Question

Read the following excerpt from Gary Soto’s story "Like Mexicans."

My grandmother gave me bad advice and good advice when I was in my early teens. For the bad advice, she said that I should become a barber because they made good money and listened to the radio all day. “Honey, they don’t work como burros,” she would say every time I visited her. She made the sound of donkeys braying. “Like that, honey!” For the good advice, she said that I should marry a Mexican girl. “No Okies, hijo”—she would say— “Look, my son. He marry one and they fight every day about I don’t know what and I don’t know what.” For her, everyone who wasn’t Mexican, black, or Asian were Okies. The French were Okies, the Italians in suits were Okies. . . . she lectured me on the virtues of the Mexican girl.

What inference can be made about the grandmother’s point of view in this excerpt?
She is eager to assimilate herself and her family into mainstream American culture.
She is unwilling to embrace any aspect of multiculturalism because she detests American culture.
She wants to preserve her family’s Mexican culture even though she no longer lives in Mexico.
She believes that marrying an “Okie” is equivalent to ruining any prospects of financial success.

Answer 1

She wants to preserve her family’s Mexican culture even though she no longer lives in Mexico.

Step-by-step explanation:

The whole excerpt demonstrates how the grandmother wants to preserve her Mexican culture, and wants to pass it to her grand children since they are no longer in Mexico. First, she is stating that the best job he should found is to be a barber, because it is an easy one (inferring that other works in the states are long and hard). Second, she doesn’t want her grandson to date another “race” that is not Mexican (inferring that Mexican girls are the best ones and that if he dates other nationalities, he is going to have problems).