Growing Up Chicana/O Character Analysis

Overcoming Obstacles
In the book, Growing up Chicana/o, written by various authors, the characters from each story experience many situations where stereotypes that discriminate their race make their lives much more problematic. Even though these children are knocked down, all of them seem to get back up and become stronger, more mature people. Maturity was one of the most important themes of this book. Racial stereotypes create obstacles for Chicana/o children in school or in extra curricular activities. The Chicana/o children in stories like, Eleven, The Scholarship Jacket, and Pocho all deal with stereotypes that hurt or discriminate against them.
In the story, The Scholarship Jacket by Marta Salina, Martha is a hardworking girl who is
This brings up the stereotype that Mexicans are poor and wear old, tattered clothing. This is portrayed when the teacher asks whom the jacket belongs to and Sylvia Salívar says, “I think it belongs to Rachel.”(156). This shows that she thinks the sweater is Rachel’s just because she believes in the stereotype that Mexicans wear old tattered clothing and are probably poor. This is very hard for Rachel to deal with because she is being wrongfully discriminated just because she is Mexican. Rachel expresses how difficult this is for her when she says, “ I move my pencil and books and eraser as far from it as possible. I even move my chair a little to the right. Not mine, not mine, not mine.”(158). This displays how much she hates being thought of as the owner of this sweater. Not only was a classmate discriminating her but her teacher as well. As her teacher saw Rachel trying to get as far away from this sweater as possible, she said, “You put that sweater on right now and no more nonsense.”(158). By her teacher saying this, it displays that she also believes that the sweater belongs to her just because of her ethnicity. This is when Rachel finally breaks down and starts weeping in the middle of class, all because she was discriminated for being Mexican. By the end of this terrible
This creates a substantial problem for Richard because he does not like to fight and is extremely uncomfortable with the whole situation. By the pro boxer assuming the Richard and his family need money, it brings up the stereotype that Mexicans are poor and work meaningless jobs like gardening that don’t pay well. This is displayed when the pro says to Richard, “Mexicans don’t get too much chance to amount to much. You wanna pick prunes the rest of your life?”(168). This shows that the pro thinks that Mexicans can’t amount to anything just because they are Mexicans. The pro then announces to Richard that he is going to talk things over with his father, but then Richard shows his wit when he responds and says, “You don’t know my old man. He’s already been in jail for knifing three guys.” (169). Richard is using the stereotype that Mexicans are associated with knifes to play with the pro because he knows that he is intellectually superior to the pro. I think Richard used this discrimination towards himself and other Mexicans to prove the pro wrong by showing that he was already smarter than him by the age of thirteen. This very much portrayed that he was mature and was not going to let anyone discriminate him, his