Historical fictional novel comprised of a series of vignettes surrounding a single Mexican-American family. Graphic imagery and themes regarding disease and death. Spoilers in the comments.

[Inksinger]

I read this book in 2011-2012, although I’m reasonably certain it was published before 1990. Because it follows a Mexican-American family, and because it was one of the books from which we were assigned specific selections during an AP English Literature class, I believe it may have been in the Chicano classics genre. Although I can’t remember the title or the name of the author, I feel reasonably certain the author was Mexican-American.

I don't remember exactly what the cover looked like, though for some reason I feel as though the copies we were given for our classwork were paperback and had minimal or no design. If I'm correct, the covers would have been solid white with blue or red horizontal striping. I also feel as though somehow sunflowers or butterflies are related to the book, though I'm not sure why.

Spoilers ahead for two major(?) plot points.

The two plot points I remember most clearly are as follows:

- A gay man serving in some branch of the US armed forces (I believe the Army) attempts to hook up with a younger white man. This results in the white man beating him to death in a clear depiction of gay panic. The plot is covered by at least two vignettes: one narrated by the gay man himself during the last hours of his life, and the other narrated by the gay man’s brother during the discovery of his body. The murder takes place in the back of a car, and the gay man spends his last few minutes thinking he’s got a mouthful of gravel - his brother’s vignette reveals that “gravel” was actually his teeth being knocked loose.

- An old woman suffering from cervical cancer experiences a uterine prolapse; the narrator of the vignette is one of her children or grandchildren, who directly attributes the cancer and/or prolapse to the large number of children the old woman bore throughout her life. I believe this scene occurs while the old woman is bathing, or that she is otherwise discovered in the bathtub shortly after the prolapse occurs.

[Sam]

Not James Carlos Blake, as far as I know his works

[Rainbowheart]

Coachella?

Rain of Gold?

The Flower in the Skull?