This book is about a boy named Ricky, he is a Mexican who lives in Southern Arizona. He only lives with his dad because his mother was killed in a car accident. Ricky and his dad have a bi-plane that they fly to relieve stress and forget about the death of Ricky’s mom.
One day when Ricky and his dad just got done landing, there were some DEA agents waiting for them at their ranch. Ricky’s dad used to work in the DEA and they were back to ask him to help them steal and plane from the Cartel mansion in Mexico. The plane is supposed to have some sort of navigational system that only the DEA are supposed to have. Ricky isn’t supposed to know any of this but he listens secretly in another room. When he is listening he also finds out that his mother was actually murdered by the Cartel instead of a car accident.
When Ricky finds out that his dad doesn’t want to go and steal the plane from the Cartel, it ticks him off and he decides to do it himself. So Ricky secretly runs away one day instead of going to school and goes to Mexico.
One day when Ricky is on his way to a village in Mexico that is near the Cartel mansion, he buys a burrito on the street and some boys see how much money he has. He runs away from them for awhile but ends up being cornered. They beat the living crap out of him and take all his money and his shoes. After Ricky wakes up from the beatings, there is a girl sitting across the alley from him. She tells him where the Cartel mansion is located, and she takes him to a restaurant and they eat food out of garbage cans.
In the ending, Ricky goes in the Mansion’s gate as a taco runner, and steals the plane.
Once saved, the Kansas family tags along with Josey and his gang. They are in seek of refuge on a farm near Blood Butte, Texas. On their way to Blood Butte, Josey and his growing group...
Martinez’s story is not so much one that pieces together the events of the crash, nor the lives of the three youths, but it is an immigrant’s tale, discovered through the crossings of the various Chavez family members and profiles of Cheranos in Mexico.
...g the various reports concerning his father’s suicide, he is drinking, sweating and crying. The full impact of what his father had done to him finally hits him. “What the hell do you mean there were no others involved? I screamed. What were we, chorizo con huevos? No, the sneering voice in my poisoned mind explained, you were chorizo without huevos.” (78 ) Ricky cries out that he was left with his mother and sisters to raise him and he believes he was raised as a weak man. “…and because of your stupid, dramatic abandonment I’ve become a drunken, drug-abusing misfit.” (78 )
The book, “Y no se lo trago la tierra” by Thomas River grasp a point of view of a migrant community, as manifestations of Chicano culture, language, and experience as understood by a first person point of a young male protagonist. The setting of the book takes place of a year during the 1950s and uses a variety of perspectives and voices to follow the boy’s passages into adolescence. As the setting of the book moves from Texas to upper Midwest to the ye...
Junot Diaz is a Dominican-American writer whose collection of short stories Drown tells the story of immigrant families in the urban community of New Jersey. His short story “Fiesta, 1980” focuses on Yunior, an adolescent boy from Dominican Republic and his relationship with his father. On the other hand, Piri Thomas was a great Latino writer from Puerto-Rico whose memoir Down These Mean Streets tells his life story as an adolescent residing in Harlem and the challenges he faces outside in the neighborhood and at home with his father. Both Diaz and Thomas in different ways explore the dynamics of father-son relationships in their work. Furthermore, both expose masculinity as a social construct.
A hit was put out on Taylor and Zavala by leaders of the Mexican drug cartel because they were becoming a nuisance. This hit was carried out by the same Latino gang members who had previously done a drive-by shooting of a rival gang. The officers were enticed towards their imminent deaths with a car chase which was set up by the Latino gang members. This chase led them towards an apartment complex which was rigged with many gang members and artillery to ensure that neither Taylor nor Zavala would survive. The two were ambushed but decided that gunning their way out was their best option. When the officers made it to an alley they were met by another Latino gang member who fired at Taylor and Zavala, hitting Taylor once in the chest before being shot and killed by Zavala. Zavala went to aid Taylor who appeared to be quickly dying and called out for help. Before police back up arrived the original Latino gang members found Zavala in the...
José Antonio Villarreal’s Pocho does a superb job of dealing with both the common coming of age narrative and the tensions faced by Latino Americans. Richard Rubio attempts to remain individualistic throughout his life but struggles with what that means within the confines that his heritage and society structure him into. Characters ebb and flow through his life, each having certain standards, expectations or ideals predetermined about him. Richard attempts to cast off and ignore the pressures they place on him, and instead forage his own path for what his future is to look like. I believe that the conflict between his family’s Mexican heritage and his American home is what forces Richard to actively pursue, and even fight, for his individuality.
Literary magazines were not remotely interested in publishing Gilb’s stories, which focus primarily on the professional and personal struggles of working-class Mexican Americans. But his unapologetic stories about working-class Mexican Americans have made him a voice of his people (Reid130). Gilb’s short stories are set vividly in cites of the desert Southwest and usually feature a Hispanic protagonist who is good-hearted but often irresponsible and is forever one pink slip or automotive breakdown away from disaster (Reid130).
Danny came from a family where his mom is white and his dad is Mexican. He was made fun of at school for being white by the Mexican kids and made fun of for being Mexican by the white kids. He tried out for the baseball team, and they made fun of him for not making it because he was Mexican. He didn’t fit into any group. So that summer he went to stay with his aunt, uncle, and his cousin Sofia, in National City, California. He was in a place where everyone was Mexican. Even though he was Mexican he still didn’t fit in because he was also half white. He didn’t know any Spanish like the rest of his friends and family did in National City. That made him feel left out when they would speak in Spanish. They still accepted him though.
In the novel A Fabricated Mexican, Ricky Coronado goes through various problems as he progresses through life. Like every person in the world Ricky deals with these problems as would any other person; however, Ricky seems to have something haunting him and it influences him and his decisions. These ghosts that haunt Ricky could be seen as the death of his father and the control his mother has over him. Ricky deals with these ghosts as he makes his life decisions while facing many internal struggles.
hunts and runs into in the book. The author puts great detail in how Raptor
Often referred to as the gangster rap of Mexico, Narcocorridos are centered on the drug cartels of Mexico and are frequently used as an outlet for boasting and violence. Emerging in the 1980s and 1990s, the narcocorrido has become a hugely popular style of Mexican music. Although controversial in Mexico, Narcocorrido has gained popularity throughout the US, especially in California. The violence portrayed through this music is often embraced by many Hispanics in the US as a part of the gangster lifestyle. Narcocorridos, although a modern form of popular corridos, developed due to the historical and cultural significance of drugs throughout Mexico. The prevalence of these drugs stoked popular fascination with the varying experiences of narcos and their exploits. There is a drastic difference in the way the narcocorrido is perceived on either side of the US-Mexico border. The American perception stereotypes narcocorridos as entertaining, while across the Mexican border the contents are taken more seriously and are a reflection of real-life events and serious problems throughout Mexico. The contents of narcocorridos are damaging and destructive to its audience; however, due to popular interest, narcocorridos maintains a varying perception in Mexico and America.
Setting: This book starts out in this kids house his name is crash. Then they go to the arcade. That is where they spend most of the story. Then close to the end they go to the riverside.
Two weeks later, Fito and Yurico were found cold and hungry on the tracks in Irapuato. Affected by this they put an end to their journey to the north. They were placed in a shelter by Mexican Immigration to get deported. Out of the four kids, Kevin is only one who makes it to the United States. Detained in Huston, he feels he is trapped, “cornered and locked up.” He only gets to do only so many things, misses his mother and regrets everything that lead to him to coming to the United States. Eventually, Kevin is deported back to Honduras and meets his beloved mother. Even though, his mother is happy to see him, she admits that it would have been better for him if he could have founded a family in United States. His step father also thinks that Kevin is a problem and shouldn’t live with them. Nine months later Kevin and Fito made another attempt to reach the United States. Fito was caught and transferred back to Honduras and Kevin was caught at the United States border, then transferred to a shelter in Washington
The tale is about Clay Carter, a 31 year-old lawyer who lives in D.C. and works as a public defender. Clay takes the job of defending Tequila Watson, a black kid who shot his friend called Pumpkin and can't remember why. Although representing the “little guy” is a worthless case, he takes the case because nobody wanted it, and he needs money.