Gary Soto
Gary Soto was born on April 12, 1952, in the farming community of Fresno, California, to Mexican-American parents. In his essay "Being Mean" he talks of how his father and grandfather worked at the Sun Maid Raisin Factory and his mother peeled potatoes at Reddispud. Soto's father faced an early death due to a work-related incident and his mother remarried. In his collection of poems entitled "Home Course in Religion" Soto talks of the arguments that his mother and stepfather had, showing a difficult relationship between the two. Due to the family's poverty Soto was forced to work and earn money as an agricultural laborer in California's San Joaquin Valley and the tire-retread factory in Fresno. His earlier poems focus on this personal history. Although Soto comes from a tough background and does not mention it in his poetry, he does have an impressive academic background. He graduated magna cum laude from California State University at Fresno with a degree in English (1974). In 1976 he received a master of fine arts degree in creative writing from the University of California Irvine. (Boyle 3112-3113) Soto began writing poems in 1974 while studying geography in college. He was inspired one day, while working on a te
He goes on to explore a sense of hope for future generations such as his daughter as he describes a rabbit trying to cross the road, " Behind sunglasses I see where I stood: brown kid/ Getting across. Here, Soto talks of how the ambitions of those living in the valley were not supported. After reading Neruda's works Soto truly focused his poetry on his childhood and wrote about common childhood memories of fruits of the valley, especially the orange, baseball, dogs, and alleys; he wrote about these objects in order to bring out their simple beauty. He looked up, / Eyes splayed red from drinking away a dead Sunday, / And said, You too. With him, my face flared, my hair lifting/ Beautifully, because we were coming home/ To the arms of the brown people. He produced a published poetry collection at age 25. They grow heavy, / These stones that could sharpen knives/ Or bring faces together for one last kiss. By describing this situation so vividly he brings the reader into this piece and allows them to fully understand his emotions during this moment. In the poem "Tortillas Like Africa" Soto talks about making tortillas with his friend, "I asked Isaac, 'How's yours?' / He cleared his throat and opened his tortilla. Most of Soto's poems come from his memories during his childhood and youth.
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Acceptance Essays
