Richard Rubio Essay

Being considered the first Chicano novel written, Pocho tells a vulgar coming-of-age story of a first generation Chicano (American born Mexican) boy, Richard Rubio. Richard, like many first generation Chicanos is faced with an integral question: to assimilate to the American culture, or preserve his Mexican heritage? The novel tells a story where Richard experiences cultural assimilation that drastically changes his beliefs, but frequently hints at relapsing to his father’s ways. Ultimately, Richard Rubio comes full circle to essentially relive the life of his father, Juan Rubio. Because of this, Richard falls victim to succumbing to the forces of tradition, culture, and society. Richard exemplifies this through his failure to fulfill his academic
It resonates within Richard’s life from when he was a child until the rest of the story. Not surprisingly, Juan Rubio’s life also had its fair share of violence. Juan fought in multiple wars, killed many men, and is infamous for being a brutal and ruthless war hero. Richard first starts to show signs of following his father’s footsteps when he got in his first fight. Richard has many fights, and usually loses them. At one point, Richard is even offered money to fight. This violence seemed uninteresting Richard, but again he relapses with his relationship with Zelda and the Pachucos. He often wrestled and play fought with Zelda. However it can be speculated that this play fighting is even more deep-rooted, shadowing the actions of his father at home with Consuelo. As with the Pachucos, Richard is very intrigued by a group of soldiers wearing zoot suits, and begins associating himself with them. They perform dubious acts, and encourage Richard to join them in a gang fight. Lastly, the final resonance of violence happens when World War II starts. Richard’s Japanese friend, Thomas, gets beat up and he is being sent to an internment camp. Richard consults his Pachuco friends to defend Thomas by ganging up on the people that beat him