Customer Reviews

Barrio Boy

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

"Barrio Boy" is an important historical document, as it presents through various aspects of local color the Mexican community as it appeared in the early twentieth century. It is also important as a chronicle of the Diaz dictatorship and of the forces that made a family, against bitter odds, migrate to southwestern California.

I came on this book by chance and read it in two sittings. As a North American who has lived in Mexico for four years, I found myself connecting with something on every page about Ernesto Galarza's life in Western Mexico until he was six and then following him until he was a teenager in Sacramento. After reading how the Mexican Revolution affected his family's decisions, I want to read more about Mexican history of the period. The book is notable for Galarza's ear and eye as he paints the details of village life, the series of moves in Mexico, and the many decisions the Galarza family made as they moved step by step away from physical danger. The last parts of the book about life in a Sacramento barrio interested me less but still kept me reading.

When I closed the book I went on the internet to learn more about Galarza. I found out he became a leading organizer and scholar constantly involved in Hispanic life but his book would be memorable even if he had led a more commonplace adult life.

On a lighter note, his account of appearing as a first-grader in a Cinco de Mayo performance was so vivid I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Readers who were bored by this book may have been assigned to read it in school. I think Barrio Boy would be an excellent read before before going to Mexico--it's a pageturner that can deepen the Mexican experience for the imaginative traveler.

I have used Galarza's book successfully in many classes I have taught. While there is a lot of apparently "needless" detail if you are looking for some kind of exciting "story" or plot, if you actually read the (very short author's) introduction to the book, you'll realize that Galarza's "point" in writing was to establish what it was like to move from a small pueblo in Mexico to a large US city. As such, there are a lot of details which are not necessarily related to "action" per se, but more a sense of trying to understand new environments, new cultural traditions, new ways of living. And how life in the US affected Mexican migrant families in the early 20th century. If you are looking for an account of Mexican immigration & acculturation that is both personal and subtly historic/sociological, then this is a good book for that.

"Barrio Boy" is important for its local color accounts of the Mexican community in the early twentieth century. It is also important for its chronicle of the Diaz dictatorship and the forces that made one family migrate to southwestern California. In short, it is an important cultural and historical chronicle.

This is one of the most capturing stories I have read of an immigrant coming to the U.S. It was like hearing the stories told time and time again by my parents and grandparents. I have read it twice, once in high school and again in college. Both times Ernesto Galarza was able to draw me into his journey and allowed me to travel along side him, while experiencing a tremendous journey made by thousands.

This fascinating, wonderfully told book's title is misleading if it makes you expect the story of a simple Mexican peasant boy with a chicken or two and short horizons. This kid's "barrio" turned out to be a very large part of the world, and the man he became was a man of vision. For me the book was a great reminder that like everyone else's, every immigrant's life is unique in its way, and that "Mexico" and "Mexican-American" can mean many different things. It was also a chance for me to make up for my lifelong, woeful, Anglo-American ignorance of the richness of Mexican history, life, and culture and how changeable the US has been over the decades in how little or much it cared to look out from the Mexican people who've been part of our western state economies since long before there WERE western states! This book is also the beautiful portrait of a young, smart, determined mother, her two devoted brothers and how they basically all died in the course of giving a young boy, Ernesto, a more promising lease on life. This is a great book for older children and any adult who wants to understand the Mexican-American connection. Nutty to Meet You! Dr. Peanut Book #1Take Me With You When You Go

I came on this book by chance and read it in two sittings. As a North American who has lived in Mexico for four years, I found myself connecting with something on every page about Ernesto Galarza's life in Western Mexico until he was six and then following him until he was a teenager in Sacramento. After reading how the Mexican Revolution affected his family's decisions, I want to read more about Mexican history of the period. The book is notable for Galarza's ear and eye as he paints the details of village life, the series of moves in Mexico, and the many decisions the Galarza family made as they moved step by step away from physical danger. The last parts of the book about life in a Sacramento barrio interested me less but still kept me reading.

When I closed the book I went on the internet to learn more about Galarza. I found out he became a leading organizer and scholar constantly involved in Hispanic life but his book would be memorable even if he had led a more commonplace adult life.

On a lighter note, his account of appearing as a first-grader in a Cinco de Mayo performance was so vivid I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Readers who were bored by this book may have been assigned to read it in school. I think Barrio Boy would be an excellent read before going to Mexico--it's a pageturner that can deepen the Mexican experience for the imaginative traveler.

Dr. Galarza was outstanding in this autobiography. It is easy to follow if you are enjoying it. A sense of history and knowledge of Mexican-American culture will ease the read. However, anyone with an open mind can follow it and enjoy it with little problem.

I found this book to have a very interesting subject matter however the writing itself sometimes put me to sleep. The athor dwells on facts very insignificant to the purpose of the story and therefor the reader must wade through all of that to pull out the important history his is retelling. My suggestion is find another book about the same topic. This book may turn some off so they never learn about the rich history of the mexican-american herritage in this country.

This novel teems with numerous local color references to the Mexican community in the early twentieth century. It is also important in that it documents life under the Diaz dictatorship and the forces that made one family migrate to southwestern U.S. It is an invaluable chronicle.