Happy Latino Book Month!
It is essential that I acknowledge this month's celebration of books by and for Latinos, written in both English and Spanish. Unfortunately, my Spanish isn’t as good as it should be, but I can generally give directions to someone on the train when I am asked, “¿Habla español?” During parent teacher conferences, when meeting with parents that only spoke Spanish, the conversation would usually start with my student (their child) as the translator, or perhaps a sibling doing the work. But then I would push myself. Eleven years of Spanish in the NYC public schools (all thanks due to Sra. Margulies, Sra. Nadel, Sr. Ling, and Sr. Díaz) led to a 3 on the Spanish AP exam, which is exactly the right score for me – proficient. Using primarily the present tense, and constantly referring to una cosa, esa cosa, y esa cosa de allá, I was able to communicate using sentences like this:
- “Su tarea es muy bueno (o muy malo)” – His/her homework is very good (or very bad).
- “Ella (o él) habla todo el tiempo en mi clase.” – She (or he) talks all the time in my class.
- “Ella (o él) tiene un excelente cuaderno.” – She (or he) has an excellent notebook.
- “Su hijo (o hija) es un muy buen estudiante, él (o ella) hace todo el trabajo y otras cosas. Me gusta tener de él (o ella) en mi clase. Él (o ella) es muy cómica también.” – Your son (or daughter) is a very good student; he (or she) does all of the work and other things. I like having him (or her) in my class. He (or she) is very funny as well.
I often butchered the language, but by humbling myself and elevating the parent as the fluent speaker in a conversation, we usually had a few laughs and the start of a solid relationship.
All this to say that I can relate to the plight of the heroine Gabí in A Crazy Mixed-Up Spanglish Day (#1) and No More Spanish! (#3) in the series Get Ready for Gabí, by Marisa Montes. In the series opener Gabí finds herself basically tongue tied, because she is super-stressed and therefore mixing up her Spanish and English. She explains, “I’m very proud of how well I can speak both languages. And I don’t like making mistakes. It’s soooooo embarrassing!” Personally, I’ve gotten over the embarrassment of making mistakes when speaking Spanish, and moved on to a place where I am just grateful that I can communicate! But not being totally fluent can frustrate me. As Gabí states in No More Spanish!, “Even though I’d spoken Spanish all my life, today it felt klutzy and klunky. Like my tongue was all twisted up in my mouth.” In No More Spanish!,Gabí is determined to only speak English. She is embarrassed because her Spanish speaking family draws so much attention in public; I used to be embarrassed because my Spanish is so imperfect. Gabí relents when she finds herself volunteering in the children’s ward of a hospital, where Pepito, who can’t speak English, has no one to talk to. After cheering up the lonely little boy, Gabí says, “It felt really good to be speaking Spanish again and to be helping others.” This sentiment encapsulates how I felt when I was able to conduct a parent teacher conference in a second language. As Gabí states, “Now I have two secret weapons – my boots and my Spanish.”
Here are some other fiction I’ve read and would like to highly recommend this month:
The Last Summer of the Death Warriors, by Francisco X. Stork – As a teen librarian, I ordered this book for the YA collection at the public library because it takes place in New Mexico, where I was living and working, and the author received starred reviews for his previous work, Marcelo in the Real World. Pancho Sanchez is an orphan who is determined to track down his sister’s killer, but he gets sidetracked by a new friend at the orphanage that he is taken to. D.Q. is dying of brain cancer and writing the ‘Death Warrior Manifesto,’ where the number one rule is, “A Death Warrior does not whine aloud or in silence under any circumstances.”
In the Time of the Butterflies / En el tiempo de las mariposas, by Julia Álvarez – Reading Spanish literature is a goal of mine, and I am working on this currently with En el tiempo de las mariposas. I read the English version of this title back in 2006, finished it while chaperoning a HBCU college tour, then immediately turned around in my seat on the bus (tears in my eyes), and handed the book to one of my Dominican American students, declaring, “You must read this.” She did, and she went on to discuss the Mirabal sisters with her mother, born and raised in the Dominican Republic.
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, by Junot Díaz – This is the first work that I’ve read by this writer, who lists viewing Star Wars: Episode IV and reading Lord of the Rings as prereqs for his creative writing class at MIT. I had the opportunity to hear him speak to a group of first-year college students about this Pulitzer Prize winning novel, and he is just as candid in person as his narrator is in the book! A work of postcolonial fiction with footnotes, this book has an entry point for every reader, and, at the same time, it leaves us all with some homework to do.
Leer y disfrutar! Read and enjoy!
