Victor is a fourteen-year old Latino kid who cannot escape the societal stereotype that he must be in a gang. He even gets this from his own mother, who states “Do you know what a stereotype you are? You’re the existential Chicano” as he is released from the hospital. He’s wrapped in bandages, has a sling on his arm, and barely remembers being shot. He denies that he’s a cholo, which his mother accuses him of.

And it’s not just his mother who thinks he’s a gangbanger. He gets the same reaction from his sociology teacher who sent him to a teach-in on gang violence. Even other kids at school think he’s in a gang, and Victor wonders if it is because of the clothes he wears.

Victor thinks that most everyone is racist. “They see a brown kid, they see a banger.”

Fortunately, he has an art teacher who encourages him to apply to art schools. He has a girlfriend who is super smart and also encourages him. But in spite of their support, he struggles to overcome society’s expectations for him. 

Chicano writer Daniel Chacon explores art, death, ethnicity and racism in The Cholo Tree.