obvious that there is a lot of love between the two siblings. Even though Chuy was acting really weird and many people were starting to fear him, Yoli was always by his side, but at the same time, she was worried for her mother. When she returned home, and went to her mom’s bedroom, she was lying in bed in the dark and probably crying. Her mother instead of punish her, she just asked her don’t ever go anywhere alone with Chuy again. Yoli could finally understand that her mother was having an immense grief for her lost and confused child.

          In conclusion, many times our lives are affected by the problems of others, as happened with the most of the characters in this story. Sometimes we don’t know how to help or we cannot do much for them. This scene was important to me because I consider brotherly love as the most pure and authentic feeling that lasts forever.