Hispanic Heritage Month: Embracing our Diverse Culture
By: Tamika Massie, Lead Parent & Community Liaison
Office of Federal Programs – Title I
Hola padres de las Escuelas Públicas de Richmond. En los
Estados Unidos, 15 de Septiembre al 15 de octubre se el
período de tiempo designado para celebrar el Mes de la Herencia Hispana. Hello
Richmond Public School’s parents. In the United States, September 15 to October 15 is
the period of time designated to celebrate National Hispanic Heritage Month.
September 15 was chosen as the starting date for the celebration because it is the
anniversary of independence of five Latin American countries: Costa Rica, El Salvador,
Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua. The nationally recognized month is also used to
celebrate the historical and important presence of Hispanic and Latino Americans in
North America, starting with the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus.
According to the 2010 U.S. Census, Hispanics make up 16% or 48 million of the U.S.
population and are the fastest growing minority group. National Hispanic Heritage
Month is meant to celebrate the customs, legacies and achievements of citizens in the
United States with Hispanic roots. I encourage you to take a moment and become
familiar with the suggested reading materials below that you can read with your child, as
well as those that older children can enjoy by themselves. Let’s embrace the Hispanic
culture, not only during Hispanic Heritage Month but every day.
Scholastic Suggested Reading
Grades K-2
About this book: Flying around Manhattan Island, somersaulting in midair, resting in the sky on a chair-shaped
cloud... Rosalba and her grandmother, her abuela, are having an extraordinary
adventure. How do they manage this exhilarating travel that started in the park?
On Rosalba's marvelous imagination.
Grades: K-2
About this book: Funny things have happened to Carlos before, but nothing as
funny as when Carlos' ear starts to itch and he comes to realize that something
is growing in there: A squash dangles out
of his ear. A squash!
Could this be from not bathing? Carlos
hates to take a bath. He refused to take a
bath, despite his mother's warnings about
what would happen if he does not bathe
after working on his family's New Mexican
farm.
Grades: 4-7
About this book: Naomi Soledad Leon Outlaw has had a lot to contend with in
her young life, her name for one. Then there are her clothes (sewn in polyester
by Gram), her difficulty speaking up, and her status at school as "nobody
special." But according to Gram, most problems can be overcome with positive
thinking. And with Gram and her little brother, Owen, life at Avocado Acres
Trailer Rancho in California is happy and peaceful...until their mother reappears
after seven years of being gone, stirring up all sorts of questions and challenging
Naomi to discover and proclaim who she really is.
Grades: 3-5
About this book: Don Ricardo, or Tio Rico as he is called by the children, is the
piñata maker of Ejutla de Crespo, a village in southern Mexico. Told in English
and Spanish by award-winning author/photographer George Ancona, El
Piñatero/The Piñata Maker documents this traditional Latin American art, and
offers readers a fascinating glimpse of Mexican village life. Includes a note on
how to make piñatas at home.
Grades: 6-8
About this book: "I wonder what it would be like to be free? Not to need wings
because you don't have to fly away from your country?" From award-winning
author Julia Alvarez comes the story of Anita de la Torre, a 12-year-old girl living
in the Dominican Republic in 1960. Most of her relatives have immigrated to the
United States, her Tio Toni has disappeared, Papi has been getting mysterious
phone calls about butterflies and someone named Mr. Smith, and the secret
police have started terrorizing her family for their suspected opposition to the
country's dictator. While Anita deals with a frightening series of events, she also
struggles with her adolescence and her own personal flight to be free.
Grades: PreK-3
About this book: When Frida Kahlo's mother was worn out from caring for her
five sisters, her father gave her lessons in brushwork and color. When polio kept
her bedridden for nine months, drawing saved her from boredom. When a bus
accident left her in agony, her paintings expressed her pain and depression —
and her joys and loves
Grades: 6-8
About this book: Esperanza thought she'd always live with her family on
their ranch in Mexico — she'd always have fancy dresses, a beautiful home,
and servants. But a sudden tragedy forces Esperanza and Mama to flee to
California during the Great Depression, and to settle in a camp for Mexican
farm workers. Esperanza isn't ready for the hard labor, financial struggles, or
lack of acceptance she now faces. When their new life is threatened,
Esperanza must find a way to rise above her difficult circumstances —
Mama's life, and her own, depend on it.
Grades: 3-5
About this book: Mama Provi and her granddaughter Lucy live in the same tall
apartment building -- Mama Provi on the first floor, Lucy on the eighth. When
Lucy has the chicken pox and can't come down to visit, Mama Provi decides to
make a trip upstairs with a big pot of her tasty arroz con pollo. But on her way
up the seven flights of stairs, she meets a neighbor on every floor. En un dos
por tres (in Spanish this means "lickedy-split"), the chicken and rice are joined
by Mrs. Landers's crusty white bread, Senor Rivera's frijoles negros, Mrs. Woo's
tea, and more…and Mama Provi arrives at Lucy's door with a tremendous feast!
Grades: K-2
About this book: Mam is pregnant with a new addition to the family, but
that doesn't stop her from preparing a meal for her family every day of the
week. Dishes such as empanadas, gazpacho, sardines, or pollo are served
spicy or hot, but on each day a family member is too busy to come to the
table. At the end of the week, Mam is too busy giving birth in the local
hospital to share a meal. But the following Sunday, everyone gathers to
welcome little baby Rosa and savor a dish of paella.
Grades: 9-12
About this book: In this beautifully written novel, Victor Martinez gives
readers a vivid portrait of one Mexican-American boy's life. Manny's story is
like a full-color home movie--sometimes funny, sometimes sad, but always
intensely original. For Manuel Hernandez, the year leading up to his test of
courage, his initiation into a gang, is a time filled with the pain and tension,
awkwardness and excitement of growing up in a mixed-up, crazy world.
Manny’s dad is always calling him el perico, or parrot. It’ s from a Mexican
saying about a parrot that complains how hot it is in the shade while all
along he’ s sitting inside the oven and doesn’t know it. But Manny wants to
be smarter than the parrot in the oven—he wants to find out what it means
to be a vato firme, a guy to respect. From an exciting new voice in Chicano
literature, this is a beautifully written, vivid portrait of one Mexican-American
boy’s life.
Grades: 6-8
About this book: After dark in a Mexican border town, a father holds open a
hole in a wire fence as his wife and two small boys crawl through.
So begins life in the United States for many people every day. And so begins
this collection of twelve autobiographical stories by Santa Clara University
professor Francisco Jimenez, who at the age of four illegally crossed the
border with his family in 1947.
"The Circuit," the story of young Panchito and his trumpet, is one of the most
widely anthologized stories in Chicano literature. At long last, Jimenez offers
more about the wise, sensitive little boy who has grown into a role model for
subsequent generations of immigrants.
Grades: 3-7
About this book: Much to his father's disappointment, Neftalí is not like other
children. Frail and painfully shy, he spends most of his time alone: collecting
treasures, reading, writing, and daydreaming — pastimes his authoritarian
father thinks are for fools. Neftalí finds beauty and wonder everywhere: in the
oily colors of mud puddles; a lost glove, sailing on the wind; the music of birds
and language. The natural world and his native Chile and the painful injustices
Neftalí witnesses there move him equally. While his father plans to build him
into a robust doctor, Neftalí has other longings.
Against all odds, Neftalí prevails against his father's cruelty and his own
crippling shyness to become one of the most widely read poets in the world,
Pablo Neruda. How Neftalí reconciles his own dreams with his father's is at the
heart of this inspiring, radiant, and profoundly moving story of self-discovery.
Grades: 4-7
About this book: In this novel told in verse, ten-year-old Juanito
Palomares moves from a rural life to San Francisco and San Diego in the
late 1950s.
Juanito, his mother Lucha, and his elderly father Felipe, are a tiny family
who, after years of working in the fields of California's Central Valley,
move to San Francisco's Latin Mission District to live with relatives.
Juanito longs to be in one place, rather than "going, going, going," and
pines for the love of his often-absent father.
Through many changes of school and friends, he tries to balance the
attraction of the street life with his Mexican family's wish for him to be a
"good boy." This family story of growing up Latino will resonate with
readers of all backgrounds.
Grades: 9-12
About this book: Judith Ortiz Cofer is a master of language. As both a
poet and a novelist, she tells María's story in an unusual way, which she
calls microfiction. The book is comprised of short, narrative vignettes,
with poems interspersed, and the result is powerful and emotionally
satisfying.
María is a girl caught between two worlds: Puerto Rico, where she was
born, and her new home, New York. As she struggles to lose her island
accent, María does her best to find her place within the unfamiliar culture
of the barrio. With the Spanglish of the barrio people ringing in her ears,
she finds the poet within herself.
Grades: 9-11
About this book: It is 1969 in Spanish Harlem, and fourteen-year-old
Evelyn Serrano is trying hard to break free from her conservative
Puerto Rican surroundings, but when her activist grandmother comes to
stay and the neighborhood protests start, things get a lot more
complicated — and dangerous.
Grades: 3-5
About this book: Moving to Vermont after his parents split, Miguel has
plenty to worry about! Tia Lola, his quirky, "carismatica," and maybe
magical aunt makes his life even more unpredictable when she arrives
from the Dominican Republic to help out his Mami.
Notable Latinos in U.S. History
Sonia Sotomayor, J.D.
1954 - Born in the Bronx, New York
1976 - Graduated summa cum laude from Princeton University
1979 - Graduated from Yale Law School
2009 - First Latina appointed Supreme Court Justice in U.S.
history
Dr. Ellen Ochoa
1958 - Born in Southern California
1991 - Became an astronaut
1993 - Became the first Hispanic-American woman in space
Roberto Clemente
1934 - Born in Puerto Rico
1972 - Hit his 3,000th hit
Died in a plane crash
1973 - Inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame