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A review by shaunnow38
George Washington Gomez: A Mexicotexan Novel by Americo Paredes
5.0
Devastating tale of growing up on the US/Mexican border. Paredes has an eye for anthropology, dialing in the emotions and landscapes of the Southwest. His text is made off of full, real characters, and he places those characters in a roiling desert of stories, tradition, and transition. The story continues to hurt you as it goes on, but it does not punish.
Reading Paredes work makes me want to learn more of the conflicts surrounding literary identities, as this is essentially a racial conflict scaled down to one individual. Gualinto experiences the contradictions of being a TexasMexican is every chapter. He hears the traditions and history of his people, while being pushed to renounce that identity for the AngloAmerican way. The conflicts are never presented simply as self-hatred, but there is an evolution of identities and an evolution of conflict to compliment the ever changing sense of Gualinto/George Washington.
Reading Paredes work makes me want to learn more of the conflicts surrounding literary identities, as this is essentially a racial conflict scaled down to one individual. Gualinto experiences the contradictions of being a TexasMexican is every chapter. He hears the traditions and history of his people, while being pushed to renounce that identity for the AngloAmerican way. The conflicts are never presented simply as self-hatred, but there is an evolution of identities and an evolution of conflict to compliment the ever changing sense of Gualinto/George Washington.