A Story a Day #14: Gregorio Lopez y Fuentes

February 19th, 2020

"A Letter to God"

Gregorio Lopez y Fuentes

In this story, a huge hailstorm comes and wipes out this farmer's crops. He is desperate and worried that his family will starve so he writes a letter to God asking for a hundred pesos. The men at the post office receive this letter and laugh initally, but then are awed by this man's faith and decide to help him. They put in part of their own salary and colect donations but are only able to raise about 70 pesos. They return with an envelope signed from God. As the man counts the money, he writes another letter to God, who couldn't have possibly made a mistake, and calls the postmen crooks for stealing his money.

This was the shortest story I've read during my project so far, only spanning three pages. Because of its short length and general morale, I found that it read a lot like some folktales. The clear misunderstanding made the ending quite funny and gives character to the otherwise flat people in the story. Of course, in such a short space, it is difficult to fully delve into complex characters. This is perhaps what the story does the best: accomplishing a lot in a short amount of time. It gives the reader the information they need to understand what is going on and enough context to give life to the characters. We can clearly see that the farmer is religious family man, although he may be a bit entitled and skeptical. We can also see that the postmen are obviously compassionate towards others. In just a few simple actions, we can understand very well the kind of people they are.