Student's comments on the subject of US Latino/Chicano Literature

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Lost Children Archive: Where to begin?

This book has been my favorite so far. It has been really challenging to read and intriguing, I am spending more time on it than I expected. Each little “chapter”/section gives a lot to think about. I found the section “Routes and Roots” to present themes that we see throughout the book. A lot of them are presented by this woman narrator, of whom I haven’t found the name of, and we basically read an exposition of her thoughts and interpretations. So far I haven’t read any book like this. With His Pistol In His Hand holds some resemblance to this book, in the way it is structures, however it is a dissertation whereas this book seems to be part nonfiction and fiction. The part that I assume is fiction is the backstory of this family, however all of the works that are mentioned in the inventory of the boxes, the places they travel to, the “lost children” are true. Is the backstory of this family, their trip, true as well? The polaroid photos correspond to scenes in the book “The picture

Hope in "The House on Mango Street": Do you need to be selfish to survive?

I think so far this is the book I have thought of the most, not only is my group working on a Wikipedia article that showcases it, but I think it has just left me thinking about its meaning. The more I read it, the more I look at articles about it or analyze its characters, the more contradictions I find. I haven’t made up my mind on whether I like it or not, I think I’ll never really know. While I was reading it, I couldn’t help wonder what message this book is communicating, I am trying to pinpoint it amidst the other books we’ve read this semester. To start off the author dedicates this book “To the Women”. We can see that for most of the characters are women, and most of the stories about the struggles of women. However, it is simply narrating issues women face but not conveying any empathy nor hope. We simply get the idea that Esperanza wants to escape this, we see that she is different from the rest of her community, or she feels different. We notice the same in Piri, how he

Bless Me Ultima: Part II

As I kept reading the story, I kept trying to contextualize this story among the broad group of Chicano literature. On the cover, the author is deemed to be “one of the nation’s foremost Chicano literary artists”. I am trying to understand why this statement was made. This story is very little like those we have read so far and yet it is placed at the heart of Chicano literature. It is really hard to perceive these things as symbols, since through the child’s perspective is made so real. For example, Tony’s dreams, are they truly dreams or visions, or prophecies? Is time linear in the book, how are supposed to take it as readers? Would the conception of ‘magic’ found in this novel be involved in the writing of book itself? I cannot help thinking that that might be one of the reasons why this novel is so well known. This adds on to the power of the story of having a child as it’s protagonist. To further discuss the reasons of why I think this novel is labelled as a canonic piece, I b

Bless Me, Ultima: part I

As I started reading this novel, I was struck by the different mixture of belief systems. Not only in different moral systems but also in terms of choice of lifestyle. In a way, how Antonio follows his “destiny”, which we learn right from the beginning, that Ultima is the only one that truly knows where his future holds “ Only I will know his destiny”. Since his birth Antonio has been torn by the different expectations of his surrounding parental/mentor figures – his destiny traced for him: becoming a priest, becoming a vaquero destined to wander the llano, etc. This for me seems to be an overarching theme of the books we have read so far. To some capacity, we are torn between the concept of a self-made destiny and a predetermined destiny. Down these mean streets presents that conflict which we discussed in class. I am interested in how this can be applied to the general idea of Chicano culture in America. Antonio seems to be torn between different beliefs, moral systems, expectat

Language and Meaning

Each language expresses meaning in a different way. Words are chosen to express thoughts and feelings within specific cultural contexts. I think we can find this in the books we have read so far. This falls under the field of linguistic anthropology, of which I don’t know much of. But the collection of books we have read pinpoint main pillars of meaning in each of the communities they focus on, and how that meaning is conveyed. Down these mean streets puts a lot of emphasis on how race can be changed through language; Squatter and the Don we can denote the power of the accent and how it influences social prejudices; in this novel as well we find that being rich surpasses an accent; and, overall, we notice the trend that all three authors specifically choose not to translate certain words. First, in Down these mean streets we find that being Puerto Rican and a Spanish Speaker classifies Piri as a non-Black man. This is how he is granted access into the brothel, i

Down These Mean Streets Part II: Conversion

There is so much to think about with the second part of this book. It is difficult to analyze knowing that it is an autobiography, for what we are reading is part someone’s life. The author’s Afterword is very interesting, and I believe it has a really different tone than the actual work. I re-read the prologue and it seems as they oppose one another. Where the afterword is provides a hopeful tone, the prologue ends and exhibits with a grim reality. One is different from the other due to the Piri’s “conversion” in the second part of the novel. I found the whole of the second part to be one long search. Piri is in search of his truth, his identity, his place in the world. It took being incarcerated for him to realize where he belonged. Up until his time in jail, his hate for the world, his circumstances just kept growing. We see this in his act of “revenge” with a “white broad” where he uses his Spanish language to get into a house that forbade black people and at