Culture 3 Latinx

 

LS 5653-20

Genre 3 Review

Shannon Hicks

 The Poet X

The Poet X

 

Bibliography

Acevedo, Elizabeth. The Poet X. HarperCollins, 2018. ISBN 978-0-06-266281-1

Plot Summary

Xiomara Batista is a high school sophomore looking for her independence and voice as she writes poetry. Her strict, Dominican mother believes Xiomara should be a dutiful, Catholic daughter who should not interact with boys. One of her passions is writing poetry so when she is invited to join the “Spoken Word Poetry Club” at school, she skips Confirmation class and hides her participation. As Xiomara begins dating, hiding from church, and understanding her relationship with her twin brother, she writes her thoughts in her leather journal. Things begin to unravel when Mami finds her poetry journal and confronts Xiomara.

Critical Analysis

Xiomara is of Dominican heritage and the cultural expectations are many for her. Mami has two rules for Xiomara: she cannot date and cannot have relations, at least until she is married. Her mother speaks more Spanish than English and tries to make Xiomara conform to her ideals.

Xiomara lives up to her name, which means “one who is ready for war” p.7 and realizes it is not a Dominican name when she looks it up. It is one that is difficult for others to pronounce until she sounds it out for them, “See-oh-MAH-ruh” which irritates her because it is embarrassing and awkward. Xiomara describes herself as “unhide-able” since she is taller than her father, with “D-cups and swinging hips” p. 5 and “tight curls that spring like fireworks…a full mouth…[with] lashes that are too long” p. 48. She feels she is a mix of Dominican and the Greek monster, Medusa.

Interlingualism is sprinkled throughout the story allowing the story’s context to help with meaning. “La niña de la casa” p. 42 is one example and allows the reader to infer that Xiomara is to help with housecleaning. Xiomara dusts around the altar to La Virgen María, where her mother is often found praying and where Xiomara is forced to kneel in rice and beg la Santa María for forgiveness when she is caught kissing a boy.

Xiomara offers quick glimpses into the Dominican culture, particularly with Noche Buena when she explains that her Mami does not buy a tree but rather buys poinsettias with which to decorate. She regals tales of Latinos celebrating the night before Christmas and eating coquito laced with rum and attending midnight Mass.

Review Excerpts

Kirkus: “Poetry helps first-generation Dominican-American teen Xiomara Batista come into her own. Fifteen-year old Xiomara ("See-oh-MAH-ruh," as she constantly instructs teachers on the first day of school) is used to standing out: she's tall with "a little too much body for a young girl." Street harassed by both boys and grown men and just plain harassed by girls, she copes with her fists. In this novel in verse, Acevedo examines the toxicity of the "strong black woman" trope, highlighting the ways Xiomara's seeming unbreakability doesn't allow space for her humanity.”

“The Poet X.” Kirkus Reviews, January 2018. Novelist, EBSCOhost (accessed October 1, 2020).

Publisher’s Weekly: “Acevedo’s free verse gives Xiomara’s coming-of-age story an undeniable pull, its emotionally charged bluntness reflecting her determination and strength. At its heart, this is a complex and sometimes painful exploration of love in its many forms, with Xiomara’s growing love for herself reigning supreme.”

“The Poet X.” Publisher’s Weekly, January 2018. Novelist, EBSCOhost (accessed October 1, 2020).

Awards

·         Pura Belpré Award – winner 2019

·         Américas Award – honor 2019

·         Odyssey Award – honor 2019

·         Lambda Literacy Award – finalist 2019

·         Michael L. Printz Award – winner 2019

·         Notable Children’s Book – commended 2019

·         Amelia Elizabeth Walden Award – winner 2019

·         Indies Choice Book Awards – winner 2019

·         CCBC Choices – selection 2019

·         Walter Dean Myers Award for Outstanding Children’s Literature – winner 2019

·         Carnegie Medal – winner 2019

·         Golden Kites Award – honor 2019

·         National Book Award for Young People Literature – winner 2018

·         Junior Library Guild – selection 2018

·         Boston Globe-Horn Book Award – winner 2018

·         SLJ Best Books for the Year – selection 2018

·         Fanfare – selection 2018

·         Kirkus Prize for Young Readers’ Literature – finalist 2018

Connections:

·         Attend, host or view a Slam Poetry event.

·         Use Padlet to allow students to add their favorite poems.

·         Read Gabi, A Girl in Pieces by Isabel Quintero or Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass by Meg Medina

Enchanted Air

Enchanted Air

 

Bibliography

Engle, Margarita. Enchanted Air. Simon & Schuster, 2015. ISBN 978-1-4814-3523-9

Plot Summary

This memoir is told in verse. Margarita splits her childhood between California and Cuba and feels as if she has two selves, one in each country. She is most herself and at home in Cuba, while in California she is lonely and waits for the moment she can fly to her mother’s homeland. As news of a revolution begins in Cuba, Margarita is worried about her family overseas and equally concerned that she may never be able to return to the island.

Critical Analysis cultural markers pertinent to each culture

The island is lush, filled with salt air, bird songs and farmland. In Cuba, Margarita describes her grandmother’s house with “cool ceramic floor tiles on a hot day, and an open-air kitchen with roll-up walls…the old women in rocking chairs” p. 10. In the “centuries-old house, each floor-to-ceiling window is truly an opening—no glass” p. 97. Her abuelita lights La Virgen de la Caridad del Cobre in the house whenever one needs prayer. Engle’s description of the setting showcases the unique Cuban landscape.

Margarita’s American father’s side of the family tells family stories that are “brief and vague” while her mother “tells her flowery tales of Cuba” p. 28. She determines that the length of a story is dependent on immigration verses escape. Her Cuban mother is so homesick that she listens to Cuban music, sings in Spanish, tells stories about Cuba and sews tropical dresses for herself and her daughters. As the conflicts rages on, Margarita’s “Mami turns into Mom, change before my very eyes…to this strange, in-between nations exile” p.124.

In school, Margarita senses that both teachers and students are angered by Cuba and ask her, “what are you?” She feels conflicted and frustrated that she needs to explain she is both American and Cuban with paternal grandparents from the Ukraine. The teacher bends down to her level and says, “we were like Santa Claus on that poor little island…such ingratitude” p. 43 which leaves her feeling guilty and confused.

Review Excerpts

School Library Journal: “And while the narrative unfolds over 50 years ago, Engle's experiences will still resonate with adolescents and teens today. Any child who has felt like an outsider will recognize themselves in Margarita's tale. When the Cuban Missile Crisis ended and everyone's focus shifted, the author was left confused, empty and unfulfilled by her school's seemingly senseless focus on what felt like irrelevant historical events. What American child with ties to a country experiencing turmoil couldn't relate to the lingering after-effects of far off events in our era of two-minute news bytes?”

“Enchanted Air.” School Library Journal 61.5 (2015): 138. Novelist, EBSCOhost, (accessed October 2, 2020).

Kirkus: “Woven into the fabric of her childhood is the anxiety of deteriorating relations between the two countries as the Cuban revolution takes place, affecting both her family and the two countries at large. This is also the time when Engle discovers books and her own poetry as safe places to retreat to. Though it is a very personal story, it is also one that touches on issues affecting so many immigrants, as when she wonders: "Is there any way that two people / from faraway places / can ever really / understand each other's / daydreams?" As so many of our children are immigrants or children of immigrants, we need more of these stories, especially when they are as beautifully told as this one.”

“Enchanted Air.” Kirkus Reviews, May 2015. Novelist, EBSCOhost, (accessed October 2, 2020).

Awards

·         Américas Award – commended 2016

·         Lee Bennett Hopkins Award – winner 2016

·         Walter Dean Myers Award for Outstanding Children’s Literature – honor 2016

·         YALSA Nonfiction Award – finalist 2016

·         Pura Belpré Award – winner 2016

·         Notable Children’s Books – commended 2016

·         Skipping Stones Honor Awards – 2016

·         Notable Social Studies Trade Books for Young People - 2016

·         CCBC Choices – honor 2016

·         Golden Kite Awards – Nonfiction winner 2016

·         Junior Library Guild Selections – middle selection 2015

Connections

·         Locate Cuba on a map. List things the students already know (or think they know) about Cuba. Add to the list when the class has finished the novel.

·         Work with the social studies department and use the novel as a supplement to a lesson about the Cuban Missile Crisis.

·         Invite a Cuban immigrant to speak to the class about Cuba and their personal experience.

Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass

Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass

 

Bibliography

Medina, Meg. Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass. Candlewick Press, 2013. ISBN 978-0-7636-7164-8

Plot Summary

After Piddy’s mother falls through the crumbling lobby stairs in their New York City apartment, Piddy and her mother move to a rental house. This move means that Piddy must attend a different high school in a rougher area of town. Five weeks into the school year, rumors start that Yaqui Delgado wants to kick Piddy’s ass. Piddy has no idea what she has done or who Yaqui Delgado really is. As Piddy tries to keep herself safe and the bullying she endures a secret, the “real” Piddy begins to disappear as she tries to fit into a different persona.

Critical Analysis

In the first pages of Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass readers learn that Yaqui thinks the new girl, Piddy, is arrogant and shakes her bottom for attention so she wants to beat her up. Piddy reveals that she’s only had “an ass for about six months” and only recently got her curves. She chalks her ample backside to all the merengue dancing to Héctor Lavoe records.

Latina women are the focal point of the novel. Piddy mother is a Cuban immigrant, while Piddy herself is half Cuban and half Dominican, and her best friend and surrogate aunt are also Latinas. The two male characters are secondary. Piddy has a strong group of females surrounding her and who only want the best for her, even if they show it in different ways.

Interlingualism is throughout the novel which adds to the authentic Latinx theme of the story without taking over. Spanish words like, cuerpo, mi vida, así, and hasta aqui allow an English reader to interpret the meaning of the words without needing a glossary or interrupting the flow of the book.

Salón Corazón is where Piddy’s mom’s best friend, Lila works and Piddy sweeps. The Salón is the Latina gossip center where Piddy hears rumors about her father, Lila spots Yaqui’s gang and, ultimately where Piddy shares the bullying she has endured. The Salón is a safe spot for Piddy and where she gains support from the Latina women in her community, so it is only fitting that she reveals her pain to her mother here.

Review Excerpts

Booklist: “Medina authentically portrays the emotional rigors of bullying through Piddy’s growing sense of claustrophobic dread, and even with no shortage of loving, supportive adults on her side, there’s no easy solution. With issues of ethnic identity, class conflict, body image, and domestic violence, this could have been an overstuffed problem novel; instead, it transcends with heartfelt, truthful writing that treats the complicated roots of bullying with respect.”

“Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass.” Booklist 109.16 (2013): 59. Novelist, EBSCOhost, (accessed October 3, 2020).

School Library Journal: “The Latino cultural milieu adds a richness and texture that lifts this up above many problem novels. The plot points are dexterously intertwined, and the characters are distinct. A real bonus for those looking for a bullying book for older readers that is not simplistic.”

“Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass.” School Library Journal 59.4 (2013): 168. Novelist, EBSCOhost, (accessed October 3, 2020).

Awards

·         Pura Belpré Award – winner 2014

·         Américas Award – commended 2014

·         Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers – commended 2014

·         Notable Children’s Book – commended 2014

·         CCBC Choices – selection 2014

·         Junior Library Guild Selection – 2013

·         SLJ Best Books of the Year - 2013

Connections

·         Read the National Book Award Winner, Jumped by Rita Williams-Garcia or The Education of Margot Sanchez by Lilliam Rivera.

·         Watch an interview with the author as she discusses her personal inspiration for the novel. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-zWeWYy-gs

·         Use the Teaching Tolerance lesson “Where We Stand” with students. They will read different scenarios and examine how they would respond to ethical dilemmas. https://www.tolerance.org/classroom-resources/tolerance-lessons/where-we-stand