User:Aeroglove566/The Revolt of the Cockroach People

Reception


As Marcial Gonzalez notes, "not all critics have shared a favorable opinion of Acosta's novel". Critics argued the novel gave shallow explorations of ethnicity and exaggerates many aspects of the Chicano movement in East LA, not representative to the real events. During this time, Chicano literature assisted in shaping the cultural tropes and concepts of Chicanismo, "creat[ing] socially engaged works fusing mimetic reflections of the socio-political conditions of Chicana/os with myths and symbols." Critics hold a shared interpretation that the novel satirizes aspects of Chicanismo and criticizes the contradictions within the movement. Marc Priewe argues that Acosta proposes a "reflexive nationalism," against essentialist attitudes of the Chicano movement. Some believe that reception from Chicano critics reject Acosta's novel because of its criticism of Chicano nationalism building at the time.