“THE AMAZING WATERCOLOR FISH / EL ASOMBROSO PEZ ACUARELA”

Text and illustrations by Carolyn Dee Flores

Spanish translation by Carmen Tafolla

Amazon Recommended Grade Level: Preschool - 3

Publisher: Piñata Books

ISBN-13: 978-1558858732

“I wish I could see over there / Behind the wall, / Behind the chair.” A lonely pet fish longs to know what exists in the world beyond her bowl and wonders if there could be someone out there who looks like her. When she realizes there’s another fish (whose name is Mike) close by, and he asks what her world is like, the amazing watercolor fish has a great idea. “I’ll show Mike what I think could be!” Using watercolors, she paints a picture of a world with trees and swirling rainbows. Every day she paints more, and then Mike uses his own paint to illustrate more “than just the water and the door.”

“JUST ONE ITSY BITSY LITTLE BITE / SÓLO UNA MORDIDITA CHIQUITITA”

by Xavier Garza

Illustrations by Flor de Vita

Amazon Recommended Grade Level: Preschool - 3

Publisher: Piñata Books

ISBN-13: 978-1558858725

Joaquín and his mother are just sitting down to eat the special sweet bread prepared for the Day of the Dead when a hungry skeleton dressed in a mariachi suit knocks at their door.  The skeleton offers to sing them a song in exchange for just one little bite of the bread.  Soon, two more skeletons show up and offer to play their accordions for just one bite of the bread. And then, three show up and want to play their guitars, four want to play their maracas, and five want to dance—all for just bite of the bread!

“ESTEBAN DE LUNA, BABY RESCUER! / ESTEBAN DE LUNA, ¡RESCATADOR DE BEBÉS!”

by Larissa M. Mercado-López

Illustrations by Alex Pardo DeLange

Spanish translation by Gabriela Baeza Ventura

Amazon Recommended Grade Level: Kindergarten - 3

Publisher: Piñata Books

ISBN-13: 978-1558858473

Esteban wears his green cape every day. He wears it to breakfast, to the park and even to the grocery store. The only problem is that it doesn't do anything. It doesn’t help him fly or become invisible. But when Esteban sees a baby doll at the park, he wraps the doll in his cape and ties it back on to save the doll from a storm. On the way home he jumps over puddles and walks under awnings to keep the baby dry. At home, he wears the doll in his cape as he plays and does chores. Soon, Esteban feels like a superhero. “From now on, I am Esteban de Luna, Baby Rescuer!”

“MAYA AND ANNIE ON SATURDAYS AND SUNDAYS / LOS SÁBADOS Y DOMINGOS DE MAYA Y ANNIE”

by Gwendolyn Zepeda

Illustrations by Thelma Muraida

Amazon Recommended Grade Level: Kindergarten - 2

Publisher: Piñata Books

ISBN-13: 978-1558858596

Maya and Annie are friends who play together on Saturdays and Sundays. They make lemonade with lemons from the big tree in Annie’s yard and play with Maya’s two little dogs. Maya likes the different food Annie’s dad cooks: noodles, rice, fish and dumplings. And Annie likes eating dinners Maya’s mom makes: tacos, chicken, tamales, rice and beans. One very special night, Annie’s dad and Maya’s mom invite their grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins to a big dinner and make a special announcement: they’re getting married! The girls will become sisters, and they’ll spend every day of the week together.

Higher Education

“RICE IN THE TIME OF SUGAR: THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF FOOD IN CUBA”

by Louis A. Pérez Jr.

Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press

ISBN-13: 978-1469651415

How did Cuba’s sugar trade result in the development of an agriculture that benefited consumers abroad at the dire expense of Cubans at home? Author Louis A. Pérez proposes a new Cuban counterpoint: rice, a staple central to the island’s cuisine, and sugar, which dominated an export economy 150 years in the making. In the dynamic between the two, dependency on food imports—a signal feature of the Cuban economy—was set in place. Pérez’s chronicle culminates in the 1950s, as U.S. rice producers and their allies in Congress clashed with Cuban producers supported by the government of Fulgencio Batista.

“THE KING OF ADOBE: REIES LÓPEZ TIJERINA, LOST PROPHET OF THE CHICANO MOVEMENT”

by Lorena Oropeza

Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press

ISBN-13: 978-1469653297

In 1967, Reies López Tijerina led an armed takeover of a New Mexico courthouse in the name of land rights for disenfranchised Spanish-speaking locals. To many young Mexican American activists at the time, Tijerina and his group, the Alianza Federal de Mercedes (the Federal Alliance of Land Grants), offered a compelling and militant alternative to the nonviolence of Cesar Chavez and Martin Luther King Jr., and Tijerina was essential to the creation of the Chicano movement. This full biography of Tijerina offers an unvarnished look at one of the most controversial, criticized and misunderstood activists of the civil rights era.

“THE LATINO GENERATION: VOICES OF THE NEW AMERICA”

by Mario T. García

Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press

ISBN-13: 978-1469645605

Although Latinos are the largest minority group in the U.S., stereotypes and misconceptions about Latinos remain. By presenting 13 oral histories of young, first-generation college students, Mario T. García counters those stereotypes and expands our understanding of what he terms “the Latino Generation.” García reveals that these students and children of immigrants will be critical players in the next chapter of our nation’s history. The testimonios remind us that members of the Latino Generation are not merely a demographic group but real individuals, as American in their aspirations and loyaltyas the members of any other ethnic group in the country.

“EATING PUERTO RICO: A HISTORY OF FOOD, CULTURE, AND IDENTITY”

by Cruz Miguel Ortíz Cuadra

Translated by Russ Davidson

Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press

ISBN-13: 978-1469629971

Cruz Miguel Ortíz Cuadra’s history of the foods and eating habits of Puerto Rico unfolds into an examination of Puerto Rican society from the Spanish conquest to the present. Each chapter is centered on an iconic Puerto Rican foodstuff, from rice and cornmeal to beans, roots, herbs, fish and meat. Ortíz shows how their production and consumption connects with race, ethnicity, gender, social class and cultural appropriation. Whether judging by social and economic factors—or by the foods once eaten that have now disappeared—Ortíz concludes that the nature of daily life in Puerto Rico has experienced a sea change.