Barrio Boy

If immigration is the historical foundation of the book, the primary psychological theme is identity and belonging. Ernesto arrives in America when he is relatively young, and we witness his growing acculturation. One of the major themes in the book is how immigrants build new identities when they migrate. At first, he experiences profound culture shock in Tucson and Sacramento, but he quickly learns to adapt to his new home. Some of the changes are behavioral, like when he describes how Americans spoke louder and relied less on body language than Mexicans. Other changes reflect the different socio-economic structure of the United States compared to the village in Mexico where he is born. American society is more industrialized, driven by wage labor, and faster paced.

To show the uneven nature of acculturation, Ernesto distinguishes between chicanos and pochos. Chicanos are recent immigrants, primarily of working-class origin, whose difference from American society is clearly marked. They struggle to assimilate. In contrast, pochos were raised in American culture, so despite their Mexican heritage, they blend into American society more easily. In the barrio, the world around them remains very Mexican. Galarza makes a distinction between the barrio as a physical space and the