Skip to main content
PBS logo
 
 

Book Review of Child of the Half Millenium: What it Means and How it Feels to be Mexican American

Child of the Half Millenium:  What it Means and How it Feels to be Mexican American
reviewed on + 260 more book reviews


Child of the Half Millennium is an autobiographical journey of cultural awareness and acceptance by a Mexican American from South Texas who, like millions of others, grew up culturally alienated in a society which minimized his heritage.

Pinon forcefully and credibly asserts that Mexican Americans will be empowered socially and politically only if they embrace their ethnicity instead of discarding or minimizing it as we have been taught to do. Contrary to popular belief, this identity to culture will strenghthen, not weaken U.S. society, and will make it genuinely, "American".

This work has been called the "most forceful argument for multiculturalism ever made". Pinon draws from his own life experience and his knowledge of U.S. government to make his points on a topic that is on the cutting edge of today's society.