Reflection on Chicano Literature

When I began this project, I first had to think about what term I would use to encompass an underrepresented group in American Literature. I was unsure as to whether to focus on Chicano Literature, or Hispanic Literature, or Latino Literature. The first being the most focused, specifically on Mexican Americans, the second being on people who come from Spanish speaking countries, and the third seemed to be the broadest term that encompassed any one of Mexican, Spanish, or Latin American decent. In order to focus my project, I decided to use the term Mexican American when searching for books and reviews.
As I started to choose books for this project, I decided to look for books that had been recognized as outstanding works. The books that I reviewed are all recipients of the Pura Belpre Award.
Each story seemed to give the reader an insight into the lives of Mexican Americans, but all of the characters seemed individualistic, not generic making the novels more genuine. It is easy to write a story relying upon stereotypes, but all three of these novels told a different, unique story. A commonality between all three of the following novels is that they do not strive to teach people about what it is like to be Chicano, rather they are telling a story of the life of some people who identify with being Chicano. Common themes could be that all of the characters struggle in some way with being Chicano and the racism they have to deal with as a result. Another common them of these three texts is the issue of money having some sort of impact on their lives because they do not always have enough, but in all three the characters are strong and money is not the most important issue for them.