They Call Me Güero: A Border Kid's Poems

They Call Me Guero: A Border Kid's Poems is a short novel in verse written by David Bowles for middle school and young adult readers. The book is written in a variety of poetic forms, structured as a series of connected vignettes about the life of a young Mexican-American boy who is referred to by his friends and family as Guero. Guero writes about growing up in America on the Mexican border and his experiences crossing back and forth to visit the land of his ancestors. The book uses border slang and bits of bilingualism that call back to the Chicano English of that region. The poems vary in tone, from humorous to serious, with topics as far-reaching as ghost stories and racial prejudice.

Inspired by his English teacher to begin reading and writing poetry, twelve-year-old Guero writes these poems, which, narrative in structure, follow his life in the borderlands, talk about family, friends, folk tales, and the border wall, among other subjects. Some of the main, recurring characters in the poems are Guero, his sister, Teresa, his friends “los Bobbys,” who are entering seventh grade with Guero, and Guero and Teresa's mother and father.

They Call Me Guero uses bilingualism to make clear the code-switching that Chicano kids, and Guero specifically, experience living on the Mexican-American border. Guero, whose life is based loosely on the experiences of author David Bowles, speaks primarily Spanish with his older relatives, only Spanish with new arrivals from Mexico, mostly English at school, and a combination of Spanish, English, and Chicano dialects with his family and friends. Rather than italicizing the Spanish or Chicano words, Bowles chose to keep all language on the same playing field, prioritizing neither English nor Spanish as Guero’s “first” language.



The book is also concerned with race, which is clear even from the title. Guero is a Spanish word that means “light-skinned man”; Guero was given the name because of the cinnamon color of his skin – a trait which he shares with his idol, the boxer Saul “Canelo” Alvarez. Because of his experience as a light-skinned kid among darker-skinned Latinx relatives, Guero experiences some privilege, which makes him uncomfortable. Though his classmates mock him for his freckles and reddish hair, Guero's father makes it clear to him that both in America and in Mexico, light-skinned people have the advantage, and always have. His father is also the first to admit that this privilege isn't fair.

Turning to more serious political concerns, the book portrays everyday life as a middle school boy in the borderlands. Teresa mocks Guero's friends, whom she describes as “los Derds,” an abbreviation for “Diverse Nerds.” On Saturdays, Guero travels with his parents across the border to Mexico, where they shop in street markets, chatting with friends and locals, who talk to them about life in Mexico. Through interactions with Mexican relatives, Guero learns about the history of Mexico and of the borderlands where he now lives, conveying that history us. The book also includes a number of rather frightening Mexican folktales, told by Guero's abuela Mimi, that incorporate some of the mythic and literary traditions of Guero's family and culture.

Overall, the novel explores in the duality of Guero's upbringing – of his language, his culture, and his history. The discomfort of the border wall that separates the United States from Mexico is particularly alarming for Guero, who feels uncomfortable crossing through the gates. One of the primary themes of the novel is expressed by Guero's father as they cross through the border; he says that for hundreds of years Guero's ancestors have been crossing the Rio Grande, and they will for hundreds of years longer, with or without a wall.



David Bowles is a Chicano author from the Rio Grande Valley in Texas. He has done extensive research into border legends and mythology, which he became interested in through his grandmother's stories. He has written poetry, fiction, collections of myths and legends with a focus on Mexico and the borderlands, and translated a number of works written in Spanish. They Call Me Guero, one of his best-received books, won or was nominated for the following honors: 2019 Notable Verse Novel by the NCTE Award for Excellence in Children's Poetry, a 2019 Pura Belpre Honor Book, a Claudia Lewis Award for Excellence in Children's Poetry, and a Tomas Rivera Mexican-American Children's Book Award, among others.