What Do I Read Next?
Victor Martinez’s Parrot in the Oven: Mi Vida received the 1996 National Book Award for Young People’s Fiction. With compelling prose, the novel narrates the journey of Manuel Hernandez, a Mexican-American teenager living in a California housing project, as he navigates the challenges of a tumultuous family and emerging personal desires.
The House on Mango Street, authored by Sandra Cisneros, comprises brief vignettes about Esperanza, a young girl growing up in a Latino neighborhood in Chicago, who dreams of a different future for herself.
Anaya penned two additional novels that, together with Bless Me, Ultima, form his “New Mexican Trilogy”: Heart of Aztlan (1976) and Tortuga (1979). In Heart of Aztlan, a man endeavors to support his family in an Albuquerque barrio and embarks on a mythical journey to aid his community. Tortuga follows a teenage boy admitted to a hospital for disabled children, where he gains a new perspective on life.
Published in 1970, Jose Antonio Villarreal’s novel Pocho explores the life of a young Mexican-American boy in California during the Depression, who struggles between his parents’ traditional values and the new ideas of their adopted country.
Tomas Rivera’s And the Earth Did Not Devour Him is regarded as a Chicano literary classic. The book is structured in a non-linear fashion, weaving together layers of anecdotes, stories, and dialogues to depict the life of a South Texas migrant worker community after World War II. It centers on one boy’s quest for identity as he recalls being expelled from an Anglo school, his family’s hardships, and his religious confusion.
Mark Mathabane’s 1998 nonfiction work, Kaffir Boy: The True Story of a Black Youth’s Coming of Age in Apartheid South Africa, chronicles one boy’s battle with racism as he matures in South Africa, ultimately achieving success through perseverance and a strong commitment to education.
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