We Became Mexican American

How Our Immigrant Family Survived to Pursue the American Dream

by Carlos B. Gil

 

We Became Mexican American is an inspiring and candid account of the author’s ancestors and how they abandoned their homes in west central Mexico to go north, eventually laying the ground work to pursue the American Dream in southern California. Based on recorded interviews, this stirring chronicle introduces you to the author’s forebears and follows them to the end of their lives.

Descriptive and articulate, this new book unveils how the author’s family adjusted to culture shock, tells about the jobs that helped them put food on the table including micro businesses they launched, and how they managed to survive the Great Depression. It also describes how the Gil family coped with a tragic accident that nearly derailed them. In the end, they survived to become Mexican American.
                                                                                
Here is a story of an unwavering human spirit that thrives in adversity easily discoverable among Mexican immigrants today in many American cities; it is a literary tour de force with a motivating and illuminating tale.  Remarks about Latinos today are included in the Afterword along with photos, a glossary, and Study Questions.