e pride of ones own heritage and descent but I also believe in a diversifiedworld. I often tell people that as long as you love an individual theirethnicity should have no significance. I now have to ask myself whether or not Ireally b elieve that. It's very confusing for me, as I am sure Gary was confused. Gary is somewhat reluctant at first to go to his future mother in law'shouse with his fiancee Carolyn, but later is relieved upon his discovery. When we pulled into the drive, I panicked and begged Carolyn to make a Uturn and go back so we could talk about it over soda. She pinched my cheekcalling me a “Silly Boy.” I felt better though when I got out of the car and sawthe house: the chipped paint, a cracked window, boards for a walk to the backdoor. There were rusting cars near the barn. A tractor with a net of spiderwebsunder a mulberry. A field, a bale of barbed wire like children's scribblingleaning against an empty chicken coop.(page 697) Gary Soto's discovery of his fiancee and her family was that they weresimilar to Mexicans. “These people were just like Mexicans, I thought. Poorpeople.” (page 698) Of course not all Mexicans are poor, but a large percentageof the Mexican population do have to overcome many more obstacles and hardships,such as racism and discrimination in order to sustain the equivalent socialstatus of a middle class Caucasian group. “On the highway, I felt happy, pleased by it all. I patted Carolyn'sthigh. Her people were like Mexicans, only different.”(page 698) Asian immigrants are subjected to many of the same social and economicbarriers as are Mexicanos who migrate from Mexico. They are often wrongfullyperceived as a group of people who are coming to take advantage of aneconomically rich system.(Our economic system may seem plentiful in comparisonto their economic system back home) They are therefore looked upon as “TheOther̶...
