Victor Villaseñor's Burro Genius

After, these deaths he became a very wealthy orphan. When he turned fourteen he, just like his father joined the Royal Army. At the age of sixteen he married a relative to the British king, who was only fourteen at the time. This made his social status go up even farther

In the midst of all the turmoil and cynicism in the current media, one can find that there is some good beneath it all, like a flower that blossomed from a sea of concrete. Victor Villaseñor acknowledges the fact that there is always a light at the end of the tunnel when he reflected upon his keynote address, where he criticized on English teachers, bashed, smacked, and tortured, their students. Based on the novel, Burro Genius, by Victor Villaseñor, the story displays Villaseñor’s education and his struggles with abusive teachers. In an excerpt from his book, Villaseñor affects the reader emotionally through the use of stylistic devices and imagery to depict the intensity of afterthoughts of his keynote address. Villaseñor uses these rhetorical

In the beginning he was struggling because his books were unsuccessful,

He also was born extremely premature and he turned to religion (Christianity) to lead him through his difficult times. His health improved

He eventually found a new group to travel with. While walking in the desert with his new group, he was looked down on since he was the smallest and youngest, but he didn’t let what they said make him not persevere.

He didn't know how to read or write since he ran away at an early age from school

Within each book, it questions the message of “culture and gender” (Louelí, “An Interpretive Assessment of Chicano Literature and Criticism”). Clearly, positive figures influenced how the Chicano community acted then and now. Rudolfo Anaya and other Chicano writers

Throughout “The Mexican in Fact, Fiction, and Folkore” examines the term “Mexican” as it is applied in Southwest literature and argues the Anglo society has made a conscious effort to misrepresent Mexicans (Rios 60). He states the people of Mexican descent are viewed as un-American because they are perceived as filthy, lazy, and dumb. Ricatelli adds to the conversation of Mexican stereotypes by examining the literary expressions of Chicanas and Mexicanas in the literature of both the United States and Mexico. In “The Sexual Stereotypes of The Chicana in Literature” Ricatelli explains how in Yankee literature, the Chicana is referred to as the “fat breeder, who is a baby factory” meanwhile the Mexican is described as an “amoral, lusty hot tamale” (Ricatelli 51). He makes note of these stereotypes in order to highlight the ethnocentric and nativist points of view that dominated Anglo literature.

In addition, being separated from his family at a young age was a great disadvantage to such brilliant individual. As a result,

His home life was described by his parents and his other relatives they described as troubled. His mother stated that he witness a lot of

His family had to worry about starvation, Indians, wildlife,

Douglass belong to a well off family. The woman of the house thought him how to read and write some things. Until her husband found out that she was teaching him, then she suddenly stopped and was angry at Douglass, when he was reading. They felt like he would listen to the Irishman when he said “They both advised me to run away to the north; that I should find friends there, and that I should be free.” After losing his only source of teaching he resorted to the lest fortunate white kids for help.

"Never Marry a Mexican" by Sandra Cisneros is the story of Clemencia the daughter of a Mexican immigrant. The story demonstrates the culture surrounding Mexican family values, and the hold that still has on Hispanic families living in America. It embraces a stereotypical idea of a traditional Mexican family where the dad works, and the mom stays home and raises a houseful of children. It is the false image that in the Mexican culture a woman having a family is the only thing that counts. While it is based on those core values it is seen from the one person point of view of Clemencia and how those values mold her life.

Both readings claim that Hispanics are here to stay, but with opposing views on how this affects society. One place where Hispanic presence is on the rise is in schools. However, some Hispanic students know more Spanish than English, and therefore struggle in school. This idea of exemplifies the stereotype that Hispanics are “dumb”.

Octavio Paz, a Mexican poet and essayist, is one of the many philosophers with a written piece regarding his understanding of Lo Mexicano. Paz’s “Sons of La Malinche” was first published in the Labyrinth of Solitude in 1950 and is a rather grim interpretation of the Mexican character, however, it captures the crisis of identity that Mexico was burdened with after the conquest. Paz uses the Spanish term “chingar,” (when literally translated means “to screw, to violate”) and its associated phrases to understand the conquest and the effect