Abarca 1

Jacqueline Abarca
Professor Riedel
English 100
12 November 2014
Racial Tensions
In the book the Madonnas of Echo Park by Brando Skyhorse, Skyhorse shows a lot of racial
tensions throughout the book, specifically between Mexicans and African Americans. In every story he
presents, each and every character undergoes discrimination. He himself had to become someone he
wasnt; he was raised to believe he was Indian- American by his mother. Skyhorses motivations and
intentions behind showing racial tensions are to establish how hard it is for Mexican-Americans to fit in
the American culture and their struggle day by day to survive and to not be invisible but accepted by
others for who they are.
Being a Mexican-American in the American culture was really difficult. Skyhorse himself had to
change his identity in order to be accepted by other races and have opportunities opened to him that
Mexicans did not have. Brando Skyhorse was abandoned by his Mexican father, and was raised by his
mother and his Indian-American step-dad, who he took his last name after. Skyhorse states in an
interview that when he found out that his step-father wasnt his biological father, his mother asked of
him to lie and continue saying that they were Indian-American in order to continue to live that lifestyle.
He also states that he dated a Vietnamese girl and was determined to tell her the truth about his
ethnicity; that he was not Indian-American, but in fact Mexican. However, when he took the initiative
and told her, she left him. This experience made him realize that Mexicans were a disliked group of
people. He then realized his mother lied in order for them both to have a better life and future.
It is really hard for Mexicans to fit into the American culture. Their struggle to survive and
achieve success only gets harder when there are so many racial tensions. In the book, Skyhorse shows

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Mexican and African American racial tension in a bus that ultimately results to the death of a sixteen
year old boy. They have a border that separates one another, and that border is not to be trespassed
unless they want to attend their own funeral. In this book he portrays the life of many Mexicans and
Mexican-Americans with each having a unique story, that by the end of the book, all the characters are
connected one way or another. Each character is faced with discrimination for being Mexican. For
example, the character Hector witnesses a murder and has to make a choice to keep silent and be an
accomplice or tell the truth and get deported. Either choice shuts down his dreams and stops him from
ever living the American Dream.
Skyhorses intentions in showing racial tensions are to demonstrate how they live in America
day by day and their efforts try to fit in and be noticed. He wants to give off a message to the readers of
how hard it really is to be a Mexican in America and adapt to the new unknown culture they now face.
Racism is their number one daily obstacle. Given this obstacle, they struggle to make a living and provide
for their families. No Mexican-American wants to be known as a Mexican. They want to leave their
roots behind and become Americanized and be able to fit in.
However, racism isnt always interracial or against Mexicans. A lot of hate and racism occurs
between the Mexicans and the Mexican-Americans. We have the bus driver Efren for example, who
speaks of Mexicans with hate and anger. He expresses great anger and despise in stating that they come
into America and do nothing but complain about their bad or unfortunate luck but do absolutely nothing
to change their life around and undo or reverse this bad luck. Efren was raised by a father who was a
gang member of one of the most dangerous gangs at that time. His father forcefully jumped him in,
however Efren chose to run away and live a life away from that lifestyle. He uses his story to
demonstrate how his life was in a tunnel but he made the decision to change his life around and become
a better man than his father was. Running away from a life of gangs and becoming a hardworking man
to him was enough to say he was living the American Dream. On the other hand, we have the

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character Ofelia who is undignified with the thought of her son dating or having any sort of interest in an
oriental girl. There are so many racial tensions from one culture to another but especially towards the
Mexican community.
So looking back, one can truly say that Skyhorses intentions in showing so much racial tension
was to let the readers in on how hard it really is to be a Mexican or a Mexican American. A MexicanAmerican like himself had to occult his identity and culture in order to be liked and live a lifestyle that a
Mexican or a Mexican-American wasnt granted. His experience has led him to want to show us, the
readers, a piece of what it could be like living day by day in the life of a Mexican. Racism is everywhere,
truth is we are all racist and Skyhorse very well demonstrated it. No one should be rejected for being
Mexican, or Asian. We are all the same, we are all humans at the end of the day; what makes us unique
to one another are our personalities and our culture.