Parrot in the Oven: Mi Vida dishes out a sad truth: Racial stereotypes are alive and well—and most of the time, these stereotypes are super mean and hurtful. Manny's family is Mexican and he grows up in a California town where people from a variety of races live. We wish we could say that everyone coexists peacefully, holding hands under a rainbow and singing all day long, but that's simply not the case. Instead, we see negative assumptions about race cropping up in this book, adding to the heap of things Manny has to navigate and sort through as he grows up.
Questions About Race
- What assumptions do characters make based on race? Are there any characters that avoid making assumptions or believing stereotypes altogether? If yes, who? And if not, what does this tell us?
- How does race impact each character's sense of self? And how does it impact how the characters interact with each other?
- What is this book's take on diversity? How do folks interact with people from a race different than their own?
Chew on This
For Manny, race is central and when it comes to figuring out his identity, Manny knows that both his real cultural heritage and the nasty stereotypes others believe in both have a huge impact on him.
Manny's race doesn't really matter. Sure, he might encounter stereotypes about Mexicans all the time, but they don't impact his sense of self one bit.