Richard Rodriguez is a Mexican-American or a "chicano" as he says others called him sometimes. This book tells about his life growing up in America, and it tells a lot about the discrimination he dealt with growing up. He started school in America with a very small English vocabulary which made it especially hard on him and his family too. His siblings and his parents all had to learn English when they arrived in America. It was a little harder for Richard because he was the youngest, but he still picked it up really quickly. His parents never wanted him to do menial jobs as other Mexican-Americans could be seen doing. His father used to be a laborer and for some reason he really didn't want his son to have to do the same work that he had done. He talked about one laboring job in particular that he acquired one summer. It was the type of job his parents had specifically warned him about. This book is good in helping non-minorities understand what minorities do go through, and it helped me understand some of the different things they endure.
Richard's parents always told him they did not want him to do menial labor. They didn't want him to spend the rest of his life outside with a shovel and working hard for not very much money like his father used to do. After he graduated from Stanford a friend told him about this summer construction job he knew was available. The friend had known Richard was looking for employment. It was a job mainly of shoveling, raking, and sweeping. He took the job, and when he started he noticed all of his co-workers were also Mexican. This is what his parents had been talking about. They didn't want him to turn out to be just another Mexican construction worker. Once he got to know all of the other workers he realized they weren't embarrassed to be doing this sort of work. In fact they liked the work they did and they were proud of it. They told him also to take pride in the work they were doing and in what they were building.