The Convenience Friends Around Us

Dichos are sayings that have been passed down through generations for they are written in a way that has a particular meaning. They maintain a big part of our hispanic culture; as an inside joke or as a important lesson that only those who grow up in a hispanic culture understand. Growing in a hispanic household one catches on these dichos without even realizing it and puts them into practice in order to make certain decisions or for humor. A dicho that is most often said is, al nopal solo se arriman cuando tiene tunas. This means that they only get near the nopal when it has prickly pears. Most often people tend to only be friends with others only when it is to there convince; they use them for their advantage to gain fame, materialistic objects, or even as an act of greed.

When someone has a certain amount of fame in a way they have power to compel their fans to go buy a certain product or to even go support a certain “friend” of theirs. The fans do what the influencer tells them to do so this is a very powerful tactics that can influence their fans in a way that they do whatever they are told to do by the influencer in order to say in a certain norm or even a trend etc. People tend to take advantage of the person that is basically introducing them to a platform in order for them to grow. After that person has grown and sprouted off into their own thing most often they fade away because the person is not to their convenience any longer.

After the scandal with Jeffree Star and Gabriel Zamora who are both part of the beauty community of youtube Jeffree tweeted, “imagine not apologizing to me personally because your ego is so big #cantrelate”. This tweet was directed towards Gabriel Zamora who is a much more smaller influencer compared to Jeffree Star; he tweeted this our after Gabriel posted a picture of him and a group of friends who used to be close to Jeffree as this picture was captioned, “is bitter because we are doing better without him” and it was a picture with Gabriel and all of his friends throwing up their middle finger. Gabriel Zamora started off as a very small influencer but with the help of Jeffree Star he eventually grew and now has a bigger following count. Recently before this they stopped being friends after Gabriel Zamora had already gotten what he wanted which was more fame and he attained that through Jeffree Star’s friendship and follower count. There is many cases where this occurs not only on the internet but in real life as well. When having a big out group it is important to be aware of who you surround yourself around and it is also very important to know their true intentions. Some people manipulate others into thinking they are helping them and doing them a favor, but in reality they are just doing this in order to gain materialistic things to their own benefit without caring about the person they are supposedly helping. This a very common thing that happens in politics between opposing parties. For my uncle was running for president of a small town called Miquihuana, Tamaulipas. People frequently went to the doorstep of his house asking for cash in exchange for a vote on behalf of his party; most of these people did not comply with their promises. These people did this in order to benefit themselves but during the election they were nowhere to be seen instead they were on the opposing party. Even the people who we consider our right hands can be disguised as people only approaching the nopal when it has prickly pears. My uncle considered his distant cousin names Latcho his right hand, everything he did he consulted with him before doing so. It eventually got to a point where Latcho began getting to comfortable in the position he was in and he began asking for money in very frequent occasions. When he would ask for money he would say that it was for one of his voters that needed his car fixed, that one of his voters was sick and needed money, and even that he needed money in order to purchase more votes for his party. This began to seem like a persistent pattern of asking for money in huge amounts; eventually everyone from his council caught on and began to investigate where all this money was really going.

The truth was very devastating for my uncle for he considered Latcho his right hand and he knew everything that was going on within his party. The whole time Latcho was giving the money to others so that they would vote for the opposing party; not only that but he leaked confidential information that was only discussed in very discreet meetings. Latcho was promised a huge amount of money if he choose to betray my uncle; he took the opposing parties offer without caring about anything else but the materialistic things he was receiving as an award after had taken the prickly pears off the nopal and there were no longer to his own benefit. Some individuals even go to a more extreme act that involves taking the life of another individual in order to acquire what they need or want. An individual does this when they see that an opportunity has opened up, most often it is more an act of resentment towards the individual and perhaps also an act of wanting their belongings. The perpetrator commits a horrendous act solely on what their are going to gain; they do not have any remorse towards the pain and damage that they cause to their victim during the act of violence.

A movie called “Perfect Sisters” was released in 2014, this movie was based on a true story. In the movie there is 2 teenage girls who are struggling with their identity and come from a family with a history of abuse. These 2 girls have felt neglected all their life and always had resentment towards their own mother because she never stopped her previous ex boyfriends from abusing them. Sandra and Beth Anderson plotted the death of their mother through previous meetings where they planned step by step what they were going to do. When Beth’s friend named Justin questioned her motive for killing her mother for insurance money she responded, “No, but even if I was, it wouldn't be just about the money. It would be because our lives aren't gonna get any better with her in them. Come on, I'm just messing with you”. Eventually the day came that Sandra and Beth committed a horrendous crime; they started off by giving her so much alcohol and feeding her tylenols once she was not in a stable state both the girls took their mother to the bathtub and drowned her till she was not living any longer. Once their mother was no longer living they called 911 in tears explaining that they discovered their mother unconscious in order to cover up the horrendous crime they had just committed. The 2 sisters did this because they were pushed to their limit and to collect the money for their mothers insurance policy. What they did had consequences but they were happy in the end because they didn’t have to deal with their mother and her boyfriend. Beth and Sandra did was necessary once they realized they did not need her mother as much as they thought.

It is important to know who are the individuals that we surround ourselves with and to be aware of their true intentions. When one is aware, they are able to eliminate those people from their lives in order to avoid problems in the future. People only confront others when they benefit from it and tend to take advantage of one's kindness. Be careful because the people who you see as friends for they may only be using you for their own advantage, al nopal solo se arriman cuando tiene tunas.