Buried Onions

Buried Onions by Gary Soto

Soto, G. (1997). Buried onions (1st pbk. ed.). New York: Harper Collins

ISBN: 0064407713

Plot

Eddie is a young man who lives under the hot summer sun of a Fresno barrio. His cousin (named Jesus), father, two uncles and best friend are all dead. He is surrounded by cholos and cholas, but Eddie is not in a gang. He is being pressured by Jesus’ mother and best friend, Angel, to avenge his cousin’s senseless murder. He is resisting the influence of those around him to take up a life of violence and crime. He attends school at the Community College and takes a job painting curbs in the suburb. This ends when Eddie’s boss’s truck is stolen while in his possession. He ends up fighting with Angel when he begins to suspect that Angel is the one who killed Jesus. Angel is now out to kill Eddie. Eddie must find a way to survive and make sense of his life.

Critical Evaluation

Soto’s writing is very evocative. You can feel the heat rising from the Fresno asphalt, smell the cows and onions of the fields and the stuffiness of the streets. The stifling stillness of the weather combines with the oppression of poverty to create a sense of hopelessness. "The sun was climbing over the trees of City College and soon the black asphalt would shimmer with vapors. I had a theory about those vapors, which were not released by the sun’s heat but by a huge onion buried under the city. The onion made us cry." Eddie’s struggle to stay out of trouble is touching and hard-scrabble all at once. This book is perfect for Tweens at a crossroads.

Readers Annotation

Eddie is a young man trying to get by in the Latino ghetto of Fresno. Eddie wants to stay out of trouble. But his father is dead. His two uncles are dead. His best friend is dead. Now his cousin, Jesus has been brutally murdered. Eddie’s aunt wants him to avenge the death. Jesus’ best friend wants him to avenge the death. Will Eddie be able to stay out of trouble, or will he take up the way of the gangs and avenge his cousin’s death?

About the Author

Gary Soto was born in Fresno in 1952 to working class Latino parents. Soto began as a poet with Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Charles Simic and Pablo Neruda as early influences. Soto's first collection of poems, The Elements of San Joaquin, won the United States Award of the International Poetry Forum in 1976. Soto writes novels for young adults from the Latino perspective. Of his work, Soto states, “...as a writer, my duty is not to make people perfect, particularly Mexican Americans. I’m not a cheerleader. I’m one who provides portraits of people in the rush of life."

Genre: Realistic Fiction

Curriculum Ties: Language Arts, Current Events, Cultural Studies

Booktalk Ideas: Have you ever had to make a hard decision? What if that decision was about whether or not to kill your cousin’s murderer? That’s the choice that faces the boy we meet in this book.

Reading Level: Grade 6+
Interest Level: Grade 7+
Challenge Issues: Violence, Teen Pregnancy. The issues raised in this book are common to those living in poverty. I would defend this book as an important and realistic portrayal of life in a ghetto.

This is included because it is a work relevant to the lives of many students today.