Gary Soto : A Mexican American Author

Caminero-Santangelo, Marta. 2007. On Latinidad: U.S. Latino Literature and the Construction of Ethnicity. Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida.

Tomas Rivera was a Chicano author, educator, and poet who was most known for his 1971 novel ..y no se lo tragó la tierra. Until the age of twenty-two, he worked alongside his parents as migrant workers and his early life inspired him to write this novel. His life ambitions to give Mexican Americans an opportunity for higher education and writing came true by donating to the Chicano Literary movement. Through the fictional book, ...y no se lo tragó la tierra, Tomás Rivera tells the story of Mexican American migrant workers from the 40’s and 50’s. Made up of fourteen short stories and thirteen vignettes, the book contained a story, The Children Couldn’t Wait, that documented a day in the lives of Mexican American children working in the field.

The speaker, a second-generation American, Cesar Chavez was born on March 31, 1927, in Yuma, Arizona. His family lost their farm during the Great Depression, urging them to become migrant workers. With an eighth-grade education, Chavez left school to work in the fields full-time to support his family. Despite his formal education ending, he still possessed an insatiable intellectual curiosity, and when he could, educated himself further. (ChavezFoundation.org)

Gary Soto overcame his obstacle by finally listening to his mother. “Dreading to return to work” Gary Soto went to pick grapes “... giving up and saying that I’d rather wear old clothes than stoop like a Mexican.” Gary Soto quit working in the fields because he

Soto’s writings in “Like Mexicans” manages to focus on a direct audience throughout the passage. The author intends to

First of all, the setting of this novel contributes to the Rivera family’s overall perception of what it means to be an American. To start this off, the author chooses a small American city where groups of Latino immigrants with their own language and traditions, lived together in the same apartment building. All these immigrants experienced similar problems since they moved from their countries. For example, in the novel after every other chapter the author

The speaker addresses the dilemma of being neither Mexican nor American, of traveling the trajectory between both nationalities. Because he its color of the skin and lived in a border culture, it was often assumed that he was not an American. The speaker is a men looking for freedom and a better future, an element so well-known that he is willing to risk everything to achieve his goal. There is no need for Soto to run because he is an American. Soto’s poem is emotionally and a practical clever story that many Mexicans Americans relate too.

During the 1960’s, the Civil Rights Movement wasn’t the only one occurring. Struggling to assimilate into American culture, and suppressed by social injustices convicted by their Anglo counterparts, the Chicano movement was born. In the epic poem “I am Joaquin” written by Rodolfo Gonzales in 1969, we dive into what it means to be a Chicano. Through this poem, we see the struggles of the Chicano people portrayed by the narrator, in an attempt to grasp the American’s attention during the time of these movements. Hoping to shed light on the issues and struggles the Chicano population faced, Gonzales writes this epic in an attempt to strengthen the movement taking place, and to give Chicanos a sense of belonging and solidarity in this now

Stories,” mainly because I personally live in the Los Angeles area and my parents grew up in parts of South Central and East Los Angeles as children. I found this this book would be most relatable to myself, since I am a Latina and my parents who have experiences a tremendous amount of discrimination, poverty, and violence in the past. They have over came these obstacles and were determined to provide my siblings and I with a brighter future. While researching a little more into the subject matter, I found that my initial perceptions on this book were true. Luis Rodriguez wrote this book to give his neighborhood of East Los Angeles a voice, in order to bring awareness to the unfortunate experiences that many, like my parents, have had to go through. My parents have shared many of their personal experiences while growing up in such a tough neighborhood and I was extremely interested in listening to the stories of

Gloria Anzaldúa writes of a Utopic frame of mind, the borderlands created in and lived in by the new mestiza. She describes the preexisting natures of the Anglos, Mexicanos, and Chicanos as seen around the southwest U.S. / Mexican border, indicative of the nations at large. She also probes the borders of language, sexuality, psychology and spirituality. Anzaldúa presents this information in various identifiable ways including the autobiography, historical/informative essay, and poetry. What is unique to Anzaldúa is her ability to weave a ‘perfect’ kind of compromised state of mind that melds together the preexisting cultures while simultaneously formulating a fusion of genres that stretches previously

Pat Mora is an award-winning writer that bases most her poems on tough cultural challenges and life as a Mexican American. She was born in a Spanish speaking home in El Paso, Texas. Mora is proud to be a Hispanic writer and demonstrates how being culturally different in America is not easy. She explains this through her experiences and the experience other’s. In her poems “Elena”, “Sonrisas”, and “Fences”, Mora gives you a glimpse of what life as a Mexican American is; their hardships, trials, strength that make them who they are.

best for him was very stereotypical. She once again reminds me of my mother in

In Hispanic American Literature, Mr. Castro refreshed my memory when he spoke about, October 12, 1492. This was the day the Spanish sailor discovered land leading them to an Italian name Christopher Columbus. His own dream to find a shortcut to the East hoping to find treasure. His plan was to sail west to China calculating his journey from Spain will take him proximally 21 days he underestimates his distance since most people in Europe thought the earth was flat and others assumed it had different shapes but he knew the earth was round. Christopher Columbus traveled all over Europe begging for support as he journeyed beyond the sea where he came across some Catholic Monarchs King Phillipe Ferdinand y Queen Isabella who gave him some money

Contrast is used when Soto compares himself to Eve, a biblical character, when God punished her for stealing an apple from a sacred garden. Also in the first line of the story Soto explains he “knew enough about hell to stop me from stealing”, but later in

Aid in origin of De Soto’s heritage (Peru) was a major priority in his effort towards reaching success.