Chicana Falsa
Michele M. Serros writes clearly, vividly, and with great humor of her unique Chicana experience. With "Weight Watchers mexi-cuisines," a sister guessing the values of appliances on "The Price is Right," and a typical family silenced by old grudges at the funeral of a great-grandfather, one would be forced to think that these poems and short stories are only about Chicanos. For this is a very personal book, a book built on not only her Mexican culture but her American side as well. While reading the book, Serros’s emotions and devastation captivates the audience, and Serros accomplishes this with amazing success by carefully describing how it feels like to live in a place where your heritage is the most defining thing about you and being split in the middle between two opposing cultures. In a struggle to find herself, she goes through many obstacles in her life and constantly battles the struggle of being a “Chicana falsa”.
By reading this book, I have learned about Serros’ Mexican culture. She mentions in the beginning of the book, that her sister “La Letty, calls her a “Chicana falsa”. This immediately infers that there are some sorts of expectations that Mexicans feel they have to meet to be a “real” Chicano. She calls her that because of her mixed cultures. Michele grew up in California and doesn’t speak Spanish. To the Mexican community she is too American, and she is too Mexican looking for the American community. Although she does have undeniable American traditions, such as watching American shows with her family and eating breakfast at IHOP, she does have some Mexican customs as well.
It is mentioned in the book that Michele has a deep love for chicharrones, a Hispanic dish that consists of deep fried pork fat. Other things mentioned were...