|
 Cisneros,
Sandra. The House on Mango Street. 1984. Vintage Contemporaries.
ISBN 0679734775.
Sandra Cisneros was born in Chicago as the seventh child and only
daughter to a Mexican father and Chicana mother. They moved around
a lot while she was growing up, always in poor neighborhoods with
empty burned out buildings and lots overgrown with weeds. Since that
time, she has received fellowships and awards for her writing, including
the renowned MacArthur Foundation Fellowship.
Her early background is the basis for The House on Mango Street and
we hear from Esperanza Cordero. Esperanza doesn't feel like she fits
in her family sometimes, let along her neighborhood. Her family moves
into the house on Mango Street after a long series of rundown apartments.
But it is not the house long dreamed of and talked about by her parents. “It
is small and red with tight steps in front and windows so small you'd
think they were holding their breath.”
Esperanza was named after her great-grandmother who was wild and
refused to get married “until my great-grandfather threw a sack over
her head and carried her off. Just like a fancy chandelier. And the
story goes that she never forgave him. She looked out the window
her whole life, the way so many women sit their sadness on an elbow.” And
Esperanza doesn't want to inherit her great-grandmother's place at
the window.
We see Esperanza make friends with Rachel and Lucy. She talks about
many people that live in her barrio, like the woman who is forbidden
to leave her house by her husband, so she asks Esperanza and her
sister, Nenny, to go to the store and bring back coconut or papaya
juice. Or the Earl of Tennessee who has a wife that no one can agree
on what she looks like. Some say she's a red-head, some a blond,
but she never stays long when the Earl hurries her inside his apartment
and locks the door behind them.
There are numerous signs of Hispanic culture throughout the book –food,
superstitions and language. The way girls would get married far too
young to escape and have their own house, only to find it is a prison
with a new address. How a woman brought from Mexico after her husband
worked and saved to bring her and their son to America cries in anger
and bewilderment as her son sings a song from a commercial in English.
The language in this young adult novel is ultimately poetic and is
clear and engaging. One of my favorite parts of the book talks about
her family going to drive on Sunday in the nice part of town to look
at the houses. “People who live on hills sleep so close to the stars
they forget those of us who live too much on earth. They don't look
down at all except to be content to live on hills. They have nothing
to do with last week's garbage or fear of rats. Night comes. Nothing
wakes them but the wind.”
 Soto,
Gary . Boys at Work. 1995. Illustrated by Casilla , Robert.
Delacorte Press. ISBN 0385320485.
Rudy is in big trouble. While playing a game of neighborhood baseball,
he tripped rounding third base and landed hard on a pile of equipment
lying nearby. In that pile was a Discman that Slinky's brother had
brought to the game. The Discman was broken and Slinky's brother
declared that Rudy was going to be dead when Slinky found out. So
now Rudy needs to find a way to get fifty dollars to replace the
Discman and hope to avoid Slinky's fists.
Rudy and Alex , Rudy's best friend, begin a series of creative and
unusual odd jobs in order to make money. The first job they get is
combing the fleas out of the fur on the thirteen struggling, scratching
cats belonging to an old lady on their block. And each of them got
a dollar for their efforts. They repair a doghouse, clean a garage,
recycle cans and a wooden door (but have to buy it back for more
than they sold it for because they found out it was an antique that
belonged to Rudy's aunt). Rudy sees a poster offering a reward for
a lost cat and he calls for the cat until his throat is hoarse.
Rudy works in his uncle's mariachi band one evening playing the maracas,
baby-sits twins, tries to selling apricots, flowers and a fish he
and Alex caught in the river. They try writing analysis and street
dancing.
Then things get more serious when Slinky finally catches up with
them and tells them that the Discman didn't actually belong to him,
but to a real gangster who is out of town, but will be back soon.
Slinky helps them come up with a few ideas to get some money, but
also spends some of their money to impress a girl.
Things look grim just a day or two before Trucha , the gangster,
returns. But as luck would have it, Rudy finds the lost cat. And
just in the nick of time, because Trucha returns before the boys
have collected the money for the cat. He and Slinky go with Rudy
and Alex to collect the reward and Trucha takes the money with a
sneer, but no violence to the boys.
Frequent use of Spanish sprinkled throughout the text is not the
only cultural marker in this juvenile novel. The illustrations do
a very good job of presenting urban Hispanic neighborhoods and dress.
The illustration of Rudy playing in his uncle's mariachi band comes
to mind. Rudy's grandfather tells a story about this childhood in
Mexico . Food and drink are mentioned frequently. At one point, Rudy
heats up peanut butter wrapped in a tortilla. And their aunt feeds
them “ chicharrones ,” pork rinds.
Rudy and Alex shake hands “ raza -style” when affirming their brotherhood.
His parents both have blue collar jobs and work hard to take care
of Rudy and his sister and the house they live in. And Rudy and Alex
work just as hard in this amusing tale of some creative ways for
young boys to make money.
 Mora,
Pat. Tomas and the Library Lady. 1997. Illustrated by Raul
Colon. Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN 0679904018.
Listing just the number of awards and honors this book alone has
earned for respected author, Pat Mora, would take up far too much
space tolist , let alone all the other wards and fellowships she's
earned. The only award I'll mention for this title is that it was
on the Texas Bluebonnet Award Master List for 1999.
Dedicated in memory of Tomas Rivera, and to librarians, this picture
book for up to third graders is based on actual events. Thomas belonged
to a family of migrant workers. They picked fruit and vegetables
during the winter in Texas and in Iowa during the summer. He slept
on a cot in the small house his family shared with the other workers.
While their parents worked in the field, Tomas and his brother, Enrique,
would bring water to their family to drink and play with a ball their
mama had made. When it got too hot, the boys would sit in the shade
with their Papa Grande, their grandfather, and listen to the stories
he had to tell. But Tomas knows all of Papa Grande's stories now,
and Papa Grande tells Tomas to go to the library to learn new stories.
So the next day, Tomas walks downtown to the library. It is big and
quite intimidating to Tomas. He can only peek in the windows of the
doors before a kindly librarian taps his shoulder and invites him
in out of the heat for some cool water. She offers to bring him some
books and asks him what he'd like to read about. She brings him boos
on tigers and dinosaurs and for a while, Tomas forgets about everything
else as he reads. He reads until the library is getting ready to
close and the nice library lady calls him back to Iowa and sends
him off with two books checked out to him in her name.
Tomas reads the stories to his family at night. When they go to the
dump to look for useful things, Tomas looked for books. All that
summer, whenever he could, he spent time at the library, reading
stories and teaching the library lady Spanish. But he has to leave
at the end of the summer. He gives the library lady a loaf of his
mother's pan dulce , sweet bread, and she gives him a new book to
keep.
The illustrations are lively and show a close connection within this
Hispanic family. Dark hair is covered by straw hats in the field
and dark eyes smile at the boys play. The men have mustaches and
the women wear dresses. The librarian is blond and blue-eyed. Storytelling
is valued in the family, first through the oral example of Papa Grande,
and then through the literary tradition of Tomas taking over as the
family's storyteller.
This is a beautifully told and illustrated children's picture book
on how the library, but even more, how a special person in it, can
open the doors of opportunity to those who want to enter.
 Ancona
, George. Viva Mexico!: The Foods. 2002. Benchmark Books.
ISBN 0761413286. *
This non-fiction book begins with an old Mexican proverb, “ Panza
llena , Corazon contento .” It means “a full belly makes for a happy
heart.” And Mexican culture seems to follow this proverb, as there
are traditionally not three, but four daily meals. Breakfast, brunch,
dinner and supper occur at approximately six or seven in the morning,
eleven in the morning, two in the afternoon, and the meal after the
day's work is done, respectively. With the spread of air-conditioning
and changes in business practices from foreign companies, the traditional
two o'clock meal is now just practiced regularly on the weekends
or in very rural areas.
The food itself is discussed and how many different cultures contributed
to the meals of today in Mexico . Native populations raised corn,
tomatoes, sweet potatoes and cacao beans. They also fished, hunted
birds and deer, and raised chubby dogs for food. Although the author
stresses that no one eats dogs anymore. I found it interesting that
cacao beans (the basis for chocolate) were used as currency. The
Spanish came and brought many foods with them like rice, sugar cane,
watermelons, oranges and spices. They also brought domesticated animals
like sheep, cows and chickens. The rice that the Spanish had brought
from Asia , along with their native beans became a staple of Mexican
food, side by side with the ubiquitous tortillas. Many women in rural
areas of Mexico still make homemade tortillas every day. Tortillas
can be used many ways and come in many sizes. Folded, stuffed, pinched,
fried or cut into pieces for chips, the tortilla is a basic in Mexican
cooking. The book also talks about the origin and ingredients of
mole, which is considered the national dish. Dulces are also discussed,
for who could leave out dessert.
There are two recipes included at the end of the book, guacamole
and arroz con leche , or rice pudding. A glossary of the Spanish
words used is included, as well as an index, a table of contents,
and further references. The photos are crisp and real. The people
portrayed are both wealthy and poor, dressed in both rural and urban
clothes. People of all sizes and ages are included, and all have
the tanned skin, dark hair and dark eyes of their ancestral roots.
The photos of the kinds of food are labeled clearly except for the
array on page eleven, I found it difficult to see the words printed
in black type because of the background and the few words printed
in white really stood out. But that was the only flaw in this feast
of Mexican foods.
*No picture available of cover of this title. The painting is named “Mexico
Market” by Art Renshaw.
|
|
