Gary Soto s The San Joaquin Valley - 2143 Words

Katelynn Pilon 11th Adv Literature Ms. Brown December 20th 2016 Gary Soto â€Å"Gary Soto was born in Fresno, California, in April, 1952, to working-class Mexican-American parents. At a young age, he worked in the fields of the San Joaquin Valley. He was not academically motivated as a child, but became interested in poetry during his high school years.† Soto uses his cultural experiences lead him to write about his character how he does and throughout all of his short stories, books, and poems he adds in Spanish words, to show us the kind of environment he grew up in as a Spanish American. Reflecting on the obstacles he had to overcome such as racial discrimination and the ethnic boundaries, to get where he is today. Gary grew up in a poor Catholic household. His father and grandfather had blue-collar jobs and his mother peeled potatoes. â€Å"Because of the family’s poverty, exacerbated by the father’s early death in a work-related accident, Soto was forced to earn money as an agricultural laborer in the San Joaquin Valley and at a tire-retread factory in Fresno.† â€Å"Although he never mentions it in his poems, Soto does have an impressive academic background: He was graduated magna cum laude from California State University at Fresno (1974), received a master of fine arts degree in creative writing from the University of California at Irvine (1976), and has taught at the University of California at Berkeley in the Department of English and Chicano Studies.† In 1975 he got marriedShow MoreRelatedSaturday at the Canal Analysis743 Words   |  3 Pagesteacher wanted, To understand so much. The hallways were, Full of bad and dirty students. Thus, A friend and I sat near the water on Saturday, Weren t talking much, just chillin out. Throwing big rocks at the dusty ground, Because San Fransisco was only a picture, hanged on a wall. We wanted to go there, At the same time as the last migrating birds. And be with people that knew really life. We dont t drink and smoke, But our hair was shoulder length, wild then,