Ryan Cofield
Mrs. Brown
Adv. Literature
December 14, 2016
Gary Soto
Gary Soto is a mexican-american “chicano” author and poet born in a Catholic Family from Fresno, California, in 1956. He attended Fresno State and California State University before becoming especially renowned for his poetry and writing. “In 1999, he received the Literature Award from the Hispanic Heritage Foundation, the Author-Illustrator Civil Rights Award from the National Education Association, and the PEN Center West Book Award for Petty Crimes”(Boyle). Soto writes more about racial and social differences as opposed to religious differences. “he is attracted to and obsessed by the issues of race and poverty that dominated his early life and the importance of memory …show more content…
“At a young age, he worked in the fields of the San Joaquin Valley”(Boyle). He prefered working in the fields instead of going to school as a kid. “ He was not academically motivated as a child”(Boyle). His dad and grandfather both worked jobs at Sun-Maid Raisins, “his father and grandfather worked in blue-collar jobs at Sun-Maid Raisin”(Boyle) and his mom even peeled potatoes “his mother peeled potatoes at Reddi-Spud”(Boyle) but his dad sadly had a timely death, dying early in a work related accident. “Because of the family’s poverty, exacerbated by the father’s early death in a work-related accident...”(Boyle). Sotos family was a premierly working-class mexican family, this meaning that they work for your family, of course.”Gary Soto was born in Fresno, California, in April, 1952, to working-class Mexican-American parents”(Boyle). So after his dad’s death, he too went to the fields. “Soto was forced to earn money as an agricultural laborer in the San Joaquin Valley and at a tire-retread factory in …show more content…
Adel and Jesse both admire his works as he’s mentioned many times. The first time being “Mexican jobs weren’t good jobs, though Cesar Chavez and others were trying to change this by marching up and down the valley”(Soto 9). Soto’s admiration for Cesar shows even through his novels. Jesse then tells us that he and Jesse both march, this reason obviously being that they’re low-paid mexican field workers. “We would march, too, and we would listen up when our teachers talked”(Soto 9). Jesse does have a ‘coming to god’ thought when he realizes his job just isn’t good “This isn't a good job. Not good enough to keep me from getting my hands dirty”(Soto 13). Jesse tells us he feels he may have to steal in order to really survive due to his arduous job. On this same page, we have a connection to Gary Soto’s younger life, when he worked in the fields, “I bit the curl from the end of my carrot and remembered when I was fourteen. I worked then as a gardener for a woman on Washington Street”(Soto 13). Jesse also recalls when he went to a lecture and a lady started talking asperiosous about mexicans. “A lady with a goiter said that mexicans were pretty trustworthy, especially with orders, if you talk to them really slowly, a mexican
Mrs. Brown
Adv. Literature
December 14, 2016
Gary Soto
Gary Soto is a mexican-american “chicano” author and poet born in a Catholic Family from Fresno, California, in 1956. He attended Fresno State and California State University before becoming especially renowned for his poetry and writing. “In 1999, he received the Literature Award from the Hispanic Heritage Foundation, the Author-Illustrator Civil Rights Award from the National Education Association, and the PEN Center West Book Award for Petty Crimes”(Boyle). Soto writes more about racial and social differences as opposed to religious differences. “he is attracted to and obsessed by the issues of race and poverty that dominated his early life and the importance of memory …show more content…
“At a young age, he worked in the fields of the San Joaquin Valley”(Boyle). He prefered working in the fields instead of going to school as a kid. “ He was not academically motivated as a child”(Boyle). His dad and grandfather both worked jobs at Sun-Maid Raisins, “his father and grandfather worked in blue-collar jobs at Sun-Maid Raisin”(Boyle) and his mom even peeled potatoes “his mother peeled potatoes at Reddi-Spud”(Boyle) but his dad sadly had a timely death, dying early in a work related accident. “Because of the family’s poverty, exacerbated by the father’s early death in a work-related accident...”(Boyle). Sotos family was a premierly working-class mexican family, this meaning that they work for your family, of course.”Gary Soto was born in Fresno, California, in April, 1952, to working-class Mexican-American parents”(Boyle). So after his dad’s death, he too went to the fields. “Soto was forced to earn money as an agricultural laborer in the San Joaquin Valley and at a tire-retread factory in …show more content…
Adel and Jesse both admire his works as he’s mentioned many times. The first time being “Mexican jobs weren’t good jobs, though Cesar Chavez and others were trying to change this by marching up and down the valley”(Soto 9). Soto’s admiration for Cesar shows even through his novels. Jesse then tells us that he and Jesse both march, this reason obviously being that they’re low-paid mexican field workers. “We would march, too, and we would listen up when our teachers talked”(Soto 9). Jesse does have a ‘coming to god’ thought when he realizes his job just isn’t good “This isn't a good job. Not good enough to keep me from getting my hands dirty”(Soto 13). Jesse tells us he feels he may have to steal in order to really survive due to his arduous job. On this same page, we have a connection to Gary Soto’s younger life, when he worked in the fields, “I bit the curl from the end of my carrot and remembered when I was fourteen. I worked then as a gardener for a woman on Washington Street”(Soto 13). Jesse also recalls when he went to a lecture and a lady started talking asperiosous about mexicans. “A lady with a goiter said that mexicans were pretty trustworthy, especially with orders, if you talk to them really slowly, a mexican