In El Rinche: The Ghost Ranger of the Rio Grande, Christopher Carmona reconstructs how the Texas Rangers brutalized and killed Mexican Tejana/o families in order to assist Anglos in power who desired agricultural development in South Texas. Although this book is a work of fiction, it nonetheless provides an important window into how Mexican Tejanas/os sought to hold on to their lands in the late 1800s and early 1900s.
Assignment: You are required to write an 900 to 1,000 word book essay on El Rinche. For this essay, you should not provide a mere summary of the book. Rather, you are required to provide your critical analysis by answering five reading response essay questions. An effective reading response essay demonstrates that you have a deep understanding of the reading and have substantiated your critical analysis by providing quotes and details from the book. You can only use the book to answer the questions below. Any use of outside sources will result in a zero.
Your essay should be in Times New Roman, 12 point font, double-spaced, and 1” margins. You do not need a cover page. Your first page would have your name, the date, and the title of the assignment at the top left corner.
All quotes should be cited using MLA, or parenthetical references: (Carmona 19).
Essay Structure:
To effectively answer each question below, provide a paragraph that has details from the book as well as two to three quotes from the book that you analyze to support your response to the question. You should not merely provide quotes, but rather, analyze these quotes and tell me how these quotes answer the essay question. In total, you will have five paragraphs. You do not need an introduction nor conclusion.
- What different methods did the Texas Rangers use in order to push Mexican Tejanas/os off their land? ALSO, how did they get the assistance of people who were not Texas Rangers in order to push Mexican Tejanas/os off their land?
- How did the character El Rinche empower Mexican Tejanas/os to resist the Texas Rangers? Also, why did Mexican Tejanas/os create a legend and a corrido (song) about El Rinche?
- Why did a Mexican Tejano, an African American, a Native American, and a Japanese
American come together to resist the Texas Rangers? ALSO, how were African Americans, Native Americans, and Japanese Americans each treated in South Texas by the Anglos in power and the Texas Rangers? You should tell me how each group was treated. - What parts of the book did you like the most, and why?
- If you were a Mexican Tejana/o who owned land in South Texas, would you have resisted the Texas Rangers? If so, explain why. If not, explain why not. You should make sure to include and analyze two to three quotes when answering this question, as you did for the other four questions.
Purpose: This book essay allows you to gain mastery in the student learning outcome of analyzing the effects of historical, social, political, economic, cultural, and global forces on this period of United States history.
Your essay will be evaluated for how well you answer the questions by providing details
from the book for each question, having SHORT analyzed quotes that support your critical
analysis for each question, the length, and grammatical as well as spelling errors. The use
of any outside sources will result in an F. You can only use on the book to answer the five questions.
Sample Solution
