Mexicanos Can T Cross The Border Analysis

There may be a point in time in which an individual may be faced with the question: “what makes up one’s identify?” Some people may be able to answer this question, while others may not. The novels We The Animals, by Justin Torres, and 187 Reasons Mexicanos Can't Cross the Border, by Juan Felipe Herrera address this question for the individuals who do not know what makes them who they are. There is a linking factor to both novels that allows for the reader to relate to them; this factor is identity. There are some internal and external hardships that both authors/narrators face. Thus, leading Torres and Herrera, as authors and characters to incorporate their conditions of being labeled as outsiders to try to discover and shape who they thought …show more content…
It is traumatic in the sense that it devalues the Mexican identity –who they are. In “Mexican Differences and Mexican Similarities”, Herrera wrote,“[y]ou sit at the table we serve the table. You dance on the floors we mop the floors. You sleep in hotel beds we make hotel beds. You’ve got the law on your side we got history on ours,” (Herrera p. 38-39). Like Torres, Herrera portrays the Mexican identity in a negative way due to the stereotypes he has had to surround himself around. Mexicans are referred to as “the help”, therefore that is all Herrera has ever known. To establish himself as anything than what stereotypes proclaim would make him an outsider. Herrera associated being Mexican with having to wait on others and not having others wait on him or other Mexicans. On the other hand, in “Mexican Differences and Mexican Similarities” Herrera does not like being labeled in such a stereotypical way. He uses the pronouns “we” to show that he sees himself as Mexican struggling with being an American. Yes, he is American, but due to stereotypes he cannot identify with them. This contributes