Word: gringolandia
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...doesn't use humor, irony or traditional comic book genres. Instead, she has created something all too rare in the medium: a realistic drama for adults told in a straightforward manner. The approach makes sense for a book which spends so much time exploring the nature of authenticity. "In gringolandia you have irony for everything," says one Mexican character, "so you can look at it and know what to think...
Despite these sins of omission, the anthology does manage to give readers a clear introduction to the main themes that Latino writers grapple with in their writings and their lives. The editors have divided the book into three sections--Imaging the Family, Gringolandia and Songs of Self-Discovery...
...Gringolandia ("Land of the Gringo") section contains some of the most entertaining and touching stories. Piri Thomas recounts how he earned respect growing up where "sometimes you don't fit in. Like if you're Puerto Rican on an Italian block." Thomas gritty memoir recalls a childhood in the Bronx streets looking out for a "bunch of hungry alley cats that could get to their mouse anytime they wanted," "Mr. Mendelsohn" by Nicholasa Mohr recounts the story of the Suarez family through the eyes of a Jewish man watching his neighborhood turn into a Puerto Rican enclave. Nash Candelaria recounts...
...rods driven by tattooed pachucos. The occasional appearance of a neatly turned-out Agringado (a Mexican-American who has adapted to Anglo styles) clashes incongruously with the weathered-leather look of the cholo (newly arrived, often wetback Mexican laborer). To the barrio dwellers, the rest of the world is Gringolandia. Few venture forth except to attend the fights at Olympic Auditorium, where their ebullient olés and accurately hurled wine bottles give much needed support to Mexican club fighters with more guts than science...
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