Pendeja, You Ain’t Steinbeck: My Bronca with Fake-Ass Social Justice Literature – Formal critique

ENG1141

Creative Writing

Formal Critique

Reviewer’s Name: Mohammed Hashim

Title: Pendeja, You Ain’t Steinbeck: My Bronca with Fake-Ass Social Justice Literature

Author’s Name: Myriam Gurba

Write one item you enjoyed for four out of the six topics. Write one question you had for at least four out of the six topics.

Plot

I loved the author’s personality throughout her writing of this piece. As she started discussing the way gringo’s reactions to hearing about Mexican publicists, in a way Jeanine Cummins was a typical gringo in her eyes. Overall, Cummins should’ve stayed away from writing about Mexico and Mexican people, there are many people in Mexico more qualified to do so.

Characters

I enjoyed the way Gurba described her grandfather, being a publicist and inspiring the author in a way that she can shine light to Cummin’s ignorance. Gurba also mentions other Mexican writers to show credibility in her argument.

question- How do you think your grandfather would aproach American Dirt if he was the one to do the review?

Point of View

It just wasn’t Cummin’s place to write about Mexicans because you can easily seem racist and ignorant. You can never see their lives in the perspective of the people you are writing about, unless you are one of them.

question- Would you say you’re more qualified to write about Mexicans?

Setting & Context

question- did you ever think about confronting Jeanine Cummins and what you’d say to her regarding American Dirt?

Voice & Style

question- Did you get any feedback from any famous writers about your review on the Dirt?

Dialogue

I loved some of the Spanish word choices Gurba used to describe how she felt and it shows credibility on her part. Some word choices such as, gabacha, pendeja please, gringo and “its pages ought to be upcycled as toilet paper” describing American Dirt.