Among the most important observations made in the course of Joe Rodriquez‘ essay on the Chicano novel are that 1) an ethnic legacy must be recognized described, and acknowledged in its complexity and contradictions before it can become a viable part of an individual\u27s identity; 2) ethnic legacies and affiliations, as with all relationships into which individuals are born, can be burdensome liabilities as well as touchstones of sustenance and liberation; 3) an ethnic\u27s unquestioning affiliation with the group often leads to a diminishment of personal worth. With his focus on dialectical forces within Chicano life and on ethnicity as a dynamic and problematical condition, Rodriquez supplements other recent efforts to reconsider prevailing assumptions regarding fictive statement and structure in Chicano writing
