Lupe Perez has grown up in Los Angeles. She now attends
UCLA where she meets some fellow students who see in Lupe
what she struggles to accept. Lupe is trying to become what
an American really is. This story is her search for the
definition of Americana while trying to live it and be
accepted for it. The problem is that she really hasn't yet
discovered the meaning of the words.
While others see Lupe's potential, she feels pulled in many
directions. From the friend who saved Lupe as a young teen
gang-banger and brought her to a safe place she owns where
other troubled teens congregate to the psychologist who
runs the center and becomes the love of Lupe's life, she
has found a safety net, a safe haven. This is the place
Lupe gives back to every day by helping teach safety
classes and share her past.
At UCLA, Lupe's new friends pull her toward another life,
one she sees as almost foreign. She doesn't have the money
her friends have or the experience to fit in their circles.
One of these friends falls in love with Lupe, introducing
her to new experiences. She now has two men in her life;
one who treats her as a sister because he recognizes he'd
suffocate her dreams, and the other who wants her in his
pre-planned future without realizing she'd suffocate his
dreams.
Lupe struggles with her own dreams for her future. For each
step she takes forward, her past and her family pull her
back. Drugs, shootings and demands of loyalty cloud her
views. It takes tragedy and pain for Lupe to realize what
being Americana is all about and to realize she commands
her future.
In BECOMING AMERICANA, Lara Rios has written a
powerful depiction of life as a Latina in the United States
and the personal struggles of one young woman trying to
find her way in a confusing world. It's touching, exciting
and a wonderful opportunity to begin to understand the many
cultures in our world. I highly recommend BECOMING
AMERICANA.
Ever since an article about Lupe Perez ran in the UCLA
paper, she's become the poster child for the American
Dream: East L.A. bad girl who slashed cop makes good! She
goes to school full-time, works in the food court, and
volunteers at a center for at-risk teens. Against all
odds, Lupe has turned her life around. The thing is, she
never aksed for all this attention. Now, her professor
wants her to write a gigantic thesis about what
Americanization means to Mexican immigrants - and she's
not even sure yet what it means to her.
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