Thoughts on Gary Soto's poems & short story "Like Mexicans"

The Estonian Comes to Dinner:  Soto opens this poem stating "Again I dream..." and then goes into describing a meal that could only exist in his imagination because of his economic stance. This poem sheds light on the poverty stricken culture of many Mexican and Mexican American families. I loved the last two lines: "let the day end and us begin, the fork, the knife, the plate, all useless." This is very powerful imagery to me because he is waking up from his dream of a wonderful dinner filled with cheese, and wine, and bread to the reality that is poverty and that has no use for kitchen utensils.

Oranges: the recurring theme of poverty is present in this poem as well. Soto describes his first outing with a girl at the age of 12. He has two oranges in his pocket, one of which he would have been glad to offer the girl. Instead they end up at a drugstore staring down the candy aisle. She picks out a chocolate bar and he pulls out his change. The chocolate costs a dime, but he only has a nickel to offer. He hands the saleslady an orange and a nickel and she looks at him understandingly and gives him the chocolate. This turn in the poem is very hopeful. 

Salt: again we see this recurring theme of poverty in Mexican culture. This young boy is sent out to find food (some sort of fish or frog) for his family. He fails to find any but on the walk back home him and his friend enter a cow field and lick the cow's salt rock. This shows just how hungry these people are-- willing to belittle themselves to the state of a cow just to receive the smallest amount of nourishment and flavor. He closes with "And what was lost, the salt gave back." Even though this poem is horribly desperate that last line instills a bit of hope in the reader-- something that the young boy needs to carry on. 

Like Mexicans: I really enjoyed this short story. Basically it's about a young Mexican man from a poor family that falls in love with an Asian girl named Carolyn. His grandmother had told him to marry a Mexican girl for a number of reasons, but she left out her main reason which was that he needed to marry someone of his same class, someone poor. He goes to Carolyn's house and realizes she is poor as well and that he can marry her without her worrying about money. What really stood out to me in this story was in the final paragraph. At Carolyn's house there are kittens clawing at the screen window begging for food-- Soto compares them to Mexicans. He mentions cats clawing to get food and cats being shot down with squirt guns. This is a powerful allegory to how Mexicans are treated because they, like the cats, only want food and a better chance at life, but there is a "screen" in the way. This screen could symbolize many things: the hardships of poverty, the struggle to climb out of poverty, the U.S. border, etc.