The experiences one has at a young age impacts who that person is and what they value. Gary Soto is no exception to this idea. Soto was born into a family with limited resources; his grandparents immigrated to the United States from Mexico, and experienced many hardships both financial and personal. These financial and personal adversities shape his writing into a platform for educating young readers on the struggles of Latino Americans. Gary Soto’s childhood and the Civil Rights movement for Latino Americans inspired his poetry to touch upon the daily struggles of the average Mexican-American farmer through his use of first person narrative.
Gary Soto was born on April 12, 1952 in Fresno, California. His grandparents were immigrants from Mexico and they came to the San Joaquin Valley to work in the fields. His parents were first generation Americans who also worked in the agricultural industry. His mother worked in potato fields, whereas his father worked for the Sun Maid Raisin Company. When Soto was five, his father died in an industrial accident. Because of this tragic event, Soto’s mother raised three children on her own (“Oranges” 138). Soto attended public schools throughout his elementary and secondary education. He
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In the opening line of “Small Town with One Road”, Soto uses the pronoun “we” which forces the reader to be more emotionally intrigued by the poem than a third party observer (Davis). This writing technique is a crucial aspect to what makes his poems so powerful. By compelling the reader to see the perspective of an impoverished Latino boy for a moment, he/she can more fully understand why it can be so hard to get out of the cycle of the town. His writing takes the reader to what Soto’s own childhood was like so that Soto’s message of acceptance and civil justice is more widely understandable and accepted (“Gary