Essay on Chicano Families

Submitted By Ferr'-Garcia
Words: 1465
Pages: 6

Trujillo’ novel shows many of the characteristics that Chicana/o families can have as well as other characteristics that are present in other cultures around the world. Every member of the family plays a role so the family can have stability. This is that each member has responsibilities such as working, taking care of kids, housework and cooking. Not all members perform the same activities though. In term of coming to age of young kids, I can say that this characteristic is present in every kid and culture.
It is understandable kids are curious about what they see and adult do not find the word to explain some situations because sometimes adults can be afraid to teach something kids supposed to know when certain age is reached. This is the difficult role that parents play in every culture and not only Chicana/o families. One clear example is Marcia, one of the curious young girls in the family that wants to know how the babies are made. This was because her cousin Bertha was pregnant and Marcia asked her directly to get the answer. As every adult, the answer is difficult because they want to find the right words to explain it and most of the cases kids are not old enough to know. I found this characteristic as a part of socialization from parents to kids. I think that there are some parents that socialize with their kids a lot that develop that confidence so kids can ask whatever they want to know about the world. I have a very social father that likes to talk with people and with his kids in the way of teaching what they can find out there in the world. I believe that when kids develop that confidence they can learn things faster than by their own. This is a relationship that Marcia and Corin did not develop with their dad. The fact that the relationship with your dad is not that good it is kind of sad because you will see him every day at home. One scene that I really like at the beginning is when their dad comes home after working hard and getting pay that day. He tried to share that happiness with his daughters and wife as and brought some food home to share a moment with them. He even played with his daughters and had fun for a little. The situation did not turned that nice after that when Eddie, the father, got mad for something that girls did. That madness just ruined the family moment and I believe this is a situation that many kids face. At least I know some cases and I know they exist. It is kind of sad that the little girls of the family wish every time dad comes home in a good mood so everyone in the house can have a good family socialization moment. Another moment I can think is when the mothers/wives have a social life before they have a family or dedicate their time to house work. There are many women in this situation that change their lives when they get married or have kids. This is that they depend more of the husband to things. This is what happened with Marcia’s mom. She does not like to walk and only goes out when Marcia’s dad takes her. Even worse, she does not feel on the need to drive and be more independent to do activities. She just depends on him for everything. Another theme that I can recall is gender. Gender plays an important role in the families because there is a huge difference between being a girl or a boy. Most of the cases, being a boy gives you some power to act against you own father, whereas being a girl does not give you at power at all. Clear example is that Marcia wants to be a boy, not for the fact that she likes girls, but to have the muscles or the enough physical power to act against her father. One moment to support my augment is when Marcia’s mom was cooking so Eddie could eat when coming back from work. The thing was that her mom tried to be nice and make his dad happy, but her dad did not like the food and was always complaining about it. When Eddie was just not happy with his meal, Marcia’s mom tried to convince him to cook something different, but Marcia could see