". . . couches the Latino rationale in sensitive, evocative vignettes of mother, father, and family love in the Latino community. . . . successfully contributes one of the few such book-length pro-Latino identity commentaries in a literary genre."--Andrés Tijerina, Austin Community College
Now that Latinos are the most numerous ethnic minority in the United States and a growing part of the middle and professional classes, Latinos can see that their sun is rising. Working within a traditional Aztec framework of "suns" or days, Marco Portales looks through the window of individual life onto the "morning" (sol naciente) of growing up as a minority member of American society, the "noontime" (sol ardiente) of private adult life and the transmission of identity to a new generation, and the full heat of afternoon (sol radiante), when public business is done and the larger polity is addressed.
In a society that often asks people to choose between their American and Mexican identities, Portales inscribes himself into his people's experience, remaining fully aware that no one person's story can embody the great worth and potential of all U.S. Latinos.
