George Washington Gomez

I had no clue this is how this would end. I was disappointed on how Gualinito soon turned to George Washington Gomez a "Gringo" instead of the leader of his race like I envisioned the story to end.

He battled all his life with a checkerboard life and seemed more and more as the story continued that he found his identity "Mexican" and that was where he felt he belonged. I am not sure how this changed because I could not see it coming? It made me think, is this how the Mexican race is now? Do we change our lives because we want a better life than our parents, or do we do it because we are ashamed of what our culture was like? Are we trying to make our parents proud, or do we have a mentality if you can't beat them join them? These are questions I am struggling with after reading this book. Gualinito showed heart and character for all the abuse he took during his school years. His confidence was unbelievable and I admired him in the beginning. The thing I noticed was that he had confidence when it came to him but when his family was being talked about he changed. He could not take that pain that his family was not perfect and started to become ashamed of his life. Why? How can someone be so strong when it came to physical and mental abuse towards himself be so weak to his family's verbal abuse? This is what confuses me about this whole book, that he could not overcome something I saw as trivial versus the difficult obstacles he faced earlier in his life.

I was very disappointed with the end of the book, I had hoped it turned out different. Felicano and his mother did so much for him and this how they were repaid? I was with Felicano on this "Then I could look forward to seeing you father in purgatory or limbo or wherever it is that Mexican yokels go. We could sit down and have a good long talk about you."