How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
I wasn't like Nardo. I suppose years of not knowing what, besides work, was expected from a Mexican convinced me that I wouldn't pass from this earth without putting in a lot of days. I suppose Nardo figured the same, and wasn't about to waste his time. (1.16)
Manny says there's an assumption that Mexicans will spend tons of time working hard, and that this idea is ingrained into him. Did you notice how this is the main thing he associates with being Mexican at the start of the book? He even tells us that he's spent years thinking that nothing else could be expected from him, which shows us just how powerful racial stereotypes can be. What do you think about how this assumption influences Manny? And why do you think Nardo has a different reaction?
Quote #2
Farther up, under clouds boiling like water on the horizon, a staggering string of men worked two and three rows apiece.
"They're wetbacks," my brother explained; "they pick like their goddamned lives depended on it."
I looked over at the Mexican man working on the rows next to ours and nodded agreement. He handled four rows all by himself, using two cans, and trading handfuls from one can to the other. He'd go up two rows, then down two rows, greeting us on his return with a smile and shy wave. To save time, he placed burlap sacs every twenty feet, and every half hour or so he'd pour a loaded can into the closest. Behind him, three sacks already lay fat and tightly sewn. We eyed him, amazed by his quickness. (1.40-42)
We have a whole new stereotype crop up when Nardo calls the other Mexican workers "wetbacks," which is a derogatory name that implies someone isn't a citizen. It's a pretty cruel word for Nardo to use and has super negative insinuations. Interestingly, Nardo calls the other workers a racial slur while he and Manny are also "amazed" at how fast their neighboring worker is. Hey there, hypocrisy.
Quote #3
The van was green, a dim, starved-for-light green, like the leaves on our row. Its windows were open and the man behind the wheel had his head out scanning the rows. Suddenly people began to stand up, licking the air and stretching as if peering over a high wall. There was fast talking in Spanish and frenzied commotion as suddenly forty or so people all at once jumped up and started running. […]
I still didn't know what was going on. My first thought was to run, but when I saw three more vans and a large labor bus pop out of a narrow road in the cornfield bordering ours, I knew that Immigration had come for the people. (1.48, 49)
For some of the workers in the chili pepper fields, Immigration officers are a big threat. Manny has already told us that he and all the other workers are Mexican, but when some of the workers run away from Immigration and others (like Manny and Nardo) stay put, it's clear that people have pretty different experiences in the U.S. Nardo and Manny don't need to worry about getting carted away without any warning, but this isn't the case for everyone.
Quote #4
The next day, Mom began thinking about the future. She wanted me to go to a better school across town, where all the white kids got educated. So I grabbed the number 42 bus down Chandler Avenue, walked two blocks to the brown, ivy-rusted walls of my high school, and presented a note from my mom to Mrs. Kingsley, the secretary. (3.1)
We don't hear much about the racial makeup of the California town where Manny lives, but this passage gives us some clues. See how Manny points out that "all the white kids" go to a different high school than him? This lets us know that both white people and Mexican people live in his town, but also that they don't necessarily share the same major institutions, like schools. In fact, it sounds like the town is super segregated to us.
Quote #5
My dad had it in for white guys like Mr. Hart, who had good jobs and dressed in white shirts and black ties. It didn't matter that he was my teacher and that he was nice enough to give me a ride home. It didn't matter that, for whatever else one could say about him, Mr. Hart was an okay guy. What mattered to my dad was the possible panic I might cause my mom, or worse, that he'd be beholden to some white man for giving his son a ride home. No matter how many sophisticated ways I could turn it over to convince him, nothing would make sense to my dad. Letting Mr. Hart take me home was the worst acid I could have poured into his stomach. (3.43)
Sheesh, when Manny says that Dad doesn't favor white guys, he means it. When it comes to interacting with another race, Manny's dad doesn't want to feel like he owes anyone anything.
Quote #6
Chico once tried out for the basketball team, but he was too short and couldn't dribble to save his life. When scratched from the roster, he blamed Coach Rogers, the basketball and boxing coach. […] Where Chico got the story, I don't know, but he said the coach once caught a Mexican guy frisking around with his daughter and ever since then he didn't like Mexican guys. (7.35)
It's a bummer if Coach Rogers has a negative stereotype about Mexican people because of one dude, but we're thinking that there's also another guy making some assumptions here, and that's Chico. We may very well have anassumption on top of assumption in this scene. How do you think we can parse out what really happened? Or is it impossible?
Quote #7
The Berets believed that white people were our worst enemy, and if they had one purpose in mind, it was to keep brown people down. We, on the other hand, were descendants of Indians blessed with a color that was as necessary as dirt to the earth, as important as the sun to all the trees. We had treasures buried deep inside our blood, hidden treasures we hardly knew existed. (7.40)
The Berets are a group with some serious pride, and when Manny tells us that they believe their cultural heritage is "important" and that it's like "hidden treasures," things seem pretty cool. But there's a flipside to this coin: For the Berets, believing that they're special also means making other racial groups into enemies. Oops.
Quote #8
What mostly fired us up, though, was Lencho's inspirational talks. He spoke with braids of lightning in his voice, saying stuff he'd learned in the Berets about Mexicans and Chicanos being a special people, how power slept in our fists and we could awaken it with a simple nod of our heroic will. He piled it on about being proud, about how marvelous it was going to be after we pulverized those other guys. (7.48)
When Lencho talked about "Mexicans and Chicanos being a special people," it feels like a nice little moment of cultural pride and recognition… but then Lencho takes that uniqueness in, well, a more violent direction when he starts talking about "our fists" and an ability to "pulverize." Yep, those are some strong associations between race and violence that he's building up there. What do you think about Manny's reaction to these associations? Do you think he views them favorably or as if they're a problem? How so?
Quote #9
In the bleachers, it was a circus. Guys were dancing and girls collapsing over each other. […] But then needling stuff, like arguing and weasely bragging, sparked between some black and brown guys. A few even began to shove each other and spit into arguments. Then the bell to the second round clanged and everybody right away sat down. (7.104)
Talk about being saved by the bell: When the boxing match between Lencho and Boise is underway, things get super heated in the bleachers. And the fighting happens to be between two different racial groups, though it's not clear what everyone is arguing about. At least it doesn't last too long, though. Phew.
Quote #10
"These people," the lady said, sitting down beside my mom. "I can't stand them, either. It's like they care more about the gavachos than they do about us." (8.38)
When Magda, Mom, and Manny are in the waiting room of the hospital, they're having a seriously hard time finding help. The receptionist basically ignores them or talks to them like they're dirt, which is awful; a lady in the waiting room figures the hospital workers put most of their time and effort into the "gavachos" (a.k.a. white folks). We've already seen schools that are pretty segregated and boxing matches with interracial fights, and now that tension is in the hospital, too. The stakes here, though, are arguably as high as they get.