Gary Soto's Like Mexicans: Personal Experiences

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families with minimal work skills to be forced into
the fields to work with their children alongside in hopes of escaping poverty.
For the most part such families remained poverty stricken due to unfair and
illegal wages and work conditions. However irrelevant this all may sound, facing
similar hardships or obstacles will often create a sense of unity among those
who are affected by such conditions. In short, I feel that not only do Gary Soto
and I share a common ethnic origin, but all that comes with our origin, be it
pride, shame, or ideology.
"Like Mexicans" is a short story in which Gary Soto is constantly being
reminded that he should marry his own kind. His own kind being one of Mexican
descent, and of poverty and refraining from others, especially “Okies” as his
grandmother used to always say. Soto ends up marrying a Japanese woman, not a
Mexican. But he still has to deal with his internal struggle and acceptance of
this choice. One cannot be looked down upon for ...

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my wife, for the first time.
She said that she liked Tanya, but that she didn't think she was really my type.
What then was my type? After marrying Tanya, I began to wonder if she was “
Mexicana” enough for me. After all, she was very liberal, strong and open minded.
I think this is why my mother used to tell me she didn't think Tanya was my type.
My mother reminds me of Gary's grandmother, very submissive, docile, your
stereotypical Mexicana. Tanya didn't like to cook, she was in no way submissive,
and was at times what my mother would term as unlady like.
Gary Soto's grandmother believed that just about everyone was an “Okie”
if they were not Mexicans. Gary's grandmother, ...

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