Candido Rincon is introduced in the novel at his lowest point, only when he is sprawled in some roadside bushes after being hit by a car is he recognized as a protagonist. The desperate, pleading tone of the scene mirrors Candido’s bleak situation as though he is hurt, cannot receive medical treatment in fear of being deported, even while his face “looked like a fighter[‘s] on the losing end of a fifteen-round bout,” and his hip “drill[ed] him with pain every time he got to his feet (Boyle24).” He develops as a result of the despondency of the tone and the accident, because in desperate time Candido was forced too place all of his principles aside and let his wife, America “earn his keep (Boyle25).” This is such progressive development because switching gender roles questions his ability to provide for his family, his Mexican heritage (where traditional gender roles are still practiced), and above all his own masculinity.
Boyle’s omniscient point of view allows the reader to inhabit Candido’s subconscious and recognize any characteristic development the moment it takes place. One example of his development as a character are his instinctive reactions in times of disaster, he recalls that in all these situations “there was no time to think, only to react (boyle353).” Finally, at the end of the novel he proves himself once more as he saves Delaney, the white man who caused all his misery in the very beginning, who was caught in the mudslide and thrust his hand “grasping at the tiles, he (Candido) reached down and took hold of it (Boyle355).” This gesture evokes Candido’s forgiveness of the man, signals his change from grumbling, migrant worker to benevolent, courageous Samaritan, and dignifies him as a man rich in morality. Therefore, the language, the words, and the events in the novel propagate the fact that Candido must be studied from a deeper, nonjudgmental perspective, and appreciated for which he is: hard-working, loving, rather than for what he is: illegal, homeless, starving.
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I agree with you that while Candido possesses almost nothing material, he still maintains his morals. However, that is at the beginning of the novel. I felt that as the Rincon's situation became more and more abased, they became less and less like humans than like wild animals that would forgoe their morals if it meant survival. Near the end of the novel, Candido steals. Before that moment of desperation, he swore to his religion that he would never even consider stealing, but he gets to the point where he neither cares for what right or what the consequences of his theft might be. He steals because he must. I think Boyle is stating that morals are relative to the circumstance. Some people can afford to have morals, and some cannot.
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