K-12

“ERIC AND JULIETA: EN EL MUSEO (AT THE MUSEUM)”

by Isabel Muñoz

Amazon Recommended Grade Level: Preschool – 3

Publisher: Scholastic Inc.

ISBN-13: 978-0545345125

Julieta is convinced dragons are real, and when the school visits the museum, her and her brother, Eric, are off on another adventure! Julieta is very happy about the museum visit that is scheduled for the day, and she’s especially excited about getting to see some dragons. But Eric tells her that dragons never existed, and therefore, there aren’t any at the museum. Julieta, however, doesn’t flinch, and she’d rather stands by her belief with such conviction that Eric and his best friend, Tommy, can’t stop talking about dragons thereafter. When the boys see some cleaning implements at the Dinosaurs exhibit, they use them to dress up as dragons.

“ERIC AND JULIETA: ES MÍO (IT’S MINE)”

by Isabel Muñoz

Amazon Recommended Grade Level: Preschool – 3

Publisher: Scholastic Inc.

ISBN-13: 978-0439783705

While Julieta sleeps, Eric explores his artistic talents with his new set of crayons. For Eric, it’s nice when little sisters sleep, because they can’t bug you. But at some point they have to wake up, and when Julieta does, she comes straight to Eric and asks him to share the crayons with her. He obliges, reluctantly, but he won’t give her any paper. All she does is scribble stuff! Instead, Eric prompts Julieta to look elsewhere to express the artist she has inside. What she finds, though, is bound to get them into trouble: she finds the floor and the walls!

“ERIC AND JULIETA: ¿DÓNDE ESTÁ ERIC? (WHERE IS ERIC?)”

by Isabel Muñoz

Amazon Recommended Grade Level: Preschool – 3

Publisher: Scholastic Inc.

ISBN-13: 978-0439783712

Which would you prefer if you were a cat?  Living on the streets?  Or living with a family in a home?  If you thought the answer was a family, then you haven’t met Eric the cat.  As the pet of humans Eric and Julieta, this striped feline is learning firsthand why this brother and sister are known for getting into trouble.  Sure, Eric isn’t a fluffy cat with long fur, but that doesn’t stop Julieta from getting out some curlers and a brush to give the poor cat a pretty kitty makeover.  Can poor Eric survive all this attention, or will he run away?

“ERIC AND JULIETA: DESASTRE EN LA COCINA (A MESS IN THE KITCHEN)”

by Isabel Muñoz 

Amazon Recommended Grade Level: Preschool – 3

Publisher: Scholastic Inc.

ISBN-13: 978-0545355810

On a rainy Saturday while Mom is sleeping, Eric is playing videogames, but he is really dying to play with his sister Julieta and her friend Lupe.  Of course, he won’t admit that, but when Julieta doesn’t even look his way, he tries to hide one of her dolls on top of the kitchen shelves. Unfortunately, as he climbs up, he trips and falls with a loud thump! The girls come to find out what happened, and Eric, to hide his prank, gets them to make cookies for everyone. The idea is as wild as the mess they’re about to create.

Higher Education

“HOTEL MARIACHI: URBAN SPACE AND CULTURAL HERITAGE IN LOS ANGELES”

by Catherine L. Kurl and Enrique R. Lamadrid

Publisher: University of New Mexico Press

ISBN-13: 978-0826353726

In Boyle Heights sits “Hotel Mariachi” where musicians have lived and gathered on the adjacent plaza for more than half a century. This book is a photographic and ethnographic study of the mariachis, Mariachi Plaza de Los Angeles and the neighborhood. The restored brick hotel embodies a triumphant struggle of preservation, and its origins open a portal into the Mexican pueblo’s centuries-old multiethnic past. Catherine López Kurland is a descendant of who built it. Enrique Lamadrid explores mariachi music, poetry, and fiestas, as well as the part Los Angeles played in their development, offering a deep account of mariachi poetics. 

“CONTESTED NATION: THE MAPUCHE, BANDITS, AND STATE FORMATION IN NINETEENTH-CENTURY CHILE”

by Pilar M. Herr

Publisher: University of New Mexico Press

ISBN-13: 978-0826360946

Throughout the colonial period, the Spanish crown made numerous unsuccessful attempts to conquer Araucanía, Chile’s southern borderlands region. “CONTESTED NATION” argues that with Chilean independence, Araucanía became essential to the territorial integrity of the new Chilean Republic. This book studies how Araucanía’s indigenous inhabitants, the Mapuche, played a central role in the new Chilean state’s pursuit of an expansionist policy that simultaneously exalted indigenous bravery while relegating the Mapuche to second-class citizenship. It also examines other subaltern groups, particularly bandits, who challenged the nation-state’s monopoly on force and were thus regarded as criminals and enemies unfit for citizenship in Chilean society.

“A WOMAN, A MAN, A NATION: MARIQUITA SÁNCHEZ, JUAN MANUEL DE ROSAS, AND THE BEGINNINGS OF ARGENTINA”

by Jeffrey M. Shumway

Publisher: University of New Mexico Press

ISBN-13: 978-0826360892

In 1837, Mariquita Sánchez de Mendeville was so fed up with the governor, Juan Manuel de Rosas, that she chose to leave her beloved city of Buenos Aires, Argentina. Leaving was especially hard because Mariquita felt that she had played an influential role in transforming Buenos Aires from a Spanish colonial outpost into a brilliant capital in a world of republics. Juan Manuel de Rosas’ version of order, however, alienated Mariquita who chose self-imposed exile in Montevideo over living under Rosas’ stifling rule. The struggle went on for nearly two decades until Rosas was overthrown and then exiled in 1852.

“BREATH AND SMOKE: TOBACCO USE AMONG THE MAYA”

edited by Jennifer A. Loughmiller-Cardinal and Keith Eppich

Publisher: University of New Mexico Press

ISBN-13: 978-0826360922

From Classical antiquity to the present, tobacco has existed as a potent ritual substance. Tobacco use among the Maya straddles a recreational/ritual/medicinal nexus that can be difficult for Western audiences to understand. To best characterize the pervasive substance, this volume assembles scholars from a variety of disciplines and specialties to discuss tobacco in modern and ancient contexts. It utilizes research from archaeology, ethnography, mythic narrative and chemical science from the eighth through the twenty-first centuries. “BREATH AND SMOKE” explores the uses of tobacco among the Maya of Central America, revealing tobacco as a key topic in pre-Columbian art, iconography and hieroglyphics.