Institution “Immigrants typically face a number of institutional barriers to acceptance and inclusion in the culture and economy of the nation.” (Roffman, 2003, p. …show more content…
92). The pressures that surround Panchito in this book are intimidating as well as overwhelming when it came to his educational experience. One of the most challenging experiences for this character is his desire to learn English so he knows how to communicate with his teacher as well as other students, for example: “The following morning, before going to work, Mama and I covered my note pad with waxed paper to keep it clean. I then marked the spelling rules I wanted to memorize that day. As I picked grapes, I went over them in my mind, looking at my notes only when I had to. This made the time go by faster. (Jimenez, 1997, p. 108). In this story, Panchito makes it a priority to establish literacy skills to help him improve his performance in the classroom. During this time, Panchito experiences racism from the other students. They make fun of him because instead of eating cereal for breakfast, he has (bean burritos with onions) so the other students tease him and tell him that he smells bad. It is almost like the students are demonstrating signs of “xenophobia,” which can be produced from a fear of unknown races and cultures. As time passes, Panchito talks about how he had a hard time reading when he entered the sixth grade. This feeling must have been nerve racking for him in class. However, Panchito overcame this feeling by taking the time to learn new words from his textbook during lunch. “During recess I went into the restroom and opened my English book to page 125. I began to read in a low voice, pretending I was in class. There were many words I did not know. I closed the book and headed back to class” (Jimenez, 1997, pg. 72). At this point in the story, Panchito decided that if he wanted to be successful, he had to conform to the standards that were required of him at school. He could not rely on his parents for support because they did not speak English and they were illiterate themselves because they never finished school. As a result of this, Panchito decides to take control of his own situation and pushes himself to