No comments about Vicente Fox: The Road to the Mexican Presidency (Proud Heritage-the Hispanic Library).

No comments about Jose De San Martin (Hispanic Heritage).

3 comments about Calling the Doves/El Canto De Las Palomas: El Canto De Las Palomas.

1. This is a wonderful biography of the author Juan Felipe Herrera. This story is told in narrative style through the eyes of young Felipe who was born in California to his Mexican parents. Felipe describes the warmth and love he recieves from both his mother and father. The illustrations are beautiful. The story is written in wonderful prose. Felipe tells us of his daily life in various migrant camps throughout California. I would definately read this aloud to 2nd through 4th graders. A good way to explain to younger children what life is like for a migrant family.



2. I am a teacher and find this story a great example of personal narrative for my students. It also connects well with students of today.



3. This bilingual picture book tells the story of poet Juan Felipe Herrera's early years with his parents who were migrant farmworkers in California. Herrera's love for his poor hardworking parents is evident. The vibrant, vivid pictures by Elly Simmons combine with Herrera's Spanish/English text to make a delightful children's book that readers of all ages will enjoy!

No comments about Salma Hayek (Latinos in the Limelight).

No comments about Rudolfo A. Anaya: A Critical Companion (Critical Companions to Popular Contemporary Writers).

2 comments about Standing Tall: The Stories of Ten Hispanic Americans (Scholastic Biography).

1. 
   This is one of those books you MUST read. Don't let a traditional education turn you into a comsumer zombie. Learn about YOUR history and herstory! The PEOPLE'S HISTORY. NOT THE CORPORATION'S HISTORY! NOT THE RICH WHITE MAN'S HISTORY!
   
   There are more important people out there than ever were revealed to you in public or catholic schools, Hector.




2. There are lots of people in this world.But only these ten made it in this book!Its Great for people who dont know much about people!Such as Roberto Clemente and Jaime Escalante!Roberto was a baseball player and Jaime was a Teacher!

4 comments about A History of Light.

1. A lovely book; it somehow transcends the childhood experience at the same time that it does evoke the joys and pains of first love. It can be read as an experience in the present, or how such an adult experience should be. A fresh, charming book.



2. Forget perfume! Read me words of love.

   "A History of Light" is straight from a bottomless well of the real stuff. This is the intensity, recklessness and sweetness I want from a lover. The innocence and abandon of a twelve year-old boy's first headlong plunge into his own heart, told over fifty years later with the seasoning and wisdom of a poet.

   Light the candles. Pour the wine. Turn the page. Read me words of love.




3. Forget perfume! Read me words of love.

   A History of Light is straight from a bottomless well of the real stuff. This is the intensity, recklessness and sweetness I want from a lover. The innocence and abandon of a twelve year-old boy's first headlong plunge into his own heart, told over fifty years later with the seasoning and wisdom of a poet.

   Light the candles. Pour the wine. Turn the page. Read me words of love.




4. I met Alvaro Cardona-Hine the summer after my Sophomore year in college, at his home in Truchas, NM. He was a charming man, who invited me in to his studio, and his home. He offered water or wine to drink, and then signed a gallery book of his paintings for me.

   Two years later, I discover The History of Light.

   I loved reading this book, I savored every minute of time that it took to read, and I walked away thinking love should be just like this

   It is an adult version of childhood romance; it's also a remembering of loss. Sometimes on the border of being sentimental, it's very sweet. The prose is elegant,the words and ideas simple, without being simplistic. My favorite passage reads "Whatever seemed unfinished once now is undefinable. I had thought God interested in creating puzzles out of life when He had meant for me to stand in awe of beauty. What an easy thing to feel that is when it's messenger stands before me."

   Another passage, worth noting, reads "Your fingernails, little as they are, have small white moons sailing over their crests. And your face has freckles, as though it had lain a whole night exposed to the elements and your skin had photographed the stars."

1 comments about !Concha Ortiz y Pino: Matriarch of a 300-Year-Old New Mexico Legacy.

1. Living in New Mexico for 37 years it would not be possible to have never heard of Concha Ortiz y Pino de Kleven. Her formal name along brings attention to her and if you ever saw her you would remember her. Her life has been long and interesting but this book does not do her story justice. Perhaps it is because it is an "authorized" biography. I felt Concha was looking over the author's shoulder, or at least saying what was and was not to be included in this book. I really wished there were opinions and comments from others....not just words of praise. There are many contrasts and indeed contradictions in her life and these were not brought out. She was the first, or near first, woman in many situations yet she never identified herself with feminists nor supported the movement in the 70's. She always considered being "feminine" important, but what of the story of her interactions both political and social with leading feminists of her long life? This story is not told. There are hints of tensions within the Hispanic community (LULAC opposed some of her ideas), but not the story of her viz a viz La Raza and Chicanas in New Mexico. If this were not an authorized biography I think the tale would be richer and more informative and she would still come across as a very important figure in New Mexico.
   
   The book is often repetative and needed a good editor to tease out the story.
   
   Catharine Stewart-Roache
   Socorro, NM

5 comments about Farmworker's Daughter: Growing Up Mexican in America.

1. The story of Rosela begins in Mexico, in a dry land where people need much and many times do not have enough. She and her mother take the journey up, to unknown lands with so much uncertainty...but with an incredible desire to see their lives amount to something other than a shunned, divorced mother and her fatherless daughter. Mexico will remain Rosela's identity throughout her memoir, sometimes she loves this fact, others ( like when she was a teen in the 60's she wishes it were not so) she wishes she could be, and especially look more like her blond American friends. She lives in time when immigrants lives were even more uncertain than they are today, a time when the Vietnam war was full force, and the excitable 60's and 70's were rolling through. I enjoyed reading about how this impacted her as a foreigner, and what the feelings were towards her during this time.
   
   Rosela does not set the goals that would be acceptable for her to reach (as an immigrant in a small town), but she longs for dreams that will satisfy her, and fulfill her purpose. She grew up an outsider, but not only an outsider when she was in California, but also when she went on trips back to Mexico. Life is not easy, and mistakes are made, but Rosela's story is one of hope, dreams and much courage. I was honored to read Rose Castillo Gibault's memoir, the lessons she learned are not only for her situation, but I found them completely relatable. Because I could easily relate to this feeling of not fitting in very well, or depending on other's mercy to feel "at home", Farmworker's Daughter was that book that just feels right. Not pretentious, preachy or condemning, but just the right blend of truth, reality, and life.
   
   The writing of Farmworker's Daughter was really great, I enjoyed reading from the perspective of the little girl, then adolescent, then college age woman. It had really good follow through and lead me on right to the end of the book very smoothly. I loved reading this book, check it out!
   
   
   
   Here are some quotes ( I love quotes so I always have to include them!!):
   
   "As a teenager I once asked my mother why she had left since she always talked about the greatness of Mexico. Maybe she had given up too much to come here, I suggested. She thoughtfully considered what I knew to be an impudent comment, and I immediately felt guilty. She shook her head sadly and looked into space, as if her gaze could travel back in time and pinpoint the precise moment she had made that momentous decision. [...] "There was nothing to loose. There was nothing for you and me.""(p. 23).
   
   " Once I stepped outside my door, I was all alone and had to fend for myself. The only thing I feared more than school was disappointing my mother, so I hid my anxieties" (p. 48).
   
   "One of the most memorable episodes during my years in Mrs. Rojas class was the day our class picture was taken and Mrs. Rojas announced that the prettiest and most photogenic person in class was Ramona--a shy Mexican girl. The blondes were shocked, Ramona blossomed with new self-confidence and the rest of us were struck by the notion that a Mexican could be considered beautiful" (p. 86).
   
   "It was great to be popular in Mexico by acting out being an American, because in the United States I certainly didn't feel like one" (p. 112).
   
   " Those Americans found Mexicans in Mexico charming, but those same Mexicans, it seemed, quickly lost their "charm" once in the United States. My cousins were proud, and being snubbed left them with little desire to explore beyond the small-town prejudices. They did not return" (p. 114).



2. Rose Castillo Guilbault's memoir is a great addition to the narrow field of autobiographies by Mexican American women! Well written and honest, this memoir will help readers, teens and adults, experience what it was like to grow up as a working class Mexican American girl in Arizona and California in the 1950's and 60's. In spite of our cultural differences, after reading this book I feel a kinship to this author. I believe that Rose and I could have been friends if we had gone to school together. I look forward to her next memoir because I sense there is much more of her life story that needs to be told.



3. We haven't read the book yet, but our eleven-year-old, grand daughter did. She liked it so much, that she patterned her school report about her grandmother on it.



4. Teens will be moved and inspired by Rose Castillo Guilbault's memoir, "Farmworker's Daughter: Growing Up Mexican in America" (Heyday Books, $11.95 paperback). The chapters in this richly detailed book arose from a series of essays first published in the San Francisco Chronicle.
   Guilbault is best known as an award-winning broadcast and print journalist who now is vice president of corporate affairs at the Automobile Association of America of Northern California. Her memoir recounts the intellectual, cultural and emotional trek from her youth in the border town of Nogales, Mexico, to growing up in California's Salinas Valley. Guilbault fights bigotry, economic hardship and sexism. She eventually finds success in the world of words -- although the phrase "I can't" has no place in her vocabulary. [This review first appeared in the El Paso Times.]



5. These biographical vignettes surely represent the experiences of many immigrants to the US. But they also describe the problems faced by most families as they struggle with the challenges of personal differences, adolescence, bad luck, and poor decisions. As a result it failed to inspire either my sympathy for the characters or a sense of need for immigration and/or social reform. Sadly, it is boring. The style is not professional; it is not even "good writing". I expected a story of hope and inspiration or a call to activism but was disappointed. I regret my reaction. Perhaps it would have been different had the story been told by a seasoned author.

No comments about Ten Hispanic American Authors (Collective Biographies).