The Pura Principle

I actually found this short story, I guess you can call it, to be really interesting.  It kept my interest the whole way through and I think it's because of the casual language Diaz uses throughout.  The story was not dense and it was very easy to read.  I also took a lot of Spanish in high school so I was able to understand some of the references.  Like, I laughed when the mom called Rafa's "girlfriend" Pura Mierda.
Obviously, this story addresses illness because Rafa has cancer and is dying from it.  He is very sick and lost a lot of weight due to cancer.  But, Rafa is not exactly the most honest, good-intentioned person.  I personally do not like him too much, and although he has cancer, the speaker almost makes it difficult to feel bad for him. Today, people usually look at people who are sick differently or feel extremely bad for them and how they have to deal with the illness.  But, it's really the opposite in this story, which i find interesting.  I think Diaz wanted to bring up the fact that people who are ill have personalities outside their disease, and sometimes illness doesn't change them.  Rafa did not become a "better" person after he was diagnosed with cancer.  A lot of time society believe that those who are dying become better people and live every moment as if it's their last (because it very well could be) but that is not necessarily true.  The fact that it was a short story definitely kept me more interested because I feel like if it was in "article" or "research paper" form, it would have been boring.