Authors include Jose Inez Taylor, a farm worker, strike organizer, construction worker, Chicano activist, and writer among other titles, who live in Antonito, Colorado. Taylor wrote the fiction portion of this book based on experiences of his own life.
James M. Taggard analyzes the narrative and interviews Taylor about his life and how it relates to the protagonist’s life in the story. He is Lewis Audenreid Professor of History and Archaeology at Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
The central character is a 10-year old boy named Alex who loses his innocence by learning about man’s inhumanity to man, corruption, and greed. Alex befriends a man he thinks is a hobo in his southern Colorado home. Straddling a world strapped by religion, corruption honor, mysticism, class consciousness and racial division, Alex stands up for his friend and ends up saving his life.
The book is both fiction and non-fiction, an ethnography of sorts. The first section of the book is the fictitious story written by Taylor. The second half is a discussion of Taylor’s life with excerpts of interviews into chapters focusing on different aspects of Taylor’s life such as his religion, his father, his experiences with unions, witchcraft, and the role of women in his life.
Taylor’s writing is beautiful constructed, although simplistic in structure. The text is easy to follow and descriptive enough to keep even the broadest audiences interested in the content. Although the story is written in third person, it centers on Alex. The reader sympathizes with his dreams, fears, and beliefs. The reader watches as Alex becomes a man by conquering his fears and confronting social stratification. The story is authentically written in relation to Mexican-American history and culture. Although the story’s ending is predictable, it keeps the reader’s attention and teaches several lessons.
The book is unique because it couples fiction with a sociological study of the how the author’s own experiences are reflected in the writing. The authors include maps of the town and actual photos of different locations to complement the text. The authors are unafraid of confronting social issues head-on such as the Anglo-Chicano relationship in the 1940s, class structure, sexual violence, corruption, greed, and the role of Catholicism in Chicano culture and discrimination. The book is refreshingly honest and is recommended for libraries focusing on Latino culture or sociological topics.
Vol. 9. No. 1
–Ashley Cisneros
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Ashley Cisneros is a co-founder of Chatter Buzz Media, an Orlando Internet marketing firm that helps companies and organizations engage with their target markets through inbound marketing via the Internet. Chatter Buzz Media, which won the Social Madness competition for the Orlando small business market, is a full-service digital marketing firm specializing in website design, search engine optimization (SEO), social media marketing and content creation. Prior to founding Chatter Buzz, Ashley worked as a newspaper reporter, magazine editor, technical writer, marketing manager, public relations practitioner and freelance journalist. To see Ashley’s content writing, visit www.ashleycisneros.com. You can also reach Ashley on her Google profile.
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