Foul Shots By Rogelio R. Gomez Analysis

By not exposing children to non-canonical literature, such as, “Foul Shots” and Bodega Dreams, teachers are depriving their students of enrichment that will constantly follow them throughout life. An enrichment of a diverse selection of literature will not only get students to enjoy reading again, but it could spark interests in reading more often and inspire them to become more open-minded. By taking a deeper look into "Foul Shouts," a short story written by Rogelio R. Gomez, one will examine the shame and anger Gomez felt growing up. He was one of many, who were continuously faced with obstacles of race and social class, thus making him a prime example of why students should read non-canonical literature. In Gomez’s piece, the difference
This difference leads to the two contradictive terms of power and control — superiority vs. inferiority. The fourth paragraph clearly shows how Hispanics examine the inferiority, “In elementary school, we were not allowed to speak Spanish…Still, speaking our language before whites brought on spasms of shame- for the supposed inferiority of our language and culture and guilt at feeling shame”. As the inferior people, Gomez and his Hispanic friends always viewed themselves as the negative ones, never having a positive self–esteem, and yet always being restricted because they could not speak their native language of Spanish. They often times were treated unfairly by their teachers, and did not receive an equal education from their school. “It’s clear now that we entered the contest with negative images of ourselves. From childhood, we must have suspected something was inherently wrong with us” (¶ 4).“Foul Shots” has showed that those who happen to be the inferior ones actually have no idea why they feel inferior. The inferiority demonstrated merely creates a negative self-esteem for the Hispanics who live in America. Hence, for this reason, Gomez
Throughout the novel there is constantly a combination of Spanish, English, and Spanglish, especially towards the end in Chico’s dream about Willie Bodega. In the dream Bodega tells him, “A new language means a new race. Spanglish is the future. It’s a new language being born out of the ashes of two cultures clashing with each other” (212). It is not until this point that Chico sees that through this combining of languages he can live simultaneously in both worlds; that of the white mainstream world and that of his relatives and those in Spanish Harlem. Even though race is a major issue in the novel, it has a lot to do with the way one expresses ideas. In other words, ones speech and language are a race of their own. This novel does not treat race as simply an issue of skin color, but by all aspects of the way a person presents him or herself. Accordingly, when Bodega says that a new race can be created by language, he is addressing the idea that race can shift during the course of one’s lifetime. For instance, when the police come to see Chico he notices they are Latino but says, “Cops are a race unto themselves. It’s blue first and brown second” (173). Here it becomes clear that one can possess many different races, which does not all have to do with color. When Chico says