In 1973, he was a Chicano hippy college student who wore bell-bottoms and tie-dyed shirts.
Now, Gary Soto is an author of 10 poetry collections and many novels, including “Buried Onions” and “Jessie,” as well as numerous published essays and short stories.
Soto, who spoke at Bakersfield College’s Indoor Theater Oct. 15, described his early life as being marked by poverty. Wearing a long-sleeved shirt with lines of upper- and lower-case brown letters, Soto said that as a child growing up in a working-class Mexican family in Fresno, his toys were pinto beans and cans, and his summers were spent on the front lawn darting around sprinklers. As a student at Fresno City College, Soto and a roommate ate nothing but frijoles three times a day. As a college student, Soto drove a
beat-up Volkswagen.
“That VW was a great gas saver because we pushed it all the time. It never worked, man,” Soto said.
After Fresno City College, Soto went on to Fresno State and then to UC Irvine. He conceded that it took him a long time to hone his professional writing skills, and that he was never very good at keeping up journals. Nevertheless, he published his first book at age 25.
He also admitted that his parents were never very supportive of his writing endeavors. Despite this burden, he said he managed to infuse much of his work with humor. Soto read a poem about making tortillas with his friends as a child, and thetortillas were often not shaped the way they were supposed to be. Soto and his friends joked that their oddly shaped tortillas were shaped like countries such as Africa and Australia and others.
In the poem, the tortilla shaped like France was a “tall hat” and the tortilla like Chile was a “long tie.”
“Greenland tastes like Mexico,” one of Soto’s friends had said.
Soto said he also tried to fill his short stories about family life with humor as well. In his story, “Sorry, Wrong Family,” the main character, a girl named Catalina, puts up with a lackadaisical father and a disgusting younger brother who spits into bottles of Dr. Pepper. Catalina yearns to find someone with manners, Soto said. “Am I related to these gladiators?” Catalina asks.
Soto also talked about the stories he wrote about the perils of young people’s relationships. In “Accidental Love,” Marisa, a young woman who lives in Fresno, deals with a cheating boyfriend.
“Cheating is a regular Fresno experience,” Soto said.
The dismayed Marisa describes the boorish, cheating boyfriend as having fingers that are always tinged orange because he eats Cheetos all the time. Marisa remarks that at least she licks her fingers clean after eating Cheetos.
Soto stated that he is often inspired by the poems of South America’s Pablo Neruda, and he writes because his wife tells him to. To the aspiring writer, Soto said to get an agent and submit work to publications as often as possible.
“Play the game,” Soto said. “You have to be part of the literary landscape.”
Many attendees of Soto’s lecture said they enjoyed the presentation of his works.
“His stories are not hard to understand,” said Melissa Robinson, 20, nursing major. “You can relate to the characters.”
“I really liked the way Soto interacted with the audience,” said Corey Domingo, 19, biology major.
BC English professor Richard Marquez says that he uses Soto’s work in his classes, and BC business major Katie Lee, 22, says that her mother, a teacher in Bakersfield, also uses Soto’s work in her class.