Writer-in Residence for St. Mary’s University English and Communication Studies Department, Professor Diane Gonzales Bertrand is an award-winning author with works spanning several genres. Her accolades for her bilingual picture books include the Austin Public Library Friends Foundation Award (Texas Institute of Letters) for “THE PARTY FOR PAPÁ LUIS/LA FIESTA PARA PAPÁ LUIS,” the 2011 Bronze Medallion in Children’s Literature for “THE PARK OUR TOWN BUILT/EL PARQUE QUE NUESTRO PUEBLO CONSTRUYÓ” and the American Library Association Schneider Family Book Award for “MY PAL, VICTOR/MI AMIGO, VÍCTOR. And so in honor of Hispanic Heritage Month, we are delighted to feature the works of Bertrand, as well as teaching guides and activity sheets courtesy of Arte Público Press and Delta Publishing Company. For Bertrand’s full bibliography, visit https://www.stmarytx.edu/academics/faculty/diane-gonzales-bertrand/
“THE PARTY FOR PAPÁ LUIS/LA FIESTA PARA PAPÁ LUIS”
Publisher: Piñata Books
ISBN-13: 978-1558855328
Amazon Recommended Grade Level:
Kindergarten – 3
Teacher Guide: https://artepublicopress.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/The-Party-for-Papa%CC%81-Luis-La-fiesta-para-Papa%CC%81-Luis.pdf
Everybody loves a birthday party, and there’s a lot to enjoy at Papá Luis’ fiesta! The children excitedly count the candy that will fill the piñata for the party. The nieces bring the candles for the delicious birthday cake that Mamá Marta baked just for the occasion. One by one family and friends begin to arrive, and soon, they surprise Papá Luis with his wonderful celebration. Told in lively verse, this cumulative tale builds from one page to the next and in the process presents a charming look at a big family gathering to celebrate their patriarch’s very special day.
“THE PARK OUR TOWN BUILT/EL PARQUE QUE NUESTRO PUEBLO CONSTRUYÓ”
Publisher: Raven Tree Press
ISBN-13: 978-1936299126
Amazon Recommended Grade Level:
Preschool – 2
Activity Sheets: http://www.deltapublishing.com/worksheet/ParkActivityPages.pdf
The mayor wants a community park and safe playground for the children, so she enlists a group of kids to join her in asking one of the citizens to donate some of his land. When he agrees, the whole town comes together to create a beautiful park and celebrate with a picnic and fireworks when the job is done. The narrative text builds line-by-line and page-by-page, using repetition and imagery to create a charming story for young readers. Vocabulary recognition and matching pictures to the text help readers gain confidence in both comprehension skills and predicting a sequence of events.
“MY PAL, VICTOR/MI AMIGO, VÍCTOR”
Publisher: Raven Tree Press
ISBN-13: 978-1932748727
Amazon Recommended Grade Level:
Preschool - 3
Activity Sheets: http://www.deltapublishing.com/worksheet/Victor.pdf
Why do we choose the friends we do? That question is easy for young Dominic to answer. He explains just how special his pal Victor really is. After all, Victor tells spooky, heart-booming ghost stories. No one claps louder than Victor at Dominic’s baseball games. And Victor performs a fabulous floating frog stroke and is great at making up stories based on the shapes he sees in the clouds. Yes, Victor is adventurous, imaginative and wheelchair-bound—a detail that doesn’t stop him from living a happy life. Together, Dominic and Victor share a spirited, carefree friendship that transcends their differences.
“SIP, SLURP, SOUP, SOUP/CALDO, CALDO, CALDO”
Publisher: Piñata Books
ISBN-13: 978-1558852419
Amazon Recommended Grade Level: Kindergarten – 3
Teacher Guide: https://artepublicopress.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/TG-Sip-Slurp-Soup.pdf
There is nothing quite like Mamá’s homemade soup. It’s the perfect food for rainy days. It helps with everything from coughs and sore throats to upset stomachs and the sniffles. It even can make backaches and tired feet feel better. So when her family sees her take out her special soup pot (the one with with the white spots), they know they are in for a treat. Filled with colorful illustrations, this yummy picture book contains a recipe in both English and Spanish for Mamá’s delicious beef vegetable soup that little chefs can make and share with their own families.
HIGHER EDUCATION
“DECONSTRUCTING RACE: MULTICULTURAL EDUCATION BEYOND THE COLOR-BIND”
by Jabari Mahiri
Publisher: Teachers College Press
ISBN-13: 978-0807757765
In his book Mahiri argues that multicultural education needs to move beyond racial categories that are defined and sustained by the ideological, social, political and economic forces of white supremacy. Exploring contemporary and historical scholarship on race, the emergence of multiculturalism, and the rise of the digital age, he investigates micro-cultural practices and provides a compelling framework for understanding the diversity of individuals and groups. Synthesizing this with descriptions and analysis from ethnographic interviews, he connects the play of micro-cultures in people’s lives to a needed shift in how multicultural education uses race to frame and comprehend diversity and identity.
“IN THE FIELDS OF THE NORTH/EN LOS CAMPOS DEL NORTE”
by David Bacon
Publisher: University of California Press
ISBN-13: 978-0520296077
In this bilingual work of photo-journalism, Bacon (an activist and a photographer) documents the experiences of some of the hardest-working and most disenfranchised laborers in the country: the farmworkers who are responsible for making California “America’s breadbasket.” Combining haunting photographs with the voices of migrant farmworkers, he offers three-dimensional portraits of laborers living under tarps, in trailer camps and between countries. He uncovers the inherent abuse in the labor contractor work system where farmworkers are exposed to extreme weather and pesticides, injured from years of backbreaking labor working bent over for hours at a time, and treated as cheap labor.
“LATINOS IN NEW YORK: COMMUNITIES IN TRANSITION, SECOND EDITION”
Edited by Sherrie Baver, Angelo Falcón, and Gabriel Haslip-Viera
Publisher: University of Notre Dame Press
ISBN-13: 978-0268101510
This comprehensive reader on the experience of New York City’s diverse Latino population has three main parts. Essays in Part I examine the historical and sociocultural context of Latinos in New York. Part II looks at the diversity comprising Latino New York focusing on specific national origin groups and examining the factors that prompted emigration from the country of origin, the socioeconomic status of the emigrants, the extent of transnational ties with the home country, and the immigrants’ interaction with other Latino groups in New York. Essays in Part III focus on politics and policy issues affecting New York’s Latinos.
“LATINO LEADERS SPEAK: PERSONAL STORIES OF STRUGGLE AND TRIUMPH”
Edited by Mickey Ibarra and María Pérez-Brown
Publisher: Arte Publico Press
ISBN-13: 978-1558858435
“People do not define you,” Soledad O’Brien’s Cuban mother repeatedly told her. “You define yourself.” And so this mixed-race, first-generation Latina American would go on to succeed in her field, becoming a CNN anchor. O’Brien’s remarks, like the others included in this volume, reflect on what it means to be Latino in the U.S. The importance of education, the impact of a teacher or mentor, the sacrifices of parents are all common refrains in the lives of the leaders represented here. Contributors include former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and former general manager of the New York Mets, Omar Minaya.
