Baseball in April and Other Stories

Soto’s protagonists share a Mexican American heritage and must frequently navigate a multicultural society as they struggle with the conflicts and emotional challenges of adolescence. Some seek belonging within their families even as they struggle to negotiate the differences between their family’s past and the world they now inhabit. Meanwhile, others maneuver between the Mexican and American cultures as they explore the world beyond their home. Still others struggle to find a form of belonging that blends the contrasting cultural expectations of family and society.

In “Growing Up,” Maria struggles to connect with her father because she lives in a multicultural world and cannot fully appreciate the hardships that he once endured in Mexico. This interpersonal conflict is emphasized in the contrast between her father’s values and her own self-centered desire to watch “American Bandstand” and read Seventeen magazine. He angrily tells her, “In Chihuahua, my town, we worked hard. You worked, even los chavalos! And you showed respect to your parents, something you haven’t learned” (99). In Mexico, the young people—los chavalos—must work harder than Maria has ever had to work in the United States. Her father’s observations highlight the distinct cultural differences between growing up in Mexico and growing up in the United States.