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Latino Literature featured_art (Race (Colorism (In the book Down these…
Latino Literature 
Race
Colorism
In the book Down these Mean Streets by Piri Thomas we see the theme of colorism. Starting off with the fact that the main character Piri struggles all his life about how he identifies, Piri states "why does this have to happen to me? why couldn't I be born like them?... I felt shame creep into me (Piri 121). When Piri states this, it is because he does not feel like he belongs with his own people (Puerto Rican) because of has a darker complexion. He also does not know where he fits in because society does not help him understand, because of the colorism hes faces during his life
Racism
In the article 13 Points by Darrel Enck-Wanzer we learned about the different ways that Puerto Ricans were oppressed but also discriminated against. The 13 points is about what the Puerto Ricans face in the United States but also what they want the U.S has to fix. It states "We each organize our people, but our fights are the same against oppression and we will defeat it together. POWER TO ALL OPPRESSED PEOPLE" (Enck-Wanzer 2). This means that not only do the Puerto Ricans feel discriminated against but also address how other groups are being oppressed and how they all need to come together to make things equal for everyone.
Genre
Comics
In the book My Favorite Things is Monsters by Emil Ferris we see a different kind of literature where we learn about a young girl named Karen who is trying to find herself. Instead of seeing her through regular literature we see it though her adventures and thoughts through a comic book that shows a lot of art to help explain her thoughts.
Poetry
In the poem AmeRícan by Tato Laviera we learn about this new generation of Puerto Ricans in the United States. The poem states "we gave birth to a new generation,/ AmeRican salutes all folklores/Europeans, Indians, black, Spanish/ and anything else compatible" (Laviera). Having it in the form of a poem shows the intensity of the messages the poem is sending about the new generation, which is that they are accepting of new people and that everyone is equal.
In the poem Puerto Rican Obituary by Pedro Pietri, we read about Puerto Ricans who were oppressed and wanted more for their families. One of the stanzas states "They worked/They never took days off/that was not on the calendar/ They never went on strike/without permission/They worked/ten days a week/and were only paied for five" (Pietri) By putting this into a poem form again we see how strong the message is but also with this stanza Pietri wanted to cover about the oppression Puerto Ricans face even though they did a lot through out their lives.
Gender
Sexuality
In the book How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents there are a lot of different places where we come across sexuality. The first time we come across sexuality is when Yoyo is discussing the first time she had a boyfriend she states "I wanted to feel we were serious about each other before we made love" (Alvarez 99). She explains how she was not ready to have sex and struggling to understand her feeling about having sex especially in college which was a difficult environment to understand what she should do in terms of sexual activity.
Masculinity
In the short story the Husbands Stitch by Carmen Maria the masculinity is interesting, we see masculinity in a different way in this story. throughout the story, we get these graphic sex scenes for example "He kisses me and clasps his hand around my breast, my nipple knotting beneath his fingers... he is hard and hot and dry and smells like bread, and when he breaks me I scream and cling to him like I am lost at sea. His body locks onto mine and he is pushing, pushing, and before the end, he pulls himself out and finishes with my blood slicking down him" ( Maria 2). The way Maria described the actions as being very rough and hands on. Another thing that shows the masculinity is how the girl talks about this guy, it only seems to be about the way he looks or makes her feel giving him that stronger masculinity.
Nationalism
Colonialism
In the video Pa'lante by Hurray for the Riff Raff she discusses the idea of colonialism when she says "Colonized, and hypnotized, be something/Sterilized, dehumanized, be something/Well take your pay/And stay out the way, be somehting/Ah do your best/But fuck the rest, be something" this is an example of colonism because we see how the Puerto Ricans are being oppressed even in the United States
In the manifesto El Plan Espiritual de Aztlan by Rudolfo Anaya and Francisco Lomeli we see another example of colonialism. When it states "the Chicanos... must use their nationalism as the key or common denominator of mass mobilization and organization" (Anaya & Lomeli 1). We see that the Chicanos are fed up because of the oppression they are facing because of colonization. We see that the Chicanos come together because they have something in common and they use that to unit to show they are fed up and depend on this to show that they want change.
Displacement
In Gloria Anzaldia Borderlands La Frontera We learned about how the United States invated Mexico and took "what is no Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado and California" when this happened it cause Mexicans to be forced to stay in the United States and no longer be able to go back to Mexico. This is an example of displacment because they were forced to stay in the United States