“A few plots down was Danny’s grave. His small mound was com- pletely covered with toys. Teddy bears and Matchbox cars and cowboys- and-Indians figurines. Little blond angels and superheroes. Dozens of crosses and Jesuses and Virgins and pinwheels that spun in the breeze. I read one of the many handwritten notes his mother—the neighbor to whom I rarely dared to speak—had placed there. Among her promises to her son was this: I will be joining you soon.”
I admittedly had a hard time finishing the chapter I assigned everyone because Angela Garcia’s writing was so beautiful and poignant and emotionally devastating. Perhaps because I have a greater background in studying the field of care/healthcare, I found her descriptions of the clinic and the bureaucratic red tape surrounding it to be very haunting: the idea that the clinic was not credible because its workers were untrained when the company that hired them and funded the clinic refused to provide adequate training; and the idea that patients are “difficult” and “doomed to fail” due to their lack of being ideal or perfect patients.
What I’d really like to focus on and think about going into my presentation tomorrow is this quote from Garcia where she says “we are inescapably shaped by our dependence on other human beings” (203). What does everyone think about the emphasis placed by Angela Garcia on empathy and care of her subjects and study? Does it make The Pastoral Clinic as a work more compelling? How do we think her fieldwork was impacted by her emotional connections?
Interested to hear everyone’s thoughts :-)!