T. C. Boyle - A digital scrap-book about "The Tortilla Curtain"
Kyra
"She didn't see things the way Delaney did - he was from the East, he didn't understand, he hadn't lived with it all his life" (p. 158).
Although Kyra seems to have the same views she differs a lot from Delaney. From his perspective they have a lot in common - they're both very healthy and aware of the problems in their country. Both of them try to do something against it by joining clubs like Save the Children. They like their domestic arrangement a lot - he stays home and she goes out to earn the money. Of course, there's a character-difference. While Delaney is more laid-back, Kyra is a worker. She loves her job and basically lives for it. Even when she argues with Delaney (Part two, chapter VI) about the wall, all she thinks about is the property value of their house. And this different set of priorities indicates from her first appearances on that her opinions are totally different from Delaney's.
At first all she thinks about is her pets. The reason why she wants the fence is safety for her animals and family. She sees nature and wildlife as the big enemy, not the Mexicans.
Kyra is a fighter. At one point Delaney describes her as "glorious in her outrage, a saint, a crusader" (Part two, chapter I). She's very efficient and successful and she "had no patience with incompetence" (p. 69). She doesn't let anything get in her way - be it a coyote or a Mexican. Opposite to Delaney she doesn't have a problem with focusing her power on the immigration problem and solving it to her benefits. She wanted the wall only because of the coyotes but when the Mexicans start hanging out at a 7-Eleven-store in her listing area she gets the police to "clean up the corner of Shoup and Ventura" (p. 184).
The whole chain of events doesn't change her character as drastically as it does Delaney's. Her mind is set from the beginning. On her listings, her son and her pets.
At one point she reflects on her life and asks herself, if it could be true that she works too much (pp. 74/75) but she shrugs it off. She can't change herself anymore. Obviously, she's not as content with their life as Delaney is because she dreams of the Da Ros' place.
It's more than a house she tries to sell, she seems to use it as a sanctuary, a hide-away place. That's why she's so personally offended when she finds the two Mexicans on "her property" and later on the writing "Pinche Puta". She says that "they have it in for her" (p. 316). She won't let them get away with it and she doesn't have the humanistic conscience Delaney has in the first place.
She doesn't get disturbed or confused about the incidents with the Mexicans (although the baseball-cap guy and his friend do scare her) - it's just a problem that she solves.
But when the Da Ros' place burns down in the fire she's out of it. In the end she finds a new house she falls in love with (p. 337).
Overall Kyra isn't as much affected by the accident(al) meeting and its following story as Delaney - it doesn't change her personality as much.
She doesn't have to struggle with herself - she knows what she's fighting for. She says, "...as if we don't have any rights...." (p. 316). She knows that she has rights...
by Silke
