The Oscar De La Hoya Family: A Classic Immigrant Story

Boxer and Promoter Oscar De La Hoya's autobiography American Son will no doubt be of interest to the Golden Boy's fans as well as to boxing fans generally.  But his family's story is a classic immigrant story, with both his parents immigrating for a better life in the United States and settling in East Los Angeles.  De La Hoya tells a very funny story about returning from a trip to Mexico to visit relatives when his newly naturalized mother, who spoke English as a second language, told the border officers that she was an "American Market" when she meant to say "American citizen." (p. 56).

For any who might worry, De La Hoya, born a U.S. citizen, makes it clear that his parents came to the United States lawfully.  The book is revealing about the very modest circumstances in which the so-called Golden Boy grew up, the various identity issues ("Straddling the Border" pp. 135-41) that he faced as a Mexican-American in the United States (which hit a cresecendo pitch with his fights over Mexican boxing icon Julio Cesar Chavez), and De La Hoya's enlightened views about immigration, immigrants, and immigration reform (no doubt influenced by his family's exeriences and his own growing up on L.A.'s Eastside).

KJ