Tomas Rivera, like many in his generation, such as Gary Soto and Rolando Hinojosa, grew up in the 1950s in a world that was 180 degrees different from the "Ozzie and Harriet" or "Leave it to Beaver" world portrayed on TV. As adults, these authors, as well as other Mexican-Americans, later grew up to take part in the political activism of the 1970s by portraying the everyday life that they experienced for the benefit of those who lived that life, as well as for the benefit of those who needed to know that another type of America existed (Cßrdenas de Dwyer, 1980).
In 1970, Tomßs Rivera published his original Spanish-language ...y no se lo trag= la tierra. Then, in 1995, due to the release of the movie, "àand the earth did not swallow him", a new translation of the book into English by Evangelina Vigil-Pi±=n was published. The original edition won the first national award for Chicano literature in 1970 and is the story about a Mexican-American family's life as migrant workers during the 1950s, as seen through the eyes of a young boy. Exploited by farmers, shopkeepers and even fellow Chicanos, the boy must create a self-identity in the face of discrimination, death, and disease. According to an interview with Severo Perez, who made the movie, Rivera "wanted to make clear that while some these stories may have been true to him, he wanted the work considered fiction" (Fitzsimmons, 2000, p. 8). In writing this way he was able to have a more universal appeal, such as when Soto or other Chicano writers use the name "Chuy" (Olivares, 1990), and so be able to speak to the population that oppresses as well as the population that is oppressed.
This activism in the 1970s was not simply a reaction to the gap between the white and the Chicano culture of the 1950s, however, it was based on Chicano political activism that began in the 1930s and 40s, which in turn is based on a cycle of political activism that dates even further back....