I refer to the Arte Publico Press edition, translation by Evangelina-Vigil-Pinon. Rivera's sensitive, poignant and lyrical work really ought to have been copy-edited, if the translator speaks such poor English. It does no minority author any service to have his or her book filled with ignorant grammar mistakes--especially when those mistakes are not in the original Spanish.

I hope, if another edition is prepared, someone will purchase a third grade grammar and correct such embarrassing errors as the use of lay when the verb is lie, possessives, and plurals.

Esta novela se trata de la vida de los emigrantes mexicanos en los Estados Unidos en el tiempo de la guerra de Corea.Es sobre la vida de un muchacho mexicano y su familia. El cuento se expresa en maneras distintas. Unas partes se cuentan a través del relato de las observasiones; unos sucesos en la manera de la tercera persona, y la mayoría de los capítulos aparentemente se describe por la lengua del muchacho emigrante. La percepción profunda del sufrimiento, el enfrentar con la enfermedad y la muerte son el sabor amargo del libro. También hay una película con el mismo título a base de la novela.

This book is about how a boy grew up in a mexican culture. The struggles that he faces throught out his childhood . This book is about short stories that this young boy goes through and how impacted him. After reading the book you will be able to make the connections from each short story. Each story reflects how this boy is prejudge just by his etchnicity, how he tries to overcome and how important his parents are to him. This is probably a good example of experiences in which many people faced when coming to a different country. Not only mexicans but all the people around the world in general. It usually happens when you are trying to bring your own culture to a different land or country different from the one you used to live in. It has very good details in which you will be able to have a mind movie of the events that are happening through out the book. You will be able to understand it and picture it while reading it. While reading the book you can easily understand a little bit about mexican culture and how they try to get used to the new country and adjust. This book is available in spanish as well and if you are bilingual it will be a good book to read.