A Letter to God

About the Author

G.L. Fuentes was a Mexican novelist and journalist. As a young man, he fought in the Mexican Revolution. In the post-Revolution period, he began a distinguished career as a journalist becoming general editor of the newspaper in 1948 and serving in that capacity until the 1960s. He wrote a series of short stories for children. His fiction is distinguished by the anonymous nature of the characters.

Central Idea

The story, 'A Letter to God' by G.L Fuentes revolves around the idea of having unquestionable belief in something. The story is set in a Latin American country. Lencho, the farmer, who is the protagonist of the story, writes a letter to God seeking help from the almighty after discovering his entire crop yield destroyed by a devastating hailstorm. Although, his wishes get fulfilled partially, if not completely, he is ungrateful in the end

1.0A Downpour

Lencho was a poor but hardworking farmer. His house was on the top of a hill and that was the only house in the valley. He hoped for a good crop, but his fields needed rain or at least a shower. He waited for the rain and it did come. One day it started drizzling. In the beginning, Lencho felt the falling rain drops as 'new silver coins' falling from the sky. But gradually the rain changed into a hailstorm. The hailstones fell for an hour. It destroyed his crop completely. Lencho's soul was filled with sadness. He thought that they would go hungry the whole year unless they found someone who could help them. Suddenly his heart was filled with hope. He had firm faith in God. Lencho knew how to read and write. The following Sunday, He wrote a letter to God mentioning his destroyed crop and asked him for a hundred pesos to sow his field again. Then he put the letter in an envelope; addressed it to 'God' and went to the post-office. He affixed a stamp on it and dropped it

2.0A Bunch of Crooks

The postman, who took the letter out of the mailbox saw the letter and showed it to the postmaster. Everyone in the post office had a hearty laugh. But immediately the postmaster realised the man's unshakable faith in God. He decided to help the man. He discussed with his colleagues and all of them decided to part with some money for an act of charity. They collected money, put it in an envelope and addressed it to Lencho. This letter contained a single word in the form of a signature: God.

Recall

• Lencho was a farmer and had the field of ripe corn.
• He needed some rains to make his harvest good.
• But the rain turned into hailstones thus destroying his crops of corn.
• He had nothing to eat so he decided to take help from God.
• He wrote a letter to God asking 100 pesos.
• The post office employees made fun of him. But the postmaster decided to help him.
• He collected 70 pesos from his own effort.
• But Lencho was angry to receive only 70 pesos instead of 100 pesos.
• He wrote another letter to God demanding rest of the money.
• He also requested to send the money through another means because he believed that the post office employees were a bunch of crooks.