Growing up Latino in America means speaking two languages, living two lives, learning the rules of two cultures. Cool Salsa celebrates the tones, rhythms, sounds, and experiences of that double life. Here are poems about families and parties, insults and sad memories, hot dogs and mangos, the sweet syllables of Spanish and the snag-toothed traps of English. Here is the glory, and pain, of being Latino American.Latino Americans hail from Cuba and California, Mexico and Michigan, Nicaragua and New York, and editor Lori M. Carlson has made sure to capture all of those accents. With poets such as Sandra Cisneros, Martiacute;n Espada, Gary Soto, and Ed Vega, and a very personal introduction by Oscar Hijuelos, this collection encompasses the voices of Latino America. By selecting poems about the experiences of teenagers, Carlson has given a focus to that rich diversity; by presenting the poems both in their original language and in translation, she has made them available to us all.As you move from memories of red wagons, to dreams of orange trees, to fights with street gangs, you feel Cool Salsa’s musical and emotional cross rhythms. Here is a world of exciting poetry for you, y tuacute; tambieacute;n.
Genre
Catalog sorted by genre
Neighborhood Odes
Twenty-one poems about growing up in an Hispanic neighborhood, highlighting the delights in such everyday items as sprinklers, the park, the library, and pomegranates.
Buried Onions
When nineteen-year-old Eddie drops out of college, he struggles to find a place for himself as a Mexican American living in a violence-infested neighborhood of Fresno, California.
Green Corn Tamales / Tamales De Elote
Estela’s Swap
Dalia’s Wondrous Hair
Big Bushy Mustache
It’s almost Cinco de Mayo, and Ricky’s class is going to put on a play to celebrate the festive Mexican holiday. When asked to choose his costume, Ricky picks a big, bushy mustache, just like his dad’s. He’s tired of everyone telling him he looks like his mother. After all, he’s a boy–he wants to look like his Papi. Although he’s supposed to leave it in school, Ricky wears the mustache home, reveling all the way in how grown-up it makes him feel. But by the time he gets there, the mustache is gone, and Ricky dreads having to tell his teacher what happened.
Dale, Dale, Dale/Hit It, Hit It, Hit It: Una fiesta de números/A Fiesta of Numbers
Béisbol!
Presents profiles of fourteen Latino baseball players who, from 1900 through the 1960s, were pioneers of the sport in their home countries and the United States.
The Cucuy Stole My Cascarones/El Coco Me Rob Los Cascarones
Mighty Monster Mysteries! Roberto and his mother made thirty dozen confetti-filled eggs, or cascarones, for his birthday party. Roberto can’t wait to crack the hollowed, painted and confetti-stuffed eggs over his friends’ heads. But, when he goes to the kitchen to get the cascarones, they’re gone! The only clue they ever existed is a trail of confetti that leads to a shadow.



