Fiction and Nonfiction in Autobiography

I feel that an idea raised in Weinberg's article connects to a discussion we had in one of our first classes regarding why we study Ethnic Literature in a somewhat separate realm than simply Literature. The idea is that an "author of an autobiography, like a novelist, may design his autobiography to tell more than just his life story."

For Constantine Panunzio's autobiography, the ethnic background of the author and his personal experiences inform the text in a way that a strictly textual analysis could not. As Weinberg states, Panunzio's story on paper seems like a traditional Horatio Alger style success story. However, by understanding that Panunzio lived these experiences himself and that he was active in assisting other immigrants in their transitions to American life, Panunzio's story becomes "a lesson plan [for other immigrants], a carefully designed scenario." This intent certainly shaped how Panunzio chose to tell his story, what he told or omitted, what he embellished or skipped over, or even possibly what he fabricated or borrowed from other experiences. All these choices were made with the goal of creating a "lesson plan" for immigrants with similar origins, and this intended audience would not have fully existed without Panunzio's own involvement in the story he was telling.

The choices about what one puts into an autobiography and what one leaves out can be as important as the text itself. Are these choices as important in a work of fiction? Does an author's ethnic history inform those choices as strongly in a work of fiction?