What is barrio boy about

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Preview — Barrio Boy by Ernesto Galarza. Barrio Boy by Ernesto Galarza. Barrio Boy is the remarkable story of one boy's journey from a Mexican village so small its main street didn't have a name, to the barrio of Sacramento, California, bustling and thriving in the early decades of the twentieth century. When the turmoil precip Barrio Boy is the remarkable story of one boy's journey from a Mexican village so small its main street didn't have a name, to the barrio of Sacramento, California, bustling and thriving in the early decades of the twentieth century.

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To ask other readers questions about Barrio Boy , please sign up. This book is shit? Fatoumata Oumar Maybe i dont know. See 1 question about Barrio Boy…. Lists with This Book. Community Reviews. Showing Average rating 3. Rating details. Sort order. Start your review of Barrio Boy. It's a humorous story of a kid growing up in a remote Mexican mountain village, moving to town, then to a city, while Mexico thrashed in the throes of the great revolution that lasted for ten bloody years.

Eventually the eight year old Ernesto arrives at the American border, then goes to live with his mother and uncle in the working c la senda hasta Sacramento I liked reading BARRIO BOY 36 years ago, but having forgotten it completely, I recently re-read it and enjoyed it as much the second time.

Eventually the eight year old Ernesto arrives at the American border, then goes to live with his mother and uncle in the working class section of Sacramento, California. The story leaves off as he is about to enter high school, so the recollections are of early childhood and boyhood only. The detail of everything is fantastic. Galarza must have had an amazing memory, or else he filled in the gaps by talking with his older relatives.

The story moves along, never getting boring. More than anything else, this book gives you the feel of life in the Mexico of those times from the point of view of one who lived it, not just observed it.

As it is the point of view of a kid, naturally there is little introspection or thinking about deeper meanings, overall trends, or the wider picture. You don't ever find out what happened to him, but if you look into it, you'll find that he was one of the first Chicanos to graduate from Stanford and got a Ph. D from Columbia too, becoming active in the labor movement.

This guy was a bright spark all right. His uncles, his mother, his feelings about his absent fatherthese hardly surface at all. His mother re-married, but you don't learn how the author felt in the one sentence he devoted to this event. He had three more siblings, but we learn little about them.

His mother and older uncle Gustavo died in the flu epidemic after World War I, but he expresses little sense of loss. In short, you get the action and events, but none of his feeling. He is seldom critical. As the portrayal of a Mexican-Anerican life, or the life of any immigrant who came to the US in the early 20th century, this book cannot be outclassed.

It's valuable for its memories, and for its good writing style. I recommend it highly. Jun 26, Karisa Austin rated it it was ok. I was pretty disappointed in this book.

I expected an in depth description of his life in Mexico and then his transition to the U. I thought his narrative would go a lot deeper over the differences between the two cultures and his experience to understand them both.

More than half of the book was only focused on his life in Mexico and he barely touched upon the culture differences between Mexicans and Americans and his experience dealing with the change. In my opinion, he gives a lot of detail I was pretty disappointed in this book. In my opinion, he gives a lot of details about things people don't care about and then skips over the stuff that people would care about.

His mother dies and he spends about 2 sentences describing that. He is separated from his sisters and he doesn't talk about that at all. No emotions. The book also ended in a weird way. The story did not come to a close and it ended with him just entering high school. I would not recommend this book. Dec 22, Lizandro Torres rated it really liked it.

This is not my usual read but quite an astonishing story. This novel does get quite moving at some times because i have overcome some obstacles such as Ernesto Galarza has. This overall is a great novel if you like motivating stories I'm sure this will be the one that will motivate just about anyone.

As a teen i really liked how Ernesto Galarza has wrote about his childhood and life as a teen striving to be a better him. I really wish he would have wrote about himself receiving his PHD though. 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.

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 th 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.

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 was interested to find a different definition of the term chicano and also I was interested to read about the struggle for work and how that struggle for work drove the family to head north to Sacramento, California.

I hope to add this book to my proposed Latino Lit course for the Spring term. Nov 27, Esther Dushinsky rated it liked it. It is an interesting story worth telling. But the author shared way too many insignificant details that made the book a long read without so much substance.

The minute details of the areas, the homes, and every other aspect made it way too tedious. The early legs of these travels show that cultural transitions occur not only between countries, but also between cities and villages within a single country. The lifestyle Ernie and his family adopt in Tepic is much different from that they experience in Jalcocotbn. In each new environment, the Galarzas have to adjust to new ways of doing things, as emphasized by Ernie's descriptions of daily activities such as shopping and working.

These experiences foreshadow the ultimate cultural transition that awaits the Galarzas, learning to live in America without losing touch with their Mexican heritage.

The Galarzas leave the revolution behind once and for all when they cross the border into the United States. Unfortunately, life in America offers its own sets of problems.

They all must learn what it is to be culturally out of place in a country that does not understand them. Ernie describes the diverse sights and sounds of the barrio as a reporter would, documenting the people and places that stand out in his memory. In total, these experiences shape Ernie's mindset about his own future and stimulate his desire to make something of himself. At the close of the book, Ernie has become an educated young man who understands work ethic, familial responsibility, and every man's right to be treated with dignity.

Read more from the Study Guide. Browse all BookRags Study Guides. Copyrights Barrio Boy from BookRags. All rights reserved. Toggle navigation. Sign Up. Sign In. Get Barrio Boy from Amazon. Considered a founding text in ethnic studies, the book was originally published in and was reissued as a 40th anniversary edition in Galarza, who went on to become a labor organizer, activist, and professor, situates his experience of immigration within larger socio-political factors in both Mexico and the United States, including the Mexican Revolution , the complexities of immigration and acculturation, and economic hardship.

The slow pace of life and the routine of the village establishes a foundation for comparison to his later experiences. Ernesto is too young to understand the complexities of the revolution, but he witnesses changes in life in the village. At the end of Part 1, they leave Jalco for the nearby city of Tepic. With every move, his uncles search for new work while Ernesto and his mother adapt to new cultural norms and changing daily routines.

In Part 4, they end up Sacramento, California. They settle in the barrio, a neighborhood where recently arrived immigrants live and Spanish is the dominant language. Ernesto describes how his family members struggle to adapt to American culture without forgetting their Mexican heritage.