The Explanatory Response

This essay will attempt to explain a quote, ‘If you are so young, how would you know it’s a buick?’ (Viramontes 50). A buick is a General Motor’s brand of the car that is normally sold in the US, Mexico, Taiwan and Canada. This brand of car is widely known to be oldest car model in the world. In the story, the vehicle is employed to illustrate the social connections that existed in the novel. The construction of the freeway is the most important theme in the novel. The car depicted the social status of individuals. From the novel, we understand that the people who possessed the car were envied by people from a lower status. The bucks came into existence in Mexico between the fiscal 1921 and 1960s as a result of the protectionist policy that was placed on behalf of the government. The policy restricted the number of imported car parts in the country that could be employed to build cars. The novel depicts life in Mexico in the 1960s, a period which saw the rise in number of these vehicles. From that period onwards, all products manufactured by general motors were sold through the Chevrolet dealership. This is depicted in the novel, as the girls saw a number of general motor cars like Buicks, ply mouth and Chevy passing them by (Viramontes 51). Furthermore, in this period, General motors had really gained ground in Mexico. Hence, through the quote, we understand the type of vehicles that existed in Mexico during the 1960 period.