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

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...

I don’t know where to begin. On some levels I feel like I can relate to Piri but on others I can’t. I have so many thoughts on the matter and am deeply impressed by his accounts. The last time I had this sort of “gut reaction” in reading a book was when I read the Kite Runner . I have had a sheltered and happy upbringing compared to what is being portrayed in the book, so I can’t fully understand these struggles completely. Having said this, I wanted to put to paper some of the thoughts I have on the main themes of the book.  As a title for this blog post, I refer to Shakespeare's Hamlet. This question "to be or not to be" holds value in all aspects of life, and in the context of this book it ties in with identity, recognition, life, death, nationhood, manhood, and many more.  After reading the first part I went back to the prologue. I think the entirety of it can be tied into that short prologue “I’m here, and I want recognition, whatever that mudde...

When reading on the background and context of the corrido , I was somewhat intrigued by how morality is portrayed . The author gives the background information in the evolution of the corrido, as it was driven from the very action of Border Conflict. We come to know the agency of the Ballad maker. I find interesting how the choices made by these anonymous people shape the story of a hero, but ultimately how they shape the cultural representation of those that lived at the Border. I think this is where we find a “kink” in the corrido. There are several other examples of this ‘twisting/bending’ of morality. Firstly, themes were imported from the Greater Mexico corrido tradition such as love tragedy and filial disobedience, the border ballads then evolved from this to their own “niche” of themes. Other aspects were also imported such as the dark brooding ballad and those that are more sentimental such as Mexican danzas . The kink I think begins when all of this is ...