"Gaucho"-stepmom

This week's short fiction tells the story of an Argentinan male judge's life. Not the main focus of the story but his wife died so he became a widower and didn't want to remarry because he didnt want a woman to take on the burden of being a stepmother to his children. Children rarely like their stepmothers and rarely do the children and stepmom form a strong relationship or special bond but instead grow bitter towards each other. This relationship is not beneficial to either the children nor the woman. A stepmom could never replace a real mom or develop a sense of love and devotion for these children that a real mom does. This concept is extended into a metaphor for the country of Argentina who has had many step mothers none of which have been successful. These stepmothers refer to outside rulers/ foreign governments that do not come from within Argentina and do not understand the country because they are outsiders as a step mother is. This analogy speaks for itself and gets a very political issue across in the simplest way. Love it.