Reading for Self-Acceptance: Rigoberto González’s Journey Through Literature Anonymous College

For author Rigoberto González, the journey into the literary community has been a long one. Growing up in a large family of immigrant farmworkers, reading set González apart from the people around him; when his family, much of whom could not read in any language, received mail it was up for him to read and translate. It is this task that led González to his love of literature as for him it made him feel productive, saying “Before this task, I felt somewhat unimportant and useless. Now I had a function” (“Poetry, Loss and Inspiration: An Interview with Rigoberto González”). Initially, reading served as a means for him to help his family, but the multifaceted qualities that allow applicability to all aspects of life is what kept him engaged. Later on, González, who was finding his sexuality at odds with his upbringing, was able to use this same ability and turn to literature as a means of grappling with his conflicting identities, allowing him to come to terms and, ultimately, embrace himself entirely.

Deeply ingrained within Red-Inked Retablos is the idea of the vitality of literature in a general sense, as well as in a more intimate sense. Starting with an essay entitled “The Truman Capote Aria,” González immediately...