Culture
"The discontent with the Vietnam war, the rising power of the disenfranchised and the growing political consciousness planted by Civil rights, Chicano, and feminist movements all contributed to a chaotic questioning, a disruption of thinking and living" (Viramontes).
As people who are entering a different world it is important to understand the type of culture the characters face; therefore, one must understand the culture that influences the author.
As a Chicana-Mexicana, Viramontes felt that her cultural ethnicity was crucial to her development in writing. The world in which Viramontes came from did not understand her need for writing: their experience was not in menial labor, but in physical labor. Viramontes however chose menial labor; she chose to write about the Mexican-American experience through her characters, and to share that experience with those outside her community. As mentioned in her brief biography she was deeply influenced and amazed with listening to people’s stories, and that included her own people. She grew up listening to stories of her family’s experience with immigration. She grew up listening to her peoples’ experience with the never-ending farm work (something she too experienced herself in Fresno). She grew up during a time of political activism: demonstrations that challenged the law, social status, and basic beliefs that people still believed in from the 1800s. She grew up in a time where it was difficult to be a woman: living in a household that was predominately patriarchal. She grew up during a time where Hispanics were becoming segregated. When East Los Angeles was finally given its name, Viramontes was happy. It was the world of her grandparents, her mother, this was her world, and her peoples’ world: her family. It is for these reasons that Helena MarÃa Viramontes feels that she needs to write. People need to acknowledge how deep the roots of her people go. Viramontes writes to celebrate and represent the neglected voices of her loved ones.