De la Peña, M. (2008). Mexican
whiteboy. New York: Delacorte Press.
The struggle of a boy, a Mexican Whiteboy is outlined in this novel where Danny Lopez lives in San Diego with his father. His father is Mexican and his mother is white. Being that his father is away and he lives with his white complected and blue eyed mother, Danny, who is a shade darker than the rest of the white kids in his school. As a "Mexican Whiteboy," who doesn't speak Spanish Danny undergoes a sort of identity crisis. One summer Danny goes to Mexico to visit his father's family. If being a non-Spanish speaking Mexican living in San Diego made him feel like an outsider, imagine the feeling of being a non-Spanish speaking Mexican visiting relatives in Mexico made him feel. His arrival was a bit bumpy since immediately he gets beat up by a kid named Uno, who ironically enough ends up becoming his friend. The summer he spends in Mexico sparks a greater love for baseball and brings him closer to finding his identity.
This somehow made me think of my children because their mother is Mexican and their father is white. Although my kids live with both parents and speak both English and Spanish, I have had my ten year old son ask me that if he were to be interested in joining the Mexican Military, would he be able to? The answer to that is that if by the time he reaches 18 and he wants to do that, he can because both my boys have dual citizenship. When we visit Mexico both my boys are aware that we are visiting my country of birth and ask me a million and one questions about how it was living there while growing up. It makes me happy to see how my kids feel like they belong in both countries.
The struggle of a boy, a Mexican Whiteboy is outlined in this novel where Danny Lopez lives in San Diego with his father. His father is Mexican and his mother is white. Being that his father is away and he lives with his white complected and blue eyed mother, Danny, who is a shade darker than the rest of the white kids in his school. As a "Mexican Whiteboy," who doesn't speak Spanish Danny undergoes a sort of identity crisis. One summer Danny goes to Mexico to visit his father's family. If being a non-Spanish speaking Mexican living in San Diego made him feel like an outsider, imagine the feeling of being a non-Spanish speaking Mexican visiting relatives in Mexico made him feel. His arrival was a bit bumpy since immediately he gets beat up by a kid named Uno, who ironically enough ends up becoming his friend. The summer he spends in Mexico sparks a greater love for baseball and brings him closer to finding his identity.
This somehow made me think of my children because their mother is Mexican and their father is white. Although my kids live with both parents and speak both English and Spanish, I have had my ten year old son ask me that if he were to be interested in joining the Mexican Military, would he be able to? The answer to that is that if by the time he reaches 18 and he wants to do that, he can because both my boys have dual citizenship. When we visit Mexico both my boys are aware that we are visiting my country of birth and ask me a million and one questions about how it was living there while growing up. It makes me happy to see how my kids feel like they belong in both countries.
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