Question

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?

Answer 1

The grandmother may even be originally Mexican since she used the term "hijo" for son and used the burro as an example of what not to be. She was obviously biased in favor of Mexican girls. I personally can understand this as I got married to a woman from Honduras and the mayor who gave us the civil wedding scolded me for taking away their women and that he hoped I appreciated the loyalty and hard working nature of the Honduras women so I can sympathize with this grandmother.