Chicano - by Richard Vasquez (Paperback)

From the Back Cover

A bestseller when it was published in 1970 at the height of the Mexican-American civil rights movement, Chicano unfolds the fates and fortunes of the Sandoval family, who flee the chaos and poverty of the Mexican Revolution and begin life anew in the United States.

Patriarch Hector Sandoval works the fields and struggles to provide for his family even as he faces discrimination and injustice. Of his children, only Pete Sandoval is able to create a brighter existence, at least for a time. But when Pete's daughter Mariana falls in love with David, an Anglo student, it sets in motion a clash of cultures. David refuses to marry Mariana, fearing the reaction of his family and friends. Mariana, pregnant with David's child, is trapped between two worlds and shunned by both because of the man she loves. The complications of their relationship speak volumes -- even today -- about the shifting sands of racial politics in America.

In his foreword, award-winning author Rubén Martínez reflects on the historical significance of Chicano's initial publication and explores how cultural perceptions have changed since the story of the Sandoval family first appeared in print.

Review Quotes

"Brings alive the reality of the Mexican-American experience in the 20th century." - Los Angeles Times

"Written with passion and authority, unsparing in its naturlaism, this fictional account of the Sandoval family traces the roots of today's ferment." - Los Angeles Times

"A social document which goes behind the myths of the adobe curtain to reveal the harsher truths encountered by Mexicans who came north to American seeking a decent life, dignity, opportuniyty, in a land which was once theirs." - Los Angeles Times

"Vasquez is a writer of power and honesty; his novel is a chapter in our own history." - Los Angeles Times

"A melting-pot novel in the tradition of Upton Sinclair, touched with authentic color and a strain of understandable bitterness." - New York Times Book Review

"An abosrbing family saga." - Library Journal