f poverty and refraining from others, especially “Okies” as hisgrandmother used to always say. Soto ends up marrying a Japanese woman, not aMexican. But he still has to deal with his internal struggle and acceptance ofthis choice. One cannot be looked down upon for questioning oneself and thedecisions one makes, especially when it comes to marrying after being raised ina household that reinforced the belief , “Marry Your Own”. My mother and myfather never told me that I should marry one of my own. My mother always told meto do what ever it would take to make myself happy. Now that I think about it,she did sometimes tell me that I could meet a nice girl at church. “Mijito,” shealways began, “Don't you want to marry a nice girl? There are a lot of nicegirls that go to church. How can you want to marry a girl who will sleep arounnd?” I was reluctant to tell her that the nice girl's parents were saying thesame thing to them about me. Gary Soto's mother never said too much to him inregards to marrying any one type of woman in particular. “If you find a goodMexican girl, marry her of course,” (page 696) she once replied to him. She didhowever respond in a worrisome manner and with hesitation when she realized thather son was going to marry a Japanese woman. I was in love and their was no looking back. She was the one. I told mymother who was slapping hamburger into patties. “Well, sure if you want to marryher,” she said. But the more I talked, the more concerned she became.(page 697) I recall vividly when my mother met Tanya, my wife, for the first time.She said that she liked Tanya, but that she didn't think she was really my type.What then was my type? After marrying Tanya, I began to wonder if she was “Mexicana” enough for me. After all, she was very liberal, strong and open minded.I think this is why my mother used to tell me she didn't thi...
