This study will provide a comparative analysis of two books about immigrants' experience in California. Amy Tan's novel, The Joy Luck Club, portrays two generations of Chinese-American women, and Ernesto Galarza's autobiography, Barrio Boy, examines the experiences of Mexican immigrants, especially those of the author as a young male who settled with his family in the barrio of Sacramento. The essence of both works is the authors' intention to honor immigrants' lives, both fictional and factual, and to have the reader appreciate their humanity, heritage, courage and culture. If there is one theme in both works it is the theme of cultural, generational and familial continuity and endurance in the face of clashing cultures and the forces of assimilation. Tan wants the reader to understand the profound and intimate connections between the two generations of mothers and daughters and between the two cultures those generations bridge. Galarza wants to show that the inevitable acculturation process which he and his family went through did not erase his or their personal, familial or cultural identity. Galarza's book is meant to be a refutation of the "rumor" that
Mexican immigrants and their offspring have lost their 'self-image' [and that] . . . a Mexican doesn't know what he is; and if by chance he is something, it isn't any good. I, for one Mexican, never had any doubts on this score (Galarza 2).
The events in both books which lead the characters to come to the United States are similar. In both books, the hope of a better life, especially economically, is what drives the Chinese and Mexican families to seek that better life. At the same time, there is a conflict in the memories of both books' characters, While life in California is undoubtedly better in an economic sense, the memories of both Chinese and Mexican families are marked by a fondness for life in the China and Mexico, even if those memories are colored by unrealist...