In a tribute to the customs and traditions of Latinos in the United States, engaging photographs capture four fiestas: the Day of the Dead, las Posadas, the dance of the Matachines, and Three Kings’ Day.
United States
Materials from United States of America
Henry Cisneros: A Man Of The People (Romero, Maritza. Great Hispanics Of Our Time.)
Focuses on the political life of a Mexican American who realized the importance of good leadership and served as a mayor and cabinet secretary.
Honey Blonde Chica
Evie Gomez is one chill chica.She and her best friend, Raquel, hang with the Flojos, a kick-back crew named for their designer flip-flops. And their habit of doing absolutely nothing.But the return of long-lost amiga mejor Dee Dee wrecks Evie and Raquel’s Flojo flow. A few years in Mexico City have transformed their shy, skinny, brunette Dee Dee into a Sangro nightmare. Dee Dee has reinvented herself as “Dela,” complete with tight designer threads, freaky blue contacts, and that signature blond hair.When Raquel wants precisely nada to do with the new Dela, Evie finds herself caught between two very different friends. At heart, is Evie a Cali-casual Flojo chick, or a sexy Sangro diva?How’s a chica to choose?
In My Family / En Mi Familia
From the author of Family Pictures/Cuadros de familia comes a second book that returns readers once again to the town of Kingsville, Texas, near the border with Mexico. Through ful-color paintings and warm personal stories, Garza brings to life more loving memories of growing up in a traditional Mexican American community.
Juan The Bear And The Water Of Life: La Acequia De Juan Del Oso (Paso Por Aqui Series On The Nuevomexicano Literary Heritage)
La Acequia del Rito y la Sierra in the Mora Valley is the highest and most famous traditional irrigation system in New Mexico. It carries water up and over a mountain ridge and across a sub-continental divide, from the tributaries of the RÃo Grande to the immense watershed of the Mora, Canadian, Arkansas, and Mississippi Rivers. The names and stories of those who created this acequia to sustain their communities have mostly been lost and replaced by myths and legends. Now, when children ask, some parents attribute the task of moving mountains and changing the course of rivers to Juan del Oso, the stouthearted man whose father was a bear.From the mountains of northern Spain to the Andes in South America, Spanish-speaking people have told ancient legends of Juan del Oso and his friends. In this children’s tale, agriculturalist Juan Estevan Arellano and folklorist Enrique Lamadrid share a unique version of a celebrated story that has been told in northern New Mexico for centuries.Reading level: age 10 years and up
Laughing Out Loud, I Fly : A Carcajadas Yo Vuelo
From one of the most prominent Chicano poets writing today, here are poems like sweet music-to make the body shake and move to the rhythm of rhyme, to the pulse of words. Juan Felipe Herrera writes in both Spanish and English about the joy and laughter and sometimes the confusion of growing up in an upside-down, jumbled-up world-between two cultures, two homes. With a crazy maraca beat, Herrera creates poetry as rich and vibrant as mole de ole and pineapple tamales…an aroma of papaya…a clear soup with strong garlic, so you will grow not disappear Herrera’s words are hot& peppery, good for you. They show us what it means to laugh out loud until it feel like flying.Juan Felipe Herrera’s vibrant poems dance across these pages in a dazzling explosion of two languages English and Spanish. Skillfully crafted, beautiful, joyful, fun, the poems are paired with whimsical black and white drawings by Karen Barbour. The resulting collage fills the soul and the senseshot and peppery, good for you and celebrates a life lived between two cultures.Laughing out loud, I fly, toward the good things,to catch Mama Lucha on the sidewalk, afterschool, waiting for the green-striped bus,on the side of the neighborhood store, next to almonds,Jose’s tiny wooden mule, the wiseboy from San Diego,teeth split apart, like mine in the coppery afternoon . . .22000 Pura Belpre Award
Return to Sender
After his family hires migrant Mexican workers to help save their Vermont farm from foreclosure, eleven-year-old Tyler befriends the oldest daughter, but when he discovers they may not be in the country legally, he realizes that real friendship knows no borders.
Featured in WOW Review Volume XI, Issue 3
Roberto Clemente: Baseball Legend
Introduces the life of Pittsburgh Pirates rightfielder Roberto Clemente, the first Latino baseball player to gain wide recognition for his contributions on and off the playing field.
Ruiz Street Kids / Los Muchachos De La Calle Ruiz
On a hot summer day, a new kid named David rides into the neighborhood. Gossip about the mysterious boy stretches longer than a wad of gum. The kids wonder why he rides a different bike everyday. Is he stealing them? He gets rough at the swimming pool, he scares the younger kids, and he spies over the fence. Why is he always so mean? Is it true that he eats a bee’s nest for breakfast and sleeps on a bed of nails? What does he want from the kids who live on Ruiz Street and why in the world would they ever want to be friends with somebody like David? The young narrator, Joe Silva, introduces intermediate readers to both his friends and their common enemy on Ruiz Street. David doesn’t have good people skills and doesn’t know quite how to improve them.
Skippyjon Jones in the Dog-House
Skippyjon Jones is a Siamese cat who wants to be a Chihuahua dog, despite his mother’s efforts to make him think “Siamese.”