Analysis Of Y No Se Lo Tragó La Tierra '

Tomás Rivera’s bildungsroman novel ‘y no se lo tragó la tierra’ - translated into English as ‘…and the Earth did not devour him’ is a seminal piece of literature within the Chicano literary movement, as it portrayed a realism not seen within the genre ever before. The semi-autobiographical novel was published in 1971, and the influential text deals with a broad spectrum of aspects as it depicts life growing up within the Mexican American migrant community, with the text itself commentating on the notion of the term ‘identity’ and its various manifestations. The extract ‘Debajo de la casa’- translated into English as ‘Under the House,’ which is the final chapter of the novel, gives us insight into the unnamed Chicano protagonist’s …show more content…
‘Look, I don’t mind playing with you but some old ladies told mama that Mexicans steal and now mama says not to bring you home anymore.’ (Rivera: 149) The child also mentions hardships his fellow Chicanos have faced at the hands of Americans – the first paragraph states ‘the teacher would spank him for sure because he didn’t know the words’ (Rivera:148) In addition, the line ‘I don’t think my Viejo is going to be able to work out in the sun anymore. The boss didn’t say a thing when we told him he had gotten sick from the heat. He just shook his head.’ (Rivera: 149) These quotes serve to represent the collective identity placed upon Mexican Americans, which is not a positive one. They are perceived within society as thieving, yet incongruently simultaneously very religious– ‘the woman would almost always start crying when she entered the church, and then she’d start praying.’ (Rivera: 149) These two opposing ideas reinforce the idea that Mexican Americans were stereotyped (wrongly) into behaving a certain way and is a reason why many, and certainly the protagonist had no clear sense of identity at all. Furthermore, the semantic field of religion within the …show more content…
The house itself serves as a metaphor for escapism, and it is only when the protagonist has removed himself from his community that he can take an outsiders view of events and forge his own opinion, and therefore forge his own individual identity. Socha, K (2009:71) states that 'the fact that the boy must isolate himself from his community to become one with his people... it is only through the distance between himself and the Chicano people, a brilliant technique used by Rivera…it implies not a spatial distance, but a psychological one... He has to watch the migrants from outside, from this position he analyzes the factors oppressing his people.' It cannot be denied that his time under the house has been life changing and this is emphasised when one of the children to discover him hiding out underneath the house refers to him as a ‘man.’ (Rivera: 151) This idea solidifies the suggestion that he has matured and is now ready to be true to himself and who he is. Whether or not that his new outlook is disagreeing with some aspects of his Chicano identity, and therefore going against the essentialist identity placed upon Mexican Americans and in turn becoming a non-essentialist identity is undisclosed, but readers get the premonition that the protagonist disagrees with