Richard Rubio Essay

Being considered the first Chicano novel written, Pocho tells a vulgar coming-of-age story of a first generation Chicano (American born Mexican) boy, Richard Rubio. Richard, like many first generation Chicanos is faced with an integral question: to assimilate to the American culture, or preserve his Mexican heritage? The novel tells a story where Richard experiences cultural assimilation that drastically changes his beliefs, but frequently hints at relapsing to his father’s ways. Ultimately, Richard Rubio comes full circle to essentially relive the life of his father, Juan Rubio. Because of this, Richard falls victim to succumbing to the forces of tradition, culture, and society. Richard exemplifies this through his failure to fulfill his academic
aspirations, his familiar (similar to Juan’s) relationship with his mother as well as his family, and how he carries out a violent lifestyle that is also similar to his father’s.
Richard was always an intelligent and curious individual. His mother, father, and priest are a few names on the list of people who get bombarded with Richard’s questions. He shows an unorthodox thirst for knowledge and inquisitive attitude; he can even come off as a smartass, especially to his parents who are uneducated. This thirst acts as a double edged sword: getting him the intelligence he wants, but also burdening his parents. This can be seen early in his life, well before adolescence. This starts becoming a household problem when he starts upsetting his mother; one of the first instances can be seen in the church, when Richard is only nine years old. His mother Consuelo, like most mothers, just wants what is best for her son. She also wants him to behave like a traditional Chicano would at the time. More specifically, Consuelo wants Richard to follow a more traditional route in his life where he quits school to tend to the farm and support the family. As Richard becomes more educated, he begins to question the teachings of the Church as well as his mother. Rubio deliberately asked himself existentialist questions, “Who made the world? God made the world. Who is God? God is the creator of Heaven and Earth and of Things. He knew this…That he still did not know who God was” (Villarreal 33). Consuelo is a God-fearing woman, and she worries about her “sinful” son. Instead of supporting Richard’s studies, she constantly urges the opposite for him. “No, let me finish telling you. Already I can see that books are your life. We cannot help you, and soon we will not be able to encourage you, because you will be obliged to work. We could not spare you to go to a school even if there was a way for you to do it, and here is a great sadness in our hearts.” (Villarreal 61). Despite these tribulations, Richard remains to succeed academically. He excels in school, and is second in his class, only behind Ricky. Ricky, being a similar intelligent individual that Richard can relate to, eventually becomes Richard’s best friend. Richard evidently tops Ricky’s intellect when he confronts Ricky accusing Richard of being gay when he confessed his heterosexual love and appreciation for Ricky. Again, our protagonist shows signs of promise that he can persevere. Richard aspires to be a writer; he even eventually gets Juan to be encouraging of his goals. Amidst all of this, Richard somehow relapses after a heated confrontation with his mother and father. Juan requests a divorce from Consuelo, to be with his young, pregnant girlfriend Pilar. Richard succumbs to the turmoil within the household and somehow conjures the idea that the only way out of that mess is to enlist in the army. Richard comes close to achieving his dreams of graduating high school and working, but shows signs of relapse to his Mexican heritage that is even prevalent in other themes.
Juan’s relationship with Consuelo is sad, to say the least. Being head of a patriarchal household, Juan does what he wants, whenever he wants. Consuelo is completely servile to Juan; she even dreams of eating with dinner her family. "She wished that once, only once, she could sit to dinner with her family, but she could not. She must wait on them until they were finished, and not until then could she sit down." (Villarreal 92). Juan has never showed respect to her as a wife, at least not in a monogamous sense. This is first seen with the whore on his way to the United States before Richard was born, and then with his “good” friend Cirilo’s wife, and finally with Cirilo’s niece Pilar. He also beats Consuelo (as well as his daughters) and does not seem to have an intimate relationship with her. This is, of course, an exception to the short lived moment of intimacy shared between Juan and Consuelo when she feels attracted to him for the first time in twenty years when he shows her respect. Again, this moment is short lived as Juan sooner-than-later returns to his promiscuity. Living and growing up amongst them both, Richard has had ample time to access how his father treats his mother. In fact, he shows an incredible measure of his maturity when he was able to recognize the empowering feeling his mother had when she felt like she had power for the first time, when she threatens Juan by telling him that he can’t treat her badly in the United States like he did in Mexico anymore. Unfortunately, we see another relapse in Richard Rubio towards the end of the novel. The night when Richard returns to his house in chaos, he sees his father tell his sister that she is his daughter and that she does what he wants inside his house. After Juan hits his daughter and wife, Richard intervenes. As Juan leaves the house and Richard becomes the head of the house, it can be observed that Consuelo returns to a state of being servile and submissive. "She began to sweep the house, and the symbolism was so starkly real to him at that moment that he ran out the rear door, and, clutching at the trunk of the walnut tree, he uttered painful sobs until there were no tears left." (Villarreal 170). She consoles him to stay and support the family and pray for a blessing, but he reassures that he no longer believes in God. He tells her that he will enlist in the army, and send money back to her. He disappoints his mother with this disheartening news of what he wants to do. Like his father, he upsets her and is disheartening. This act of sending money back to his family also echoes not only a common custom in Chicano culture, but perfectly mirrors the actions of Juan.
Violence is a reoccurring theme in this novel.
It resonates within Richard’s life from when he was a child until the rest of the story. Not surprisingly, Juan Rubio’s life also had its fair share of violence. Juan fought in multiple wars, killed many men, and is infamous for being a brutal and ruthless war hero. Richard first starts to show signs of following his father’s footsteps when he got in his first fight. Richard has many fights, and usually loses them. At one point, Richard is even offered money to fight. This violence seemed uninteresting Richard, but again he relapses with his relationship with Zelda and the Pachucos. He often wrestled and play fought with Zelda. However it can be speculated that this play fighting is even more deep-rooted, shadowing the actions of his father at home with Consuelo. As with the Pachucos, Richard is very intrigued by a group of soldiers wearing zoot suits, and begins associating himself with them. They perform dubious acts, and encourage Richard to join them in a gang fight. Lastly, the final resonance of violence happens when World War II starts. Richard’s Japanese friend, Thomas, gets beat up and he is being sent to an internment camp. Richard consults his Pachuco friends to defend Thomas by ganging up on the people that beat him
up.
Pocho, is a term used to call Chicanos and is usually used by native-born Mexicans. The term has a slight negative connotation, as it can imply that someone has lost their heritage and their roots. Since this term is used to describe people in the “in-between” with respect to being American or Mexican, Pocho is the perfect way to describe Richard Rubio. He fulfills the requirement of being a person of Mexican heritage who has assimilated to the American culture, or at least tried to. By enlisting for the war, Richard falls victim to succumbing to the forces of tradition, culture, and society. Richard exemplifies this through his failure to fulfill his aspirations, the traditional way he treats his mother as well as other women, and his prominent violent nature that he cannot escape from.

Works Cited Villarreal, Jose A. Pocho. New York: Anchor Books: Random House, INC., 1959. Print.