Jen Hair - Writing Portfolio

  In Luis Valdez’s play  Zoot Suit,  the plight of the Hispanic search for identity is exposed.  Although the play is set in the early 1940’s, issues it highlights are still problems for Hispanics today.  Henry Reyna, along with twenty other Hispanic youth, all Pachucos, is arrested and tired for a in August of 1942.  From the outset, it is clear, the “gang” of Pachucos being held will not be able to get a fair trial due to the continual criminalization of the young adults by The Press.  The play is narrated by El Pachuco ( The  Pachuco), who resides in Henry’s subconscious, as the metaphorical embodiment of Pachuco culture, the “secret fantasy of every bato, in or out of the Chicanda” (Valdez 26). From his duck hat to his tailored tacuhe (suit), El Pachuco embodies all that is to be pachuco.  He is the quintessence of Hispanic pride and defiance, he is outspoken regarding injustice towards Hispanics, keeping the spotlight throughout the play on the dilemmas the group faces.  El Pachuc

            The Rubio family in Jose Antonio Villareal’s Novel  Pocho , immigrates from Mexico to California in 1923 after the death of Poncho Villa.  As they settle in Santa Clara, CA, among an eclectic community of other immigrants and laborers, the family encounters many challenges.  While the family clings to traditional values and roles to keep in touch with their Mexican roots and culture Richard, the only son, often finds himself stuck between two cultures, questioning which to follow.  The family faces conflicts whilst balancing between two cultures, navigating new social norms, and clinging to the traditional values of their culture.             The story begins with Juan Rubio, the patriarch, at the end of the Mexican Revolution.  Juan exemplifies the typical rough riding, solitary revolutionary fighter; assured of himself and his ability to walk away from fierce battles, he does not hesitate to put himself into situations where he alone is responsible for his own survival, “

In his story,  The Labyrinth of Solitude , Octavio Paz details the existential crisis that appears to have gone on in Mexico for generations.  Mexico is a seemingly a country whose history was taken by conquest; however, it is also a country steeped in cultural tradition, mysticism, and religion.  “Our hermeticism is baffling or even offensive to strangers, and it has created the legend of the Mexican as an inscrutable being.” (65). The chapter,  The Sons of La Malinche , delves deeper into events that caused this disconnect. During the time of the Spanish Conquest (1519-1521), when Mexico was taken as a colony of Spain, and the Spanish-Aztec war raged, the Aztec empire fell.  A few hundred Spaniards wiped out millions of Aztec due to “non-native diseases such as microbes, smallpox, influenza, mumps and measles” (“How Much”).  The Spanish essentially destroyed the indigenous Mexican culture, captured natives as slaves and pillaged natural resources such a silver and gold.  They also fo