Americas

Materials from the Americas

Sundays on Fourth Street / Los Domingos En La Calle Cuatro

”My cousin Pepe combs my hair back just like his, and Aunt Pilar laughs. Then she slides her red lipstick across my lips, but Mama wipes it off because I’m too young. Mama puts on her new jeans, and Aunt Pilar polishes her high heels. Uncle Armando finishes washing his old car.” And then, a young girl and her family pile into the shiny car, grown-ups in the front, and kids in the back, and head to Fourth Street.Sundays spent on Fourth Street are magical, family outings that three young cousins eagerly anticipate. Strolling down Fourth Street with their parents, the children encounter a bustling wonderland filled with music, food, and fun. The cousins savor sharp bursts of flavor from mangos on a stick covered with lemon, chili and salt; delight in the sight of folk dancers spinning in the plaza; revel in rides and raffles at the church carnival; and yearn for clothes and toys they see in shop windows. While the children may not get the things that so often catch their attention, they can always look forward to more fun together next Sunday on Fourth Street. Based on real-life visits to Fourth Street in Santa Ana, California, author Amy Costales has written a story that pays homage to a special street and, more importantly, time spent with loved ones. Paired with Elaine Jerome’s colorful illustrations that depict lively street scenes, readers of all ages will enjoy Sundays on Fourth Street.

The Making Of A Civil Rights Leader (Hispanic Civil Rights)

Born in 1944, José Angel Gutiérrez grew up in a time when Mexicans and Mexican Americans in Texas and the Southwest attended separate schools and avoided public facilities and restaurants that were designated “Whites Only.” Despite the limits of segregation and rural culture in Texas, the passion to learn and to educate others, as well as to undo injustice, burned in his belly from an early age. Gutiérrez offers portraits of his early influences, from his father’s own pursuit of knowledge and political involvement, to his Mexican pre-school teacher’s dedication to bilingual-bicultural education which did not exist in public schools at that time, and to his mother’s courage and persistence, taking up migrant field work to provide for her family after the death of young Gutiérrez’s father. In this intensely narrated memoir, Gutiérrez details his rise from being beaten down by racist political and agricultural interests in South Texas to his leadership role in the Chicano civil rights movement of the 1960s and 1970s. Complemented by photos from his personal archives, Gutiérrez recalls his struggle for education, his early baptism in grass-roots political organizing, and his success in creating one of history’s most successful third party movements, La Raza Unida Party. Along the way, Gutiérrez earned college and law degrees, as well as a Ph. D. in Political Science. He was elected or appointed to school boards, commissions, judgeships and party chairmanships, all with the single-minded purpose of extending equality to Mexican Americans and other minorities in the United States. Through his tireless efforts, he crossed paths with African American and Native American civil rights leaders, Mexican presidents, and other international figures.

Truth And Salsa

A spirited young girl must travel far from home to finally find herself. MEXICO IS A LONG WAY from Kalamazoo–and not just in terms of miles. Almost-thirteen-year-old Hayley Flynn is spending six months with her eccentric grandmother in the rural mountain town of San Cristobal. Her father recently deserted the family and Hayley’s mom needs time to, as she puts it, “work things through.” Down in Mexico, everyone calls Hayley by her new, more glamorous chosen name, Margarita, and life is surprisingly exciting–exotic birds, beautiful butterflies, holidays, colorful fiestas, and new friends like Lili. Hayley and Lili even win parts as extras in a Hollywood movie being filmed in the town. But there are also difficult lessons to be learned. Poverty and unemployment send Lili’s father and other men from the village to Michigan to work as migrant workers so they can send money back home to their anxious families. Meanwhile Hayley is on the lookout for la fantasma (the ghost) that is said to haunt her grandma’s house. With Lili’s help she solves the mystery–and prepares for a new life with her mom back in the States.

Lolo and Red-Legs

When eleven-year-old Lolo captures a tarantula, it turns an ordinary summer into a series of adventures that take him and his friends beyond their Mexican-American neighborhood in East Los Angeles.

The Smell Of Old Lady Perfume

Claudia Guadalupe Martinez’s debut novel for young adults is a bittersweet story about death, family, and the resilient emotional strength of the human heart. Chela Gonzalez, the book’s narrator, is a nerd and a soccer player who can barely contain her excitement about starting the sixth grade. But nothing is as she imagined-her best friend turns on her to join the popular girls and they all act like Chela doesn’t exist. She buries herself in schoolwork and in the warm comfort of her family. To Chela, her family is like a solar system, with her father the sun and her mother, brothers, and sister like planets rotating all around him. It’s a small world, but it’s the only one she fits in.But that universe is threatened when her strong father has a stroke. Chela’s grandmother moves in to help the family. The smell of her old lady perfume invades the house. That smell is worse than Sundays. Sundays were sad, but they went just as sure as they came. Death was a whole other thing, and Chela doesn’t understand that’s what everyone is waiting for. In her grief and worry, Chela begins to discover herself and find her own strength.Claudia Guadalupe Martinez was born in El Paso, Texas. She learned that letters form words from reading the subtitles of old Westerns for her father. She went on to graduate from college and moved to Chicago to become one of the city’s youngest nonprofit executives.

The Skirt

When Miata leaves on the school bus the skirt that she is to wear in a dance performance, she needs all her wits to get it back without her parents’ finding out that she has lost something yet again.

Conversations with Contemporary Chicana and Chicano Writers

Hector A. Torres conducted these interviews with today’s popular Chicano/a writers, asking each about language and life between languages, about the creative drive that has guided them in their craft and commits them to their art. In sharing their responses, Torres reveals a brief biography of each author and a concise examination of their writings. Taking their stories and essays individually and collectively, Torres explains how each author reiterates issues that have concerned Mexican Americans since at least 1848. Chicano/a authors know that an abundance of politics can spoil a story, as can too little. The writers included here span historical terrain, first, under the shadow of Manifest Destiny and, then, under the America’s imperial sovereignty stance. Interviewees include Rolando Hinojosa (“I Reflect the Way Valleyites Act and React”), Arturo Islas (“I Don’t Like Labels and Categories”), Erlinda Gonzales-Berry (“On the New Mexican Borderlands”), Gloria Anzaldúa (“The Author Never Existed”), Ana Castillo (two separate interviews), Sandra Cisneros (two separate interviews), Pat Mora (“I Was Always at Home in Language”), Richard Rodriguez (“I Don’t Think I Exist”), Demetria Martinez (“To Speak as Global Citizens”), and Kathleen Alcalá (“To Tell the Counternarratives”).