Prose Selection 3: Like Mexicans by Gary Soto

The passage juxtaposes the generational differences between the writer and his grandmother in relation to marriage and outsiders in general. The grandmother’s attitude evolves from her experience as a member of a minority group. Possibly the victim of past racism and marginalization by the dominant culture, the grandmother feels safe in the world of her ethnic identity. This raises the issue also of remaining within one’s class and is counterpoint to the American dream of moving up the socioeconomic ladder. The grandson, however, has moved beyond the realm of family through the process of assimilation. He forms friendships outside of his ethnic group and falls in love with a Japanese girl. The writer has moved beyond the resistance and fear implicit in the grandmother’s attitude. He sees people as individuals rather than as part of an ethnic group, and is able to embrace differences in character and heritage. Through intermarriage, he will move from the world of extended families into the more individualistic and nuclear existence of the dominant culture. [YH 2001]

Prose Selection 3

"Like Mexicans" written by Gary Soto in the voice of the Mexican-American immigrant experience that falls in between the minority and immigrant status. His grandmother believes everyone who isn’t Mexican is not worthy to marry for her grandson. She is not willing to assimilate Americanism but cannot stop the co-mingling of races that naturally takes place when her grandson falls in love with a Japanese girl. He realizes when he visits her parents that they are alike in they are of the economic background, poor. This gives them a shared immigrant experience pursuing the American dream to become better that the parent to pursue an education and be anything you want. The Japanese people have also straddled the minority/immigrant experience. During WWII they were interned incase of spying against the American government even though some of them had been here for generations and their sons were fighting for the American side during the war. They went from immigrant status to minority and back to immigrant. In the story they share food that is American and then eat sushi a more Japanese traditional food that highlights the combining of the American culture and the Traditional culture of their backgrounds. [Anonymous Blue 2001]

The "Old World" views of the first and second generation begin to be scrutinized by the "New World" third generation. The influences of the narrator’s traditional Mexican American family seem to lose impact as the boy matures and assimilates to the American culture. < The beginning of the passage illustrates the respect the boy has for the grandmother (part of the extended family that lives with the boy). As a child he listens very closely to her traditional Old World advice: marry someone within your own ethnicity and your own class. As the boy matures and spends less time with the family, he assimilates deeper into the American culture. Eventually, generation tension comes into play. In this case, the man of twenty is still respectful of his grandmother but chooses to marry a Japanese lady. In the Old Country, this would not have been an option, but in US it is acceptable. The man has assimilated to the US and accepts this too, as a revolution sets in. It does not seem to have been an easy decision, because he put a lot of thought into his grandmother’s advice.

This seems to illustrate a pattern of the immigrants. Children of immigrants lose the "Old World" beliefs and values as time goes on. I wonder what the Japanese-Mexican baby is going to do? [JL 2001]

The freedom to choose, to decide whom to marry, is meritocracy, a world based on our own merit. Inter-marriage is real assimilation because those ethnic difference disappear. [HM 2001]