Mexikid: A Graphic Memoir

Like many graphic narratives, Mexikid frequently employs onomatopoeia—the use of words whose sounds mimic the sounds to which they refer. For example, “chun-ta-ta,” Pedro’s word for traditional Mexican music, makes the sounds of the music it describes. In Chapter 13, when the boy is eating the Pop Rocks that Pedro and his brothers give him, the words “slurp,” “fizz,” and “snort” are all drawn over the picture of the boy eating: These words mimic the sounds of the Pop Rocks dissolving as he eats them. Using onomatopoeia in this way makes the story more vivid and contributes to its energetic pace, evoking the sounds of the events Pedro is describing as they happen. Onomatopoeia also contributes to the informal and humorous tone of Pedro’s narrative voice.

A flashback is a part of a narrative that takes place in the past, before the present events of the story. Mexikid takes place in 1977, but many stories from the history of Mexico and the history of Pedro’s family are represented in the form of flashbacks.