Hispanic Heritage month

Hello Everyone!

This is an important month as it is Hispanic heritage month. First of all I want to talk about the history of Hispanic Heritage month.National Hispanic Heritage Month is a period from September 15  to October 15 in the United States for recognizing the influence and the contribution of Hispanic Americans to the history, culture, and achievements of the United States. The observation started in 1968 as Hispanic Heritage Week under President Lyndon Johnson and was expanded by President Ronald Reagan in 1988 to cover a 30-day period starting on September 15 and ending on October 15.Hispanic community includes Mexican, Central american, and South american people who immigrated to the United States for freedom and liberty.  This month  celebrates the anniversary of independence of five Latin American countries: Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua. Mexico, Chile, and Belize also celebrate their independence days during this period.

My first experience about hispanic culture was  when I was about 1 years old and loved watching Dora the explorer.  I learnt a lot about Hispanic culture and language by watching and reading Dora. I even called my dad “ Papi” when I began to talk and loved counting in Spanish.  Watching the movie ‘Coco’ taught me about the tradition of “dia de los muertos” also known as the  day of the dead. There are many other festivals celebrated by the hispanic community.  Some other celebrations include, A quinceanera, a celebration for girls when they turn 16 was interesting to me. I wished my culture had something like that.  Another one is Cinco de mayo, a festival celebrated in May. Being a foodie, I love mexican food, like tacos, burritos, enchiladas, quesadilla and guacamole. 

Growing up I have noticed spanish translations of English in public places and commercials on TV.This has inspired me to learn this language. I have learnt to say a few words after taking an online spanish class this summer. I am hoping to learn Spanish in school.

To better  understand the rich Hispanic culture and traditions I decided to pick some books with a plot and characters that were based on hispanic community. While reading these books I have noticed a common theme of strong family values and traditions in Hispanic communities.I am sharing a list of books that I have read to honor the Hispanic heritage.  

Becoming Naomi Leon: 

While I was reading Becoming Naomi Leon by Pam Munoz Ryan, I experienced emotions of sadness and hope. It is a journey of a shy girl who desperately wants to know her roots and find a voice for herself.

It is a story of a 12 year old half Latino girl who has been abandoned by her parents and lives with her great grandmother and a physically disabled brother named Owen in Trailer park, California. Naomi’s  past life made me feel sad and sorry for Naomi and her brother Owen because their mother had left them and their father had been missing. Naomi had mixed feelings about her mother. She was in a dilemma if her mother was nice but had left them by accident? Or was she a mean and irresponsible person who had a bad drug and alcohol  problem?

In the beginning of the story, I felt sad for her traumatic childhood experience followed by anxiety when her mother came back in her life. Mainly I was disheartened to learn about Naomi’s childhood without her parents. I was appalled when her mother Skyla showed up after seven years in Chapter three of this book. I was curious to learn about the ending of the story.

My favorite parts of this book were, when Naomi met with her father in Mexico after many years and how confidently she spoke in the courtroom against her mother Skyla. I was relieved when the judge decided that Naomi could stay with Gram(great grandma ) and her brother. The last line of the book where the teacher says “Naomi you were a mouse, but now you are a lioness” touched my heart.

Esperanza Rising:   

This is another book written by Pam munoz Ryan. Esperanza is a thirteen year old girl in Aguascalientes, Mexico. She is the daughter of a wealthy landowner, Sixto Ortega and has a happy life. She lives on her family’s ranch, El Rancho de la Rosas, with her mother, father, and grandmother Abuelita. The day before Esperanza’s 13th birthday, her father is murdered on his way to town. Her uncle Tío Luis reveals he now owns their land, as it was not customary to leave property to women. Tío Luis offers to continue to care for them and their ranch on one condition: Esperanza’s mother must marry him. When she refuses, he threatens that she will regret her decision. Their ranch later burns down during a fire caused by Tío Luis. Esperanza and her mother have to stay in the servant’s quarters with their longtime servants and family friends, Alfonso, Hortensia, and their son Miguel. Abuelita, injured during the fire, is sent to a convent where she can recover. Esperanza, Her mother, Miguel, Hortensia and Alfonso go to South California where they work on a farm. Esperanza realizes that she is no longer a rich girl and she is now a peasant. Esperanza then learns about the challenges in life and works hard to earn money so that she can bring her grandmother from Mexico . After a dust storm, Esperanza’s mother gets very sick with valley fever and people say that she may not survive.  

Will Esperanza and the rest of the camp will survive through the tough battle? Will Abuelita come back? Will Esperanza’s mother survive? Read the book to find out.

Marcus Vega does not speak spanish:

This book is written by Pablo Cartaya.The main character Marcus Vega is an eighth grade boy. 160 pounds and 6 feet. The biggest kid in eighth grade gets into many challenges at school. After being suspended from school after a huge fight with a student,  he goes to Puerto Rico to search for his father who had abandoned the family. In this journey he learns about his family and Hispanic heritage. He cannot speak Spanish. Will he find his dad? Read to find out. 

In my opinion, this book is rated 5 stars and I loved it and taught me a lot about hispanic culture. I would rate this book for all ages but mostly 9 and up.

I am not your perfect Mexican daughter:

While reading I am not your perfect Mexican daughter by Erika L. Sanchez, I realized that Julia the main character is not like any other hispanic teenager. She does not identify herself with her hispanic family background. She has a bad temper, hates her  family values and hispanic culture. She gets frustrated about everything in her life. She does not appreciate what her family does for her.  Julia  becomes more short  tempered after her sister  Olga dies  in a car crash and Julia wants to know what happened to Olga and all her secrets. She hates whenever she is compared to her dead sister who was an example of a perfect daughter. On the other hand, Julia is ambitious and wants to do something meaningful in life. She is  a fantastic writer and wants to go to a college with a good English program but her parents are not supportive.  Julia’s rebellion attitude makes me really curious about the reason for her frustration and anger about her life. I am still reading this book, so if you are curious like me to know if Julia will change for good and discover her heritage please read this book. I would rate this book a 4 out of 5 as it is a book not for my age and has inappropriate language. This book is recommended for 16 and up but kids younger than that  like 12- 14 have to read it with a parent or guardian. I love this book as I could relate myself with Julia and her family at some points and found few contents in this book really funny. 

Merci Suarez changes gears:

 ‘Merci suarez changes gears” by Meg Medina, is about  a Cuban American girl named Merci, who is starting the 6th grade at Seaward Pines Academy, the best school in the state. Merci soon realizes that sixth grade is not a piece of cake as for  Edna Santos, a colleague of hers, who was also babysitting her twin cousins. They were also a sunshine buddy. Merci meets a boy named Michael Clark at the sunshine buddy program who takes interest in Edna. Besides this conflict at school trouble starts at Merci’s home.Things get worse as her supportive and caring grandfather (Lolo) gets diagnosed with Alzheimer’s , a disease that has no cure.Merci felt that she was losing her grandpa to Alzheimer’s.To learn more about Merci  and her family’s struggle with grandpa’s Alzheimer’s read this book. You can find a copy in a library or amazon.

Enrique’s Journey:

“Enrique’s journey”  by Sonia Nazario, is based on a true story of a man named Enrique from Honduras. Enrique’s mother left her family to go to America to work. He tries to enter America through the Mexico border to find his mother. He had a hard life and lived in a different path by doing drugs but was determined to find his mother. This is a story about refugees and going to a different country. In this story Enrique learns how evil the world can be and life is unfair when he has to cross the border to go to America and how he gets caught and has to regret his decision to do what he did. I learned about the challenging life in Central America where people are living under poverty and their  biggest dream is to go  to America.  There were some parts in the book about violence and  discussion about drugs, that made me feel uncomfortable. Overall it is a good book to learn about the lives of illegal immigrants and Hispanic community. I would rate this book 5 stars as it talks about a man and his struggle in life. I recommend this book  for ages 12 and up as kids younger than that will not understand anything about the book. 

Ghosts

I love this graphic novel written by Raina Telgemeir . I have read it several times and I would recommend this book for all ages. This book is about  a girl named Catrina and her family who  are moving to the coast of Northern California because her little sister, Maya, is sick. Cat isn’t happy about leaving her friends for Bahía de la Luna, but Maya has cystic fibrosis. As the girls explore their new home, a neighbor lets them in on a secret: There are ghosts in Bahía de la Luna. Maya is determined to meet one, but Cat wants nothing to do with them. As the time of year when ghosts reunite with their loved ones approaches, Cat must find out who she really is? This is a story about a Latino family. By reading this book, I had an opportunity to learn more about hispanic cultures and traditions,

So in the end, I want to share that I found a lot of similarities between hispanic culture and Nepali culture.

I want to use this blog as a platform to share information about diverse culture through this Nepali cultural project. Lets respect and include everyone because I believe in unity in diversity.