document resume ed 365 482 rc 019 424 institutionfrases / 62. cuentos. 163. our lady of guadalupe /...

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INSTITUTIONREPORT NOPUB DATENOTEAVAILABLE FROMPUB TYPE

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ABSTRACT

DOCUMENT RESUME

RC 019 424

Kids Explore America's Hispanic Heritage. Westridge

Young Writers Workshop. First Edition.Jefferson County Public Schools, Golden, CO.

ISBN-1-56261-034-192113p.; Photographs may not reproduce clearly.John Muir Publications, Santa Fe, NM ($7.95).

Books (010) Guides Classroom Use Instructional

Materials (For Learner) (051)

MF01/PC05 Plus Postage.Artists; Art Products; Childrens Literature;*Cultural Activities; *Cultural Education; Dance;Elementary Education; Folk Culture; Food; *Hispanic

American Culture; *Hispanic Americans; Holidays;

*Mexican American History; Mexican Americans;*Student Developed Materials; Student PublicationsWestridge Young Writers Workshop

This book was written by 82 students in grades 3-7 at

Westridge Elementary School (Littleton, Colorado) during a summer

enrichment class. The book was written for anyone who wants to learn

about Hispanic culture and heritage. Chapter 1 gives an overview of

Hispanic history, beginning in the 1400s. This chapter discusses the

ancestors of Hispanic peoples, Spanish takeover of land in the New

World, effects on Mexico when the United States became a country,

individuals who fought for Hispanic rights, and famous Hispanic

relatives of the student writers. Chapter 2 describes festivals

common to Hispanic culture, traditional Hispanic food including

recipes, and traditional Hispanic dances. Chapter 3 discusses the

careers of five Hispanic artists and describes traditional Hispanic

art forms including retablos, santos, and folk art. This chapter also

includes directions for making pinatas, molas, and luminarias. The

fourth chapter discusses common Hispanic sayings, jokes, and riddles

that have been passed down from generation to generation, and lists

words common to both Spanish and English, places !_n the United States

with Spanish names, and easy-to-learn Spanish phrases. Chapter 5

includes five stories common to Hispanic culture. The last chapter

presents interviews with Hispanic Americans, who relate the

importance of their culture, family traditions, and values. Contains

numerous illustrations and photographs, lists of student and teacher

participants, and an index. (LP)

************************************************************************ Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made

from the original document.***********************************************************************

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WESTRIDGE YOUNGRITERS WORKSHOP

U S DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATIONOffice of Educational Research and Improvement

EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATIONCENTER (ERIC)

This document haS been reproduced as/received from the person or organizationoriginating AMinor changes have been made to improvereprOduction quality

Points of view or opinionsstated in thisdocumerit do not necessarily represent officialOE RI position or policy

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"PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THIS

MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY,---

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INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC)"

411111.

KIDS EXPLORE AMERICA'SHISPANIC HERITAGE

Westridge Young Writers Workshop

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John Muir PublicationsSanta Fe, Ncw Mexico

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Read this book and you will learn.We, as all people, make the world turn.Each person is different in his own special way.We want you to know that that's okay.You can learn from these people as you will see.This book is for yougiven from me!

This book is dedicated to people of different cultures, with the hopethat they are pro;id of who they are.

John Muir Publications, P.O. Box 613, Santa Fe, NM 87504© 1992 by Jefferson County School District No. R-1Cover © 1992 by John Muir PublicationsAll rights reserved. Published 1992Printed in the United States of America

First edition. Third printing January 1993

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication DataKids explore America's Hispanic heritage / Westridge Young Writers

Workshop. 1st ed.p. cm.

Includes index.Summary: Presents writings by students in grades three to seven on

topics of Hispanic culture, including dance, cooking, games,history, art, songs, and role models.

ISBN 1-56261-034-11. Hispanic AmericansJuvenile literature. 2. Children's

writings, American. [I. Hispanic Americans. 2. Children'swritings.] 1. Westridge Young Writers Workshop.E184.S75K53 1992973'.0468dc20 91-42232

C1P

Design Susan Surprise AC

Typefaces Garamond and TriumvirateTypesetter Copygraphics, Inc.Printer Banta Company

Distributed to the book trade byW.W. Norton & Co., Inc.New York, New York

Distributed to the education market byThe Wright Group19201 120th Avenue N.E.Bothell, Washington 98011-9512

Photo Credits Photos on pages 13, 14, 15, 18. 19, 21, and 38 courtesy ofDenver Public Library western Ilistory Department.Photo on page II courtesy of Colorado Historical Society.

4

CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS / vii

STUDENTS' PREFACE I ix

TEACHERS' PREFACE / xi

HISTORY OF HISPANICSIN AMERICA / 1

The Meeting of Different Cultures /The Move North / 11

Modern Problems and Responses / 16

Other Origins of Spanish Culture / 20Hispanic Leaders / 20Our Famous Relatives / 23

FUN, FOOD, AND FESTIVALS / 26Festivals / 26

Las Posadas / 26The Day of the Three Kings / 28Easter Season / 28Cinco de Mayo / 30The Day of the Dead / 31

Food 32Tortillas / 34Salsa pant los Ninon / 35Guacamole / 36Huevos Rancheros / 36Chorizo con lluevos / 36Chicken Enchiladas / 36Arrachera al Carbon / 371

Atole de Fresa / 37Chocolate Mexican° /Fruit Punch / 38Paletas / 38

Dances / 38

ART / 44Artists / 45

Consuelo Gonzalez Amezcua / 45Carmen Lomas Garza / 45Eduardo Chavez / 46Octavio Medellin / 47Gregorio Marzan / 47

Some Traditional HispanicArt Forms / 49

Rctablos / 49Santos / 49Folk Art / 49

Folk Art Projects / 50Piñatas / 50Molas / 52Luminarias / 54

FUN WITH WORDS / 56Dichos / 56Chistes / 57Adivinanzas / 57Cognates / 60Spanish Place-Names / 61Los Colores / 61Frases / 62

CUENTOS 163Our Lady of Guadalupe / 64La Liorona / 66El Grillo / 69Los Ratoncitos / 72El Principe y los Pajaros / 73

5

iv CONTENTS

REAL PEOPLE-HISPANICS INAMERICA TODAY / 75

Tino Mendez / 76Bernadette Vigil / 77Sidney Atencio / 78Bennie and Lil Razo / 79Pete Valdez / 81Alicia Fernandez-Mott / 83Sylvia Telles / 85The Martinez Family / 86Bishop Roberto Gonzales / 90Homero E. Acevedo II / 91Mary Ann A. Zapata / 93Carlos Flores, M.D. / 94

STUDENT AUTHORS / 96

TEACHER PARTICIPANTS / 97

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We, the eighty -two student au-thors, are especially thankful tothe people of Hispanic back-

ground who shared their time, talents, his-tory. and knowledge with us while wewere writing this book. We would alsolike to thank the Westridge ElementarySchool staff, the Westridge PM, RonHorn, Rose Roy, Josh Herald, Ruth MariaAcevedo, and all of our teac!':,.r.-; for theirconfidence in us young writers.

Special thanks go to several busi-nesses and organizations for their financialsupport. Student scholarships were do-

nated by King Soopers, Denver, Colorado,and Lakewood Civitan Club, Lakewood,Colorado. Teacher scholarships weredonated by Adolph Coor's Company,Golden, Colorado. We want to thank PamFaro, Storyteller, Lafayette, Colorado; OurLady of Guadalupe Dancers, Our Lady ofGuadalupe Catholic Church, Denver,Colorado; Ron Rich, Publisher of Booktalk, Lakewood, Colorado; and Candy'sTortilla, Denver, Colorado, for their dona-tions of services and supplies. Thanks alsoto the IBM Corporation for donating com-puters on which we did word processing.

STUDENTS' PREFACE

I'm proud to be me.'Cause that's who I am.Be proud to be you,'Cause that's who you are.The differences 'tween us,Help us all to grow.They strengthen our hearts,So our pride we can show.Respect all others and they'll respect you.Be kind to everyone in all that you do.What's in this book you will need to know,If you want to learn, if you want togrow.Explore different cultures or maybeyour own,As we teach you of customs and stories well known.Through the eyes of a child you're about to be taught,And to your surprise you may learn quite a lot.

This book is fun, interesting,and cool, and it's from a kid'spoint of view! We, the eighty

two authors, are students in grades threethrough seven. We feel it was worth usingpart of our summer to write Kids ExploreAmerica's Hispanic Heritage instead ofjust watching T.V. or riding hikes. We areexcited because this book will be available

all over the United States, and it will helpAmericans enjoy a unique part of theirheritage.

This book is not just for kids. KidsExplore America's Hispanic Heritage isa great opportunity for everyone to learn.We've opened the door and given you justa peek into one culture.

))1' 111.

TEACHERS' PREFACE

A dream is only a dream,Until you take actionAnd make it reality.This dream was the hard work of many .

Many people may wonder howthis book came about. It wasconceived at Westridge Ele-

mentary School, located in JeffersonCounty, a western suburb of Denver, Colo-rado Book publishing is a well-establishedpart of the school curriculum. John MuirPublications of Santa Fe, New Mexico, wasenthusiastic about our idea for a series ofbooks, all written by children, on differentcultures within the United States. Thesebooks, part of a projected PROUD TO BEseries, are meant to be informative as well_as to instill a sense of pride in our diverseheritage.

We developed the plans for this vol-ume in a summer enrichment class. Dur-ing that class, students were exposed to

S

the various aspects of Hispanic heritageabout which they later wrou They learnedabout dances, cooking, games, history, art,songs, and real people. They researched,worked on word processing, illustrated,organized, wrote, and proofread. Soon,students will move into publicity and mar-keting and will present programs to otherschools.

While students enhanced their writ-ing skills and acquired firsthand knowl-edge of Hispanic culture, we earned col-lege credits through a course entitled"Integrating Hispanic Studies into theSchool Curriculum." Most of us arc I I is-panic, and our interest in learning moreabout our own culture fueled enthusiasmwithin the whole group. We all explored

x PREFACE

ways to integrate Hispanic culture into thecurriculum and improved our knowledgeof publishing procedures and the processof writing. It was our goal to produce abook that would be a valuable addition toschool libraries and programs.

The students, a majority of whomare Hispanic, are from the Jefferson CountySchools. They represent diverse economicand cultural backgrounds. Scholarshipfunds were available from the businesscommunity for those students whoneeded them.

Four hook-length publications havealready emerged from our writing labsand are being sold commercially. They areavailable in Colorado bookstores underthe following titles: As Kids See Denver,Just My Luck, Colorado Kids Dig Up thePast, and Explore ColoradoKid Style.Just My Luck is being distributed interna-tionally. Our students love being full-fledged authors and basking in the lime-light that publication generates. They areproud to be a part of this book!

0

HISTORY OF HISPANICS IN AMERICA

El CI CIIZ

StE''rzisz9,pliw=), events and people of Hispanic

culture from the 1400s to the present.Starting in the 1400s, the century whenthe Spanish explorers came to the NewWorld, can give us a clearer picture of howthe Hispanic traditions found their wayto our country. History can he fun, espe-cially when we realize how history, likeAmerica's Hispanic heritage, matters toeach of us in America today.

When real historians, people whostudy the past, write history hooks, theyuse many sources of information andsometimes spend years doing research.They use old diaries written by peoplelong ago. They look through other hooks

Important people sculpting our land.Fighting, exploring, lending a hand.Help us hold on to our pastWhile we reach into the futureAnd build it to last.

Welcome to Hispanic history.We will look into some of the

that describe the past. They go throughold pictures and photographs. They talkto old people who made history. Throughthese many ways, they try to piece to-gether what life was like in the past. Wehave tried to be good historians. Our bookcovers many important people and events.If you are interested by one or more ofthese, the library is a terrific- place to findout more information. If this part of ourhook gets you more interested in the his-tory that shaped America's Hispanic her-itage, we arc excited!

In this brief history, we hope you willsee how these events and people havebrought together the Spanish and nativegroups and blended them into the His-panic heritage of our country. We will use

2 HISPANICS IN AMERICA

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Verde in Colorado, a site of ancient Anasazi civilization

the Aztecs to show an example of onenathe civilization We will share how theTainos of Cuba interacted with Columbusso you can understand how complicatedthe Spanish takeover of land in the NewWorld really was. Then we wf I look atother explorers from Spain and how thevery different cultures related to eachother We will talk about the missionariesand how they treated the Indians. Next wewill get into the period when the I InitedStates became a country and needed moreland. We will see how this changed thelives of the Mexican people who lived inthe [Tinted States and made Mexico lookat the linited States a little more carefully.

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We will look at people who fought forHispanic rights. Cuba and Puerto Rico,both important to the Hispanics inAmerica, will be reviewed as importantparts of American history, too. Last, wewill see a lot of Hispanic people who arcmaking names for themselves in theUnited States today.

THE MEETING OFDIFFERENT CULTURES

The ancestors of Hispanic people camefrom many different cultures. These verydifferent cultures, which had been devel-

MEETING OF DIFFERENT CULTURES 3

oping for many hundreds of years, livedin different parts of the world thousandsof miles from each other.

One of the original cultures of to-day's Hispanic people is the native peo-ple of the Americas. You may know thesenative people as Indians. Some of thenatives that influenced Hispanic culturelived in what is now Mexico, Cuba, Cen-tral America, the West Indies, and theUnited States. For thousands of years,these people lived in groups with theirown traditions, values, and religious be-liefs. In fact, many Indian cultures beganin prehistoric time. Later on, other Indiancultures, like the Aztecs of Mexico, theIncas of South America, the Maya of Cen-tral America, the Arawaks of Puerto Rico,and the Tainos of Cuba, developed in thisarea. History shows that these Indianswere very smart in agriculture and hunt-ing, but they also did great things in as-tronomy, mathematics, architecture, andmany other difficult ::Ithjects.

The Aztecs were a very advancedculture for their time. which was fromaround A.D. 1100 to the 1520s. (A.D. means

after Christ died. The year Christ died wasthe year 0.) The Aztecs built tall buildings,like pyramids. They mined gold, silver,jade, and turquoise. Their capital city wasTenochtitlan (ten -och-teat-LON). It wasbuilt on land that was once a lake. TheAztecs drained the lake and filled it backup with dirt. Ever since this time this areahas had a great number of earthquakesbecause the ground is still unstable. Thday,Mexico City is built right on top of the oldcity of Tenochtitlan.

Warning: FOR STRONG STOMACHSONLY! The Aztecs believed that to keepthe sun moving across the sky, theyneeded to offer up to it something froma human body that moved all the time. So,the Aztecs offered the beating heart thatwas taken quickly from sacrificial victimsduring a complicated religious ceremony.


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The Aztecs felt they could use human sac-rifices to take away the sins of the people.

The Aztecs also had some really coolsounding names for their gods. Did youknow that Quetzalcoatl (ket-sul-KO-ah-tul) created mankind? That's what theAztecs thought. They built temples in hishonor. Quetzalcoatl was shown in draw-ings with a serpent head and a bird body.The word "Quetzalcoatl" means plumedserpent. The Aztecs also knew him as thegot. wisdom. He told the ancestors ofthe Aztec people to stop sacrificing hu-mans and start sacrificing animals. Thepeople didn't like that and told him toleave. He said he would return from the

east on a ship. (Guess where the Spanishcome in.)

There have been many different ex-plorers in this region. Explorers are peoplewho have taken risks and have gone some-where they didn't know much about. Canyou imagine talking the president of theUnited States into letting you take a spaceship for days and days to travel to anotherplanet? This is what it may have been likefor early explorers.

Some people don't like to call theSpanish "explorers" because the Indianswere already living here. The Indians mayhave thought of the Spanish as invaders,and we can see their point. We will referto the Spanish as explorers, but we will tryto share the truth about their travels asthey really did act more like invaders. Be-cause the explorers were from Spain,many areas in the Western Hemispherespeak Spanish today.

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In the 1400s, explorers from Spainstarted to cross the ocean and discoverthat there were civilizations of people liv-ing in the part of the world that we callMesoamerica, which now includes Mex-ico, Central America, and the West Indies.Christopher Columbus, whose Spanishname was CristObal Colon, was one ofthese explorers, and he wanted to goacross the Atlantic Ocean to find an easierway to get to the Indies. This is what wecall India and Southeast Asia today. If theSpanish wanted to trade with India bytraveling west, they had to pay everycountry on the way there a fee to passthrough their lands. This could get veryexpensive! Instead, Columbus wished tofind an easier way to travel around theworld on the ocean. Some people thoughthe was crazy because they thought theworld was flat and when he got to the endhe would fall off. This must not havebothered him much, because he wasexcited to make the voyage no matterwhat.

Columbus had been a map maker forthe country of Portugal. History books tellus that he may have known about the Por-tuguese voyages to the New World earlierin the 1400s, even though they had triedto keep it a secret so they could have theirown trade routes. Because of this, he wasprobably real confident about his plan tosail to the Indies.

Columbus got his supplies for sailingfrom King Ferdinand and Queen Isabellaof Spain. When Columbus set off on hisvoyage, others didn't know if he wouldmake it. This is where the rhyme comes

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in: In fourteen hundred and ninety -two,Columbus sailed the ocean blue." Insteadof reaching his destination, Columbusfound a new world.

Christopher Columbus never realizedthat North and South America would bein his way to get to India, which is wherehe really wanted to go. Instead, his firstjourney ended up in what is now knownas the West Indies. Some historians sayColumbus thought he was in India, so hecalled the people he met "Indians."

The king and queen of Spain weresurprised and excited about Columbus'sclaims. They hoped Columbus would findgold or goods that they could make moneyfrom and ship back to Spain, so they senthim again.

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Juan Ponce de Leon went on Colum-bus's second trip to the New World in1493. They landed on the shores of anisland, and because of the riches theyhoped to find there, they called it PuertoRico. This means "rich port" in Spanish.Here the Spanish met the Taino Indianswho lived in parts of Puerto Rico andCuba with their relatives, the Arawaks.

There were many differences be-tween the Spanish and the natives. Firstof all, the Spanish felt that they had toown things. That's why they made claimto territory. The native groups believed theland couldn't belong to anyone, that itwas just part of nature. This is why the In-dians didn't understand why the Spaniardswanted to claim the land.

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Another difference was how they feltabout gold. For example, the Tainos toldPonce de Leon about the rivers of goldbecause whenever he heard the word"gold" he would get excited. They toldhim there was lots of gold all over theplace, even though it wasn't true. TheTainos didn't understand how importantgold was to Ponce de Leon. It was not veryspecial to the Tainos, so they didn't under-stand why he became so mean when hecouldn't find it. Ponce de Leon had thenatives mine for the gold.

Problems came up between the Span-ish and the natives. Taino weapons wereuseless against the Spaniards. Just as inCuba, many Tainos were killed in battle,and a lot also died from the diseases theSpanish brought with them. Measles,

tuberculosis, and smallpox did not existin the New World until the people fromEurope brought them. If the natives didn'tdie from the diseases or in battles, theydied from working in the mines all dayand all night. In fact, in Cuba and PuertoRico together, more than eight millionTaino Indians died. So many died that theSpanish found there weren't enoughworkers. Soon the Spanish brought inslaves from Africa to work.

The diaries and writings of otherssuch as Father Bartolome de las Casasshow that many cruel things happened tothe native groups of people Columbus andhis men met. The last six years of the 1400sare known as the Black Legend in Span-ish history. Columbus and his brotherswere governors in Cuba. They ruled andwere mean to the Tainos. Some were tor-tured for not following the Spanish laws,which they didn't understand. They mighthave had a hand cut off as a penalty.

Many things like this also happenedwhen other Spanish and European ex-plorers settled the New World. More de-tails about Columbus can be found in hisship's log, which is translated into English,and the diaries and reports of other ex-plorers and missionaries.

In 1509, Ponce de Leon became gov-ernor of Puerto Rico, making it a Spanishcolony. From Puerto Rico, Ponce de Leonsailed to some other islands to make hisclaim of Hispaniola, now known as Haitiand the Dominican Republic. Ponce deLeon did leave his mark on Puerto Rico,because today one of the largest cities inPuerto Rico is named Ponce.


Americans remember Ponce de Leonbecause he explored and named Florida(Place of Flowers). He was looking for areally neat fountain. The legend said if youdrank or bathed from this special fountain,you would stay young forever and ever.This fountain was called the Fountain ofYouth. Did Ponce de Leon find this foun-tain in 1513 when he disappeared, or didhe bite the dust?

In 1519, another Spanish explorercalled Hernan Cortes came looking forgold. When he arrived in Mexico, the Az-tecs remembered the legend of Quetzal-coati, the man who had the serpent's headand a bird's body. Quetzalcoatl left theAztecs and said he would return on a shipbut that when he came back he wouldhave light skin and a beard. So whenCortes arrived, the Aztecs thought he andhis men were gods. They gave him goldand jewels and lots of respect. When oneof Cortes's men was hurt and blood cameout of his injury, the Aztecs began to won-der if Cortes was really a god. Cortes soonwore out his welcome. He was cruel to theAztecs. He took advantage of the Aztecs'kindness and started to demand gold andtreasureeven more gold than a godwould need. He would punish the Aztecsif they didn't move or work to dig for goldas fast as he told them. Sometimes hewould snip off the tips of their noses ortips of their ears if they disobeyed him.The Aztec leader sent a message for Cortesto leave, but Cortes didn't want to.

Many groups who were enemies ofthe Aztecs joined Cortes in a great battleagainst them. The Aztecs had clubs, spears,and axes. The Spanish had weapons thatwere high-tech for their time, so Cortesand the Spanish heat the Aztecs and cap-tured the city of Tenochtitlan in 1521.

Alvarar Nunez Caheza de Vaca wasanother Spanish conqueror who was onan expedition to capture Indians to makethem slaves for the Spanish. He was ship-wrecked in the Gulf of Mexico in 1528and accidentally became an explorer when

I 3


he was just trying to save his life. Hewalked from Indian group to Indian grouptrying to get home. Cabeza de Vaca wouldhave died if the Indians hadn't helpedhim. He heard over and over from theIndians their stories about the goldenriches north of Mexico. (Remember thatthe Indians didn't think about gold thesame way the Spaniards did.) C:.beza deVaca was very sick, so he did not go afterthe gold. When he got better, he wentback to Mexico and told the Spanishleaders the stories of gold. Cabeza de Vacaknew that the Spaniards would alwayslook for the gold he had told them about.He also knew that the people who hadhelped him would he made into slaves tofind the gold. He ended up hurting thepeople who had been kind to him and hadhelped him stay alive. He was very sad fora long time because of what had hap-pened to the Indians who had helped him.

"Gold! Gold! I want to find the SevenCities of Gold!" cried Francisco dc Coro-

nado, another Spanish explorer. Coronadowas the first white man to travel aroundwhat we now call the southwestern UnitedStates. He brought horses to the natives sothat the slaves could do more work in thefields and also brought smallpox, whichwiped out many of the Indians. He hadheard of the seven cities in the northernpart of Mexico, now America, that weremade out of gold. He was disappointedwhen he found the small Indian villagesin the areas now known as Arizona, NewMexico, Colorado, and Kansas. He neverfound the cities made of gold. When hecame back to Mexico, nobody thought hewas a real explorer because he neverfound what he had gone looking for.

THE. MOVE NORTH 11

The Spanish had to do something fora money system. Some of the first mints,places where coins are made by the gov-ernment, were built by the Spanish. Withall the silver and gold the native peoplewere mining, the time was right to makecoins. At first, in the 1500s and 1600s, thecoins were made very roughly by beatingout a thin stamp of silver or gold into ashape that had the Spanish royal coat ofarms. These rough coins are known asCobbs and can still he found on the oceanfloor from many sunken ships off thecoast of Florida, the Caribbean, and allover the Gulf of Mexico. Many of the shipswere often loaded very heavily trying totake as much treasure as possible back toSpain. There ore even treasure huntermuseums today where many of these oldtreasures can he seen.

The coin presses grew, and Spainminted its famous eight reales (ray -ALL-ace) starting in the early 1700s. Spain hadmints in its homeland, in Mexico, and allover South America and put differentmarks on the coins telling where theywere made. When people just couldn't getthe right change to buy or sell something,they just chopped these coins up like apiz72 into smaller pieces. This is where thewords two hits, four bits, and pieces ofeight come from.

Many of these eight reales, also calledpillar dollars, made their way all over theUnited States and were used as money he-cause early American currency was oftenhard to get. Early colonists in the northernUnited States used this currency.

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THE MOVE NORTH

For many reasons, the people of the Mid-dle Americas were urged to move to thenorth. The Spanish claimed the territorythat included the present states of Cali-fornia, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, New Mex-ico, Arizona, and Texas. In 1821, Mexicodeclared its freedom from Spain, so theMexican flag flew over this area. However,the Mexicans began to lose their land inthe 1840s. In less than fifty years, the landthat is now the southwestern part of theUnited States had changed hands threetimes. This all began when the Spanishmoved north.

21


41.

Some Spaniards wanted more land,some wanted gold, and some wanted tospread Christianity. The Spanish alsomoved north because there was not muchfood in the south. There were people al-ready living in the area to the north ofpresent-day Mexico.

The people moving to the north hadto develop a plan. They decided w buildvillages. They used adobe bricks to makehouses called haciendas (ah-see-EN -dabs).A presidio was built in each village as a fortwhere soldiers could stay to watch overthe church and the Spaniards. The Spanishforced the natives to build missions so thatthey could bring their own people to livethere. In return, the Spanish promised touse the mission to protect the Indiansfrom other native groups that weren't

friendly with them. One of the problemswas that there weren't many unfriendlynatives around for the Indians in the mis-sions to be afraid of. Some of the nativegroups in the Americas, now the UnitedStates, didn't fight with each other. Theyhad nothing to fight about. They lived justfine together. That's why the Spaniardshad to force the native groups to build themissions. Most Indians did not own landor territory or have any interest in golduntil the Europeans made it important. Afew warlike tribes fought over naturalresources, but they were the exception.

One of the goals of missions was toconvert the native people to Christianity.The missionaries did this in many ways.

'lb be a mission Indian was awful.The Spaniards brought the Indians to themission, usually by force. Once the In-dians were in the missions, they were notallowed to leave. The Indians were bap-tized and converted to the Catholic reli-gion. In the missions, the Indians had todo the farming, building, weaving, and

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blacksmithing. If they tried to escape, theSpanish treated them cruelly. The Span-ish might even cut off a foot or a hand orsmash an ankle to keep them from run-ning away.

The way the Indians had lived beforethe Spanish came was very different fromthe way they lived in the missions. Theirfood was really different from what theywere used to. There was less space, andthere were more people. Their roomswere tiny and not very clean. It was a realbad situation. The new diseases broughtto them made the Indians weak, and theygot sick a lot. Over half of the native peo-ple in the missions died from smallpox orbubonic plague. Look at it this way. If youhad four people in your family, two orthree might die.

The missions were very importantin settling the land that the explorersclaimed. Some people aren't sure if themissionaries really did help the peoplewho had lived there before the mission-aries came.

The first colony in what is now thesouthwestern United States was built byJuan de Otiate. The king of Spain gaveOnate permission to take sonic peoplefrom Mexico with him to the land that isnow known as New Mexico. The peoplehe took included Spanish soldiers, natives,missionaries, and mestizos. (Mestizos arcpeople who have one parent who is Span-ish and one parent who is Indian.) By1630, there were twenty -five missionsaround New Mexico. (Mate became thegovernor of Sante Fe. He called his place


4-61,

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ihrs

2

Depiction of the Spanish discovery of the Mississippi River in May 1541

of government El Palacio de los Goberna-dores, or Palace of the Governors.

Father Juniper° Serra was a mission-ary in California. In the 1700s, he helpedthe people build missions to live in. SanFrancisco, Los Ang6es, and San Diegowere a few of the twenty-one missionsestablished along a route called El CaminoReal, the Royal Road, a path connectingall of the missions. Later, this path wasnamed 11.S. 101, a major highway alongthe California coast.

Aianasio Dominguez and SilvestreVelez de Escalante were two missionarieswho traveled together in 1776. They leftwhat we now call Santa Fe, New Mexico,to travel through Colorado, Utah, Arizona,

and New Mexico to find new paths to Cali-fornia. They never math it to California.They thought teaching Christianity to theIndians they met along the way was moreimportant. They also kept a diary of whatthey saw each day. From reading theirdiary, their trip sounded very challenging.

Dominguez and Escalante's expedi-tion ran into many problems. Sometimesthe weather wasn't good. Sometimes thetrails were very rough. One time theyshared some food with the SabuaganaYutas Indians. One Indian ate so much thathe got sick. He started to blame Domin-guez and Escalante and their men, whowere afraid that they would be in dangerif the Indians found out about the storn-

9 .7

THE MOVE NORTH 15

Spanish discovery of the Colorado River in 1540

ach problem. But the Indian who hadeaten too much finally threw up. Then hefelt better and everything was fine again.

One special priest named MiguelHidalgo lived in the 1800s. He wanted tohelp the Indians in Mexico, so he taughtthem to grow their own crops and to dothings for themselves. He and the Indianswent to Mexico City to get away from theSpanish soldiers. Father Hidalgo got cap-tured and was killed. Now the Mexicansbelieve he was very important, so he iscalled the Father of Mexico.

After a lot of conflict between Mex-ico and Spain, Mexico declared its free-dom and independence. So in 1821, theMexican flag flew over this area.

At first, when the Anglos (white peo-

ple who are not Hispanic) came into theMexican territories, they did all rightMany of them learned the language, con-verted to the Catholic religion, and gotalong with the people who lived there.When more Anglos came, Mexico startedto lose control in the present U.S. South-west. The ways of the American merchantsand trappers didn't mix with the ways ofthe Mexicans. The customs and traditionsof the different people in this area werevery confusing to everyone. The nativeMexicans were concerned with the use-less killing and hunting that the Americanmerchants and trappers did. Americanswho came into the area were often aggres-sive. The Mexicans were humble and moreformal. Most Mexicans were very carefulwith nature and respected it more thansome Americans.

Because of these differences, fightingbegan in 1835. The Anglos believed theland we call Texas should be theirs. TheAnglos started taking over small military

2 5


se,

N+

The Alamo was built in 1836 This is how it looks today in San Antonio, Texas

places from the Mexicans Then in Decem-ber of 1835, the Anglos took the Alamo,a military building in San Antonio Thepresident of Mexico said this action wasunfair. Ile sent troops across the RioGrande to get the land back for Mexicobecause he felt the Anglos had no businessbeing there The Mexicans attacked theAlamo and took control While they wereresting after the battle, another Texan armysurprised them. More than 600 Mexicansoldiers were killed in the Battle of SanJacinto on April 21, 1836. After this, lexasbecame an independent republic. This was

the beginning of Mexico losing its valuedlands to the north

MODERN PROBLEMSAND RESPONSES

Problems about land had been building upfor years because the United States wantedto move its boundaries all the way to thePacific Ocean The l 'rifted States had triedto make a deal to buy part of northernMexico, but Mexico did not want to sell itThis started the Mexican-American War.

9 ij,..

MODERN PROBLEMS AND RESPONSES 17

There was no way the president of Mex-ico and his people could protect the Mex-ican territory that they had lived in alltheir lives. In a year, Mexico had lost thelands that are now the states of California,Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, Colorado,Wyoming, and parts of Arizona. The UnitedStates was larger than Mexico after gain-ing this land. The Treaty of GuadalupeHidalgo in 1848 ended the Mexican-American War. By the terms of the treaty,the United States gained one-third of Mex-ico. The Hispanics who lived in the areathat used to be Mexicomere suddenly liv-ing in the United States. Many of theAnglo-Americans did not respect thesenew Mexican residents. The Americansdisobeyed the promises of the treaty. Theydid not give the Hispanics full citizenshipand property rights, and they would notlet them speak their own language, Span-ish. The Anglo-Americans discouragedthe Hispanics from having their own reli-gion, culture, and customs.

Many of the American laws did notseem fair to the Hispanics and other non-Anglos. Anglo-Americans treated the newresidents uni_tirly by telling the Hispanicsthe American laws in English. The His-panics did not understand this language,so lots of times they were cheated outof their land. The Hispanic people wereoften so confused about what was goingon that the Anglos took advantage of them.

One of the laws that was unfair toI lispanics and to black Americans did notallow them to he on a jury. This law lasteduntil 1954. Some states made it illegal tospeak Spanish in schools. Before the Bilin-

2 7

gual Education Act in 1968, childrencouldn't be taught in any language butEnglish. So if they only spoke Spanish, itwas too bad! Until 1970, a law in Califor-nia said that you had to be able to read theConstitution in English before you couldvote. People had to take a test in Englishbefore they could vote. That wasn't fair!

Another example of prejudice oc-curred in 1946. Zoot suits were then pop-ular among young Mexican-Americanmen. Zoot suit pants had a high waistlineand were tapered at the ankles. The longsuit jackets came down to the knees. Zootsuits were very popular in California aswell as other parts of the United States. Butbeing part of a group was not always goodfor Mexican-American men. Once, sailorson leave in California attacked Mexican-Americans in zoot suits. Police did noth-ing to stop the sailors from beating up theyoung zoot suiters. The newspapers re-ported that the zoot suiters had startedviolent riots and the zoot suiters werearrested. Again, unfair! The governmentwouldn't listen to the growing Hispanicproblems. This made the Hispanics feelhelpless and angry.

Hispanic workers had generally notbeen treated well on the job. One of themost difficult jobs was to work as a mi-grant worker. Migrant workers are peoplewho move from area to area, crop to crop,picking fruit and vegetables for smallwages. The Spanish word for them isbrazeros (brah -SAY -ros), which meanspeople who work with their arms. Thesemigrant workers often have to travel be-cause the growing season changes and

h.

40.

Migrant farm worker

they need to search for a new job whenthey finish harvesting the fruit, vegetables,or crops in one area. Not only is the workhard but the houses are overcrowded andnot good. There are no doctors for themif they get sick. Migrants tried to organizeas early as 1883. Vaqueros (vah-KEHR-rohs), Mexican-American cowboys, organ-ized a strike for better pay in Texas thatsame year. Between 1900 and 1930, Mexi-can-Americans led or took part in miners'strikes.

Cesar Chavez and his family weremigrant workers. He knew Hispanicsneeded to get organized. They neededleadership. For example, when the Mexi-can-American migrant workers tried toearn money and get a better life in the

2 3

MODERN PROBLEMS AND RESPONSES 19

United States, business owners were oftenunfair to them. They had the migrant work-ers do the work but then paid them verylittle money. Sometimes they didn't paythem at all. Hispanics knew somethinghad to be done to help improve the livingconditions of their people. They neededto get together and decide what to doabout their problems in the United States.

111.116.70, Alla_ -airA/Mk1=111M

Cesar Chavez

Cesar Chavez didn't like the waymigrant workers were treated. He startedthe National Farm Workers Association in1962. This was a union to get better pay.Did you know that Cesar Chavez oncedidn't cat for 36 days? He didn't eat be-

MN MANY

bitSIN°1\\MONS

Protest in Denver

cause he was protesting the poor livingconditions the brazeros lived in. He wantedto show people that he was serious, so hewent on a hunger strike. The other impor-tant thing he did was to turn around themeaning of the word "Chicano" so peo-ple would understand it better. Chicanoused to be one of the worst words a per-son could use to refer to a Mexican person.As the parents of Hispanic children wantedto fit into Anglo-American society andeven forget their past heritage, their chil-dren joined together by calling themselves"Chicanos." Instead of trying to mix in-to the Anglo way of life, these childrenadopted an identity they felt proud of.

Other Hispanic workers tried to joinunions for better treatment and better pay,but some unions did not accept them. So,the Hispanics formed their own unioncalled the Confederacion de UnionesObreras Mexicanos (Confederation ofUnions of Mexican Workers, CUOM). Bydoing this, they were making themselvesstronger and protesting against the peo-ple who were unfair to them. In 1929, agroup of Hispanics formed a group calledthe League of United Latin American Citi-


zens (LULAC). They wanted to help His-panic people be good, patriotic citizens,learn English, get more education, and betreated equally. LULAC still exists today.

OTHER ORIGINS OF HISPANICCULTURE

Do you know all the places where youwill find the Hispanic culture? Well, readon. Cuba is a big island that is 746 mileslong. That's almost the same as the dis-tance from New York to Chicago. Cubawas a Spanish colony for a long time be-cause of the Spanish explorers who landedthere. That's why a lot of their culture andcustoms are Hispanic.

In the early 1960s, many Cubanscame to the United States because theircountry's government was changing andthey didn't agree with the changes theywere going to have to live with if theystayed. Many came to Miami, Florida, just90 miles away. Imagine having to choosebetween staying with your family andfriends or leaving your country for a newone. One person who did this is Tino Men-dez, who was seventeen years old whenhe left Cuba for freedom in the UnitedStates. Look for his story in the Real Peoplesection of this book.

Puerto Rico is a small island off thecoast of Florida. The island itself is only100 miles by 35 miles and about the sizeof Connecticut. Puerto Ricans have beencitizens of the United States since 1917.Puerto Rico is a commonwealth of theUnited States. That means it's almost like

a state. Puerto Rico never did live up to itsname of being a "rich port." Many peoplehad to move to the mainland in the 1960sbecause of problems with hunger andfinding jobs. The lust to come to the main-land of the United States were garmentworkers, people who make clothes for aliving. They mostly went to New Yorkbecause they got the best jobs there. Overtwo million Puerto Ricans live in thiscountry, and half of them live in NewYork. New York's Puerto Rican populationis second only to Puerto Rico's capital, SanJuan. Read about Bishop Roberto Gon-zales and Doctor Carlos Flores, two PuertoRican-Americans, in the Real People sec-tion of our book.

HISPANIC LEADERS

Hispanics have always been eager to serve.America in the military. They have re-ceived many honors for their military ser-vice. They have won more medals thanany other minority group in World War II.This is really something to be proud of!

Private Jose P. Martinez was part ofthe Seventh Army Division that foughtWorld War II. He won the CongressionalMedal of Honor for saving the lives of themen in his unit in a battle in Japan. Wevisited his statue while writing this book.He was a true war hero.

Many Hispanics served in World WarII and earned the special benefits offeredto all those who served in the war. Thesespecial benefits were part of the G.I. Bill,which gives veterans (people who had

J )

HISPANIC LEADERS 21

Statue honoring Pvt. Jose P Martinez, Denver, Colorado

been soldiers) the chance to go to college,buy homes, and start businesses. Afterusing their benefits from the G.I. Bill, His-panics organized themselves to use theirskills to help their communities. Thisgroup is called the American G.I. Forum.

There arc other Hispanic peoplewho are trying to make change happen fortheir fellow Hispanics in American. Theyhave worked to elect Hispanics to all levelsof politics, such as the office of mayor,governor, and Congress. Some people donot know that there arc Hispanics in gov-ernment positions or other high places.

Hispanics have earned many "firsts"for their people. Lauro Cavazos becamethe first Hispanic Secretary of Education.Manuel Lujan became the first Hispanic

Secretary of the Interior. Katherine Dava-los Ortega was the first Hispanic Treasurerof the United States.

A few examples of successful His-panic politicians are Ilena Ros-Lehtinen,a U.S. Representative from Florida; Rebec-ca Vigil-Giron, New Mexico's Secretary ofState; and Jose Serrano, a New York StateRepresentative. Other Hispanic politiciansinclude former Denver Mayor FedericoPena; Dan Morales, a Texas State Represen-tative; Jerry Apodaca, a former governorof New Mexico; and Raul Castro, a formergovernor of Arizona.

Of course, there are many Hispanicswho have made a difference outside ofgovernment, including Cesar Chavez,who is mentioned earlier.


Would you like to be an awesome,trained astronaut? Franklin Chang-Diazand Sidney Gutierrez said yes. "Alley en-tered the astronaut training program in the1980s and became astronauts workingwith NASA space projects.

Here, for all you sports fans, are somemore popular Hispanics that you mightrecognize. Tom Flores was a head coachfor the Los Angeles Raiders and becamethe general manager of the Seattle Sea-hawks. Lou Piniella became the managerof the Cincinnati Reds. Jose Torres, aformer world champion, became the NewYork Commissioner of Boxing. Jim Plun-kett won the Heisman Trophy in collegefootball and was the quarterback for theworld champion Raiders. He was RonRivera's hero, and Ron himself became aprofessional football player for the Chi-cago Bears.

Max Montor., and Anthony Munozbecame great National Football Leaguestars. The three Zendejas brothers (Luis,Max, and Tony) all kicked for NFL teams.Luis played for the Philadelphia Eagles,Max played for the Houston Oilers, andTony played for the Green Bay Packers.

Fernando Valenzuela earned millionsof dollars as a baseball player. He startedpitching for the Los Angeles Dodgers in1981. Valenzuela, Jose Canseco, and RubenSierra are just a few of the many Hispanicswho have done very well in professionalbaseball. Roberto Clemente was an awe-some baseball player. He is well known fortaking care of people, too. He died in aplane crash carrying food and supplies toearthquake victims in 1972.

Nancy Lopez is well known for beingone of the world's coolest female golfers.Lee Trevino and Chi Chi Rodriguez havebeen world-class golfers for many years.

Some Hispanics who have won goldmedals in the Olympics are Arlene Limas(tae kwon do, which is a martial art), TinoMartinez (baseball), and Robin Ventura(baseball). Michael Carbajal won a silvermedal in the 1988 Olympics and becamea world boxing champion. Joe Vigil be-came an Olympic track coach. You canfind more information on Hispanic ath-letes in books, magazines, and sports col-lector cards.

There are many Hispanics who aresuccessful entertainers. Ruben Blades is anactor and a musician. Gloria Estefan is asinger. Los Lobos is a rock group. RitaMoreno, Edward James Olmos, and JimmySmits are actors. Gerald() Rivera has hisown talk show. These are just a few His-panic entertainers. There are many, manymore.

OUR FAMOUS RELATIVES 23

OUR FAMOUS RELATIVES

Out of the eighty-two authors who par-ticipated in our writing workshop, threeof us had famous relatives. One was DiegoArchuleta, born in 1813. Another was Cas-miro Bare la, who was born in 1847. Thelast relative in our "Hall of Fame" isRudolfo "Corky" Gonzales, who is stillliving today. We hope you enjoy readingabout our relatives and finding out whythey are famous.

Diego Archuletaby Michael Laydon

It just so happened that my great-great-great-great-grandfather, Diego Archuleta,was involved in the fight over the Texasterritory and the Alamo. Diego Archuletawas 22 years old when the Mexicans wonthe battle of the Alamo in 1835. Later, Diegowas assigned a group of soldiers and wasgiven the rank of lieutenant colonel of themilitia by the Mexican government.

In 1841, when Mexico was invadedby the Texas-Santa Fe Expedition, Archu-leta was in command of the troops thatassisted in the capture of the Texans. In1843, he was elected deputy of the Na-tional Mexican Congress of New Mexico.He received the Golden Cross Award forguarding the Mexican territory.

Archuleta was appointed second incommand of the Mexican military. A fewyears later, he wanted to fight, but he knewit was a no-win situation against the in-creasing numbers of Anglos moving to thearea. When my great-great-great-great-grandfather died, the funeral held for him

Diego Archuleta

33


was the biggest ever in Santa Fe, New Mex-ico. Anyone would be very proud to havesomeone this important in their family tree!

Casimiro Bare laby James Bare la

My great-great-great-uncle, Casimiro Ba-rela, has been featured in a couple of biog-raphy books written by kids. He was bornon May 4, 1847, in Embudo, New Mexico.His father, Jose, had pushed him to workhard so he would be successful in life. Itlooks like this advice paid off becauseBare la became a very famous person.

Bare la helped write the Constitutionof Colorado. He helped to make laws thatbenefited and protected Hispanics. He alsoserved for forty years as a state senator ofColorado. Senator Bare la spent over halfof his life as a senator! He even had a townnamed after him, Bare la, in southern Col-orado. There is a stained glass window of

Senator Bare la in the Colorado State Cap-itol. If you're ever in Denver, check it out.Casimiro Bare la is a neat man to have as agreat-great-great-uncle.

Rudolfo ("Corky") Gonzalezby Sergio Gonzalez

Another man who was a leader for theHispanic movement was Rudolfo Gonza-lez. He wrote a book called I AmJoaquin(Yo SoyJoaquin) and started a "Crusadefor Justice" group to improve the pride ofHispanics. He was a leader in the Chicanomovement. Because he is my grandfather,he will be called "Gramps" in the rest ofthis article.

Casirniro Bare la

*As,

Avr,

ARudolfo "Corky" Gonzalez

Gramps came to our writing class forthis book and spoke about many things.He told us that it is important to knowwhere we come from so we can knowwho we are. It is important to learn our

culture. We can learn about our culturefrom our family, on our own, or frombooks. But we have to know who ourgreat-great-grandfathers were or else wecannot know who we really are and whatour culture is.

Gramps said, "We can all be differ-ent, but we have the same father, God. Weare all one, and we can still be friends,because we are all on the same earth. Peo-ple don't have to take what they don'treally need from someone else. Just tak-ing over a whole group of people is wrongbecause they aren't like play toys. They arereal people."

Gramps also told us that books are animportant way for us to learn, because ifwe don't know something, then they cantell us. They can tell us about our cultureor about anything we want to know. To

OUR FAMOUS RELATIVES 25

get books, Gramps worked for "UncleBob," who was not a relative, just a spe-cial person. In "Uncle Bob's" pawn shop,there was a big shelf of books about His-panics and other groups. Gramps couldn'tfind these kinds of books in other places.He learned a lot from books and believesthat they are very important and are to betreasured.

Gramps told all of the young authorsthat we were making his dream come trueby writing a book about Hispanics.

Note to Readers: This is a very brief lookat the Hispanic history of America. Thereare many versions of history, and we havechosen to give you just one short version.To get a more complete picture, youwould need to research several sourcesand read much, much more.

3 :3

FUN, FOOD, AND FESTIVALS

There are fiestas here.There are recipes, too.

Fun, food, and festivals,They are all for you.

FESTIVALS

Festivals are a special time forbringing the family together.

GThis part of our book touches

on some religious and nonreligious cele-brations. These Hispanic holidays are fullof laughter and tears. Many Hispanics haveadopted American customs into their holi-days. For example, some Hispanic familiesnow include the Christmas tree and SantaClaus as part of their Christmas traditionsas well as Las Posadas and luminarias.Think about Hispanic customs you see inAmerica as you read about Las Posadas,the Day of the Three Kings, Easter, Cincode Mayo, and Day of the Dead.

3 (-;

Las Posadas

If you take part in Las Posadas, you prob-ably will remember it until time ends. Inmost Spanish-speaking countries of theAmericas, this special Christmas traditionbegins on December 16. It is a Christmasplay of Spanish heritage that began hun-dreds of years ago in southern Europe.This event brings to life how Joseph andMary searched for a place for the ChristChild to be born. The wordposada reallymeans "inn" or "place of lodging." If youremember the story, Joseph and Marycould not find an inn where Mary couldgive birth, so they wandered until theyfound a stable with a manger.

To celebrate the posada traditionally,people go from house to house and knockon the doors of friends and neighborsevery night for nine days. They pretend tobe searching for a place for Jesus to beborn. They carry lanterns and small fig-ures of Mary and Joseph. They create whatis called a Nativity scene. They sing orrecite poems wherever they go. It is sortof like caroling.

When they reach the house wherethe Nativity scene will be kept for thenight, they have a big celebration. Someof the foods that people may have includetamales. They're made of pork or beef ina red chili-sauce dough, wrapped in acorn husk, and then steamed.

Las Posadas is celebrated by manyHispanic people, though the details maybe different. For example, in Mexico, aposada party would have a piñata. Apiñata is a clay pot or frame covered with

3 7

FESTIVALS 27

frilly paper and filled with candy ortrinkets. You can find out how to make apiñata in the art section of this book.

Many parts of Christmas in Americahave taken on Hispanic customs. All acrossour nation you will hear people say, "FelizNavidad" (fay-LEES nah-vee-DAHD),which is Spanish for "Merry Christmas."It is not unusual for different kinds ofchurches and communities across ournation to celebrate Las Posadas by havingreal people dress up as Mary and Josephand ride on a live donkey. Luminarias,containers or bags filled with lighted can-dles, are often used to decorate for LasPosadas or Christmas activities. In fact,Phoenix, Arizona, lights its Desert Botan-ical Garden with 6,000 luminarias forChristmas celebrations. Albuquerque,New Mexico, and San Antonio, Texas, are

28 FUN, FOOD, AND FESTIVALS

only two of many American communitiesthat schedule an annual Las Posadas cele-bration.

The Day of the Three Kings

Some pr ople might think it is strange tohave Christmas in January. On January 6,the Day of the Three Kings is celebrated.This special holiday comes exactly twelvedays after the infant Jesus was born. Thistradition comes from the Bible. Accord-ing to the Bible, the Three Kings traveledtwelve days to bring their gifts to the babyJesus.

On the night of January 5, childrenleave their shoes or an empty shoe boxstuffed with straw outside their house forthe camels that the Three Kings ride. Inthe morning, the straw is gone, and inits place, they find candy, fruit, and toys.This tradition reminds the children of theThree Kings' journey to find the babyJesus.

Some families might bake a festivekind of Hispanic bread to eat on this day.It is called Marzan bread. This holidaybread is shaped like a crown and has cher-ries and pineapple on it to represent jewels.It reminds the people of the crowns wornby the Three Kings. The baker puts a spe-cial surprise in the bread. It might he asmall china doll, a charm, a coin, or evena ring. It is said that this special surprisewill bring the person who finds it goodluck.

In some places in Europe, the Day ofthe Three Kings is called Little Christmas.

Maybe they called it "Little Christmas"because they received little presents.

Many different churches celebratethe Day of the Three Kings in America.They call it Epiphany. We think a popularAmerican Christmas song, "The TwelveDays of Christmas," might be related tothis special day.

Easter Season

Easter is a religious holiday celebrated notonly by Hispanics but by Christians allover our nation. Easter is the last day ofa special season called Lent which lasts forforty days and nights before Easter Sunday.

The last week of Lent is called "HolyWeek." Many churches celebrate at leastthree special days. Holy Thursday is first.

FESTIVALS 29

This is when Jesus met with his disciples,the twelve men that worked with him,and ate dinner with them for the last time.The dinner is referred to as the "Last Sup-per," and there are many famous paintingsabout this. Good Friday follows HolyThursday. It is the Friday before Easter andis when Jesus was nailed to the cross.Finally, on Sunday, Easter is celebrated.The reason Christians celebrate this holi-day is because this is a reminder of whenJesus rose from the dead. This holiday isin the spring when new life is beginningall around.

On Easter Sunday, many people wakeup and go to church. After church, chil-dren go home to hunt for Easter eggs.Easter eggs are brightly decorated eggsthat are hard boiled or plastic eggs withcandy inside. Also during this day, familymembers gather together for a big dinner.Many Hispanic people celebrate like thisall over the world.

Traditionally Hispanics celebrateholidays in a big way. Some Hispanics havespecial Easter eggs that are called casca-rones (kahs-kah-RO-nays). These neat eggsmight be fun for your family to make.They are whole eggshells filled with col-ored confetti. Children like to act as if theyare in battles when they throw the eggsback and forth and sneak up on a friendand break the cascarone on his or herhead.

Here are the directions for makingcascarones. Make a hole about the size ofa dime in one end to drain the raw insides.You can either drink the eggs in eggnogor fry them; just don't waste them. (Re-

3 :I


member, Hispanics try to use everythingthey can.) Now clean the eggshell out bywashing it. Let it dry. Start saving eggshellsfor about three months until Easter. WhenEaster is close you can make confetti outof recycled paper and fill half of the egg-shell with this colored paper. Now youmake a paste with flour and water to coverup the hole.

Cinco de Mayo

Cinco de Mayo (Fifth of May) is an excit-ing festival. This celebration takes placein many American cities across our nationas well as in Mexico. This has become aday for Mexican-Americans to share theirtraditions with many friends of differentheritages.

The history behind this day goesback to 1862, when Napoleon III was theleader of France. Mexico owed large sumsof money to France. Napoleon used thisas an excuse to have his soldiers invadeMexico. There was a fierce battle calledthe Battle of Puebla. The fancy Frencharmy had many weapons and were welltrained before the battle. Puebla was asmall town south of Mexico City, withmany farmers. The villagers had to maketheir own army with very few guns andbullets. The Mexicans were ragged andpoor, but they fought on until the Frenchleft. We really were impressed by the cour-age of the Mexicans. This battle showedus that if you don't give up, you can wineven if the odds arc against you.

If you went to a Cinco de Mayo cel-ebration in America you might hear a

mariachi band playing lively music andsee beautiful dancers spinning. Street ven-dors would be selling colorful Mexicancrafts. You might hear someone calling,"Tacos, burritos, enchiladas, and nachos!"You would smell delicious scents in the airand feel the excitement everywhere. In themonth of May, try to locate a Cinco deMayo celebration in your community soyou can celebrate, too!

The Day of the Dead

So many Hispanic customs have theirbeginnings in completely different cul-tures. This holiday is a good example.Many native groups that lived in the NewWorld had customs that showed respectfor the dead. The Spanish also broughttheir own customs with them when theycame to the New World. They have com-bined their traditions and call the celebra-tion the Day of the Dead. It is not weirdor scary. It is fun. It is a way for people toshow respect for their dead relatives.

Some ideas behind this holiday comefrom many ancient groups of Indians. Forexample, the Taino Indians of Cuba be-lieved that at night their dead family mem-bers came hack to their huts looking forfood. Each night they would set out offer-ings of their favorite food for the relatives.

The Spanish explorers had a similartradition they brought from their home-land. They had a special day they set asideto pray for people who had died. This dayis November 1. It is called All Saints' Day.It is a way to show respect for the dead.The day after this has been named All

Souls' Day. It is a day when people prayfor souls who have not found a restingplace. These ideas of paying respect to thedead were blended together and becamethe Day of the Dead.

The Day of the Dead was originallycelebrated over three days. On the firstday, the living relatives would go to theirdead relatives' graves and set out lots ofcandles and incense. They would also putmarigolds on the graves because theseflowers have a strong smell. The relativeshoped that the dead could find their wayhome by following the smells of the flow-ers, incense, and candles. At home, theyspent the day preparing all the food thatthe dead person loved. They would putthe food on a table, and no one could eat

4 1

it until the dead person was given enoughtime to have some.

On the second day; the families wouldhave big celebrations at their houses. Theyserved more of the dead person's favoritefoods. Pictures, a favorite dress, or evenobjects that belonged to that person wereset out to remind people that these deadrelatives were present. They would eatcandies shaped like skeletons and coffins.The skeleton is a very important symbolfor this celebration because it is the lastthing that is left on the earth from theirdead relatives. Relatives and friends dancedand sang and spent a lot of time remem-bering their dead loved ones.

On the third day, the celebrationbecame more widespread. There wouldbe parades with floats and bands. Coffinswere carried which had people in themdressed to look like skeletons. These skele-tons moved just their arms and then theirshoulders, slowly coming out of the cof-fin, as if to join the party.

Americans all across our country cel-ebrate some aspects of this three-daycelebration. Halloween is one example of

this. Halloween actually means "hallowedevening" or "holy eve." Many costumesinclude skeletons and skulls. This is oftencelebrated with festive foods and parties.Some Christian religions have a specialchurch service to remember their dead.Other Americans might visit cemeteriesor grave sites and leave flowers and flagson their graves to show love and respectfor the dead.

FOOD

Hispanic cooking combines products andmethods of two worlds. Remember whenthe Spanish invaders came to the NewWorld, they brought livestock, cheeses,orchard fruits, and wheat along with theirown ways of cooking. They met the dif-ferent native groups such as the Maya ofMexico or the Taino Indians of PuertoRico. We believe some Spanish explorersforced the natives to be their servants andmade them start to use some Spanish waysin their cooking. These two heritagesblended together, and a new way of cooki came about.

Let's think about how this could hap-pen. For example, if your dad was cookinga recipe for your family, he might changeit a little because he couldn't find one ofthe items in the recipe. Everyone mightreally like the new way he cooked thefood, and now he has started a new rec-ipe. This is one of the reasons Hispanicrecipes for the same dish can he so dif-ferent.

In discussing Hispanic food, we

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found out that all eighty-two authors inour writing program had eaten in a His-panic restaurant. We had all had tacos andburritos served in our school cafeteria. Wewere all familiar with many foods such asguacamole, enchiladas, salsa, and nachos.We made and tasted many Hispanic dishes.Below we have given recipes for the oneswe liked and we think other kids canmake. Ask your dad or morn if you canprepare some of our dishes. Read on tofind recipes for drinks, appetizers, maindishes, and fruit popsicies.

Tortillas

A tortilla is a flat bread made from flouror corn. It can be stacked, rolled, folded,eaten alone, or eaten with many otherthings. You can buy machine-made tor-tillas in almost any American supermar-ket. We thought you might like to knowhow to make homemade ones. Here goes!

4' cups flour1 teaspoon salt or to taste3 heaping tablespoons solid vegeta-

ble shortening1/2 cup lukewarm water

Put flour in a big glass bowl. Thenadd salt and the vegetable shortening. Mixingredients until the mixture looks like arough rock. Add water slowly, and kneaduntil the dough looks like a big ball. Coverwith a towel and set aside for half an hour.

To make the tortillas, pinch out lit-tle balls of dough and put them on a cut-ting board that has lightly sprinkled flouron it. Then get a rolling pin and one ballof dough and roll it into a flat circle. Nextget the flat circles and put them on a warmgriddle. You have to cook each side untilit's golden brown. Now you have greatflour tortillas.

How to Fold a 'Tortilla for a BurritoA burrito is a folded flour tortilla withdifferent kinds of fixings in the middlesuch as cheese, meat, vegetables, and salsa.Have you ever noticed that at Mexicanrestaurants, they fold their burritos in afancy way? Well, here we're going to teachyou to do just that.

1. Place your meat and vegetables in astrip down the middle of your tortilla.

2. Fold the bottom part of the tortillaover your filling (just enough so youcan still see some of the meat).

3. Fold in the sides.4. Fold the top part over.5. Now you can eat your meal with a fork

or with your hands.

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Making bean dip

4

Salsa para los Nhios(Dip for Children)

Tired of the plain old salsa? If you are, thenwhy don't you try the following recipe?Those of you who don't know what salsais, listen carefully. Salsa is a thick tomatoeysauce that can either be spicy or mild.Here's a recipe we liked. (It makes 3 cups.)

1 28-ounce can Italian -style tomatoesVi cup onions'/2 tablespoon vinegar1 tablespoon salad oil

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1 teaspoon finely crushed oreganoleaves

1 teaspoon finely crushed parsleyleaves

Crush tomatoes by hand. Add therest of the ingredients. This salsa is a mildsauce that most children like. You shouldput it in a light-colored bowl so peoplewill know it's mild.

This salsa is wonderful on tacos, bur-ritos, nachos, corn chips, and most Mex-ican dishes. It's guaranteed to be a favoriteat parties.


Guacamole

3 large peeled avocados1/2 cup chopped onion1 cup chopped tomatoI tablespoon lime juice

First cut up the avocados and putthem in a pan or bowl. Save the seed in themiddle for decoration when done. Thentake the tomatoes and onions and spreadthem around the avocados. Mash all theingredients together. After mashing theavocados, put the lime juice into the mix-ture and mix it one last time.

HINT: Place the seed in the finisheddip to keep it from turning brown.

Huevos Rancheros

You need a frying pan and a stove to makethis. Ingredients are eggs, oil, tortillas, and

salsa. Put the frying pan on the stove andwarm the oil in the frying pan. Get someeggs and crack them into the frying pan.Now fry the eggs. Put a tortilla on a plate,then put the eggs on the tortilla. Takesome salsa and put it on top of the eggs.Roll your tortilla over everything. Theneat it up!

Chorizo con Huevos(Scrambled Eggs and MexicanSausage)

8 eggs3-4 links chorizo sausageGarlic powder

First peel off the skin of the chorizo.Next get a frying pan and mash thechorizo in the pan with a big spoon. Cookthe chorizo with a little bit of nonstick oil.When done, drain all of the chorizogrease. Next put the eggs in the pan.Scramble the eggs. Mix the eggs, chorizo,and the amount of garlic powder wanted.Serve with a flour tortilla.

Chicken Enchiladas

1 chicken, about 3 pounds1 medium onion, chopped3 tablespoons butterI can cream of chicken soup1 can cream of mushroom soup1 cup chicken broth1 4 -ounce can green chiles, chopped1 dozen Candy's corn tortillas (or

other brand)1 pound longhorn cheese, shredded

Cook and bone chicken. Brownonion in butter. Add soups, broth, chiles,and chicken, and heat well. In a 9" x 13"pan, layer the tortillas, chicken sauce, andcheese. Repeat until the casserole is filled,ending with cheese. Bake 30 minutes at350 degrees. Serves eight.

Arrachera al Carbon(Mexican Fajitas)

1 pound trimmed skirt steak, cut into3-inch lengths

1 onion per pound grilled with meat1 green pepper per pound grilled

with meat1 lime per pound grilled with meatSalt and pepper to taste

Squeeze lime juice over the meat.Grill on a charcoal grill. Serve with gua-camole, Candy's tortillas, and lots of salsa.Serves four.

Atole de Fresa(Creamy Strawberry Breakfast Drink)

This drink is very smooth. It goes wellwith breakfast or on a cold day. This drinkwould he very enjoyable after sleddinginstead of hot chocolate!

2 quarts fresh or frozen strawberries1/2 cup white corn meal substitute1/2 cup all-purpose cream of wheat

or wheat flour4 cups milk, scalded2 cups water1 cup sugar1 teaspoon vanilla

FOOD 37

A few drops red food coloring!/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Squash the well-washed strawber-ries. Blend the white corn meal with thewater. Slowly add the sugar and stir for tenminutes. The mixture should be thick.Add the strawberries, vanilla, cinnamon,cream, and the few drops of food color-ing. Heat until boiling begins, stirringevery few minutes. Serve in mugs or cups.Makes four quarts.

Chocolate Mexicano(Mexican Hot Chocolate)

When it's cold outside and you needsomething warm to drink, why don't youtry this?

2 3 - ounce cakes or tablets Mexicanchocolate

(6 oz. sweet cooking chocolate canhe used instead)

6 cups milk2 teaspoons cinnamon (only if using

cooking chocolate)2 teaspoons sugar (if you want)

Combine all the ingredients in asaucepan and cook over loss neat. Stirconstantly until the chocolate has meltedand the mixture is blended. Just beforeserving, use an egg heater and beat untilsmooth. Serves four.


Fruit Punch

This fruit punch is a delicious drink on ahot summer day.

' cup sugar1 cup orange juice4 cups grape juice1/2 lemon, sliced1/2 orange, sliced1 small apple or peach, cut into thin

wedges4 cups club sodaIce

Put the sugar, orange juice, and grapejuice in a pitcher. Add the lemon, orange,and apple or peach slices. Stir the mixtureuntil the sugar disappears. Just before youserve the drink, put in the club soda. Putin ice if you want to and you have a deli-cious drink.

Paletas(Fruit Popsicles)

2 cups sweet pureed fruit1 cup juice2 heaping tablespoons sugar1/2 teaspoon lime juice

Get the fruit you like and mash it.Then put it into a bowl. Add the fruit juiceand mix together. Then add the sugar andlime juice to keep the color of the fruit.Put contents into two ice cube trays. Sticktoothpicks into the center of each cube.Freeze for 3 to 7 hours. Then you have acold treat.

DANCES

What would a festival be without danc-ing? Dancing is done all over the world.All cultures have some form of the art ofdance. In fact, many anthropologists, peo-ple who study cultures, believe danceactually started when male animals wantedto attract female animals. They jumpedaround and looked beautiful so that thefemale animal would notice them. A lotof dances are about this type of boy or girlthing. Dance was used in many culturesto ask the gods for favors. One example ofthis was a dance done to ask the gods forrain. In some cultures, only men dance,

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DANCES 39

while in others, only women dance. In theHispanic culture, both men and womendance.

Dancing has many basic elementssuch as steps, gestures, rhythm, and tech-niques. Dancing is made up of parts ofpeople's movements like walking, jump-ing, skipping, running, hopping, gallop-ing, sliding, swaying, and turning. In an-cient times, the dancer made his ownmusic by singing, shouting, or clapping.As dances became more involved, musi-cians started to provide the music. Specificmusic was selected to go with certaindances. The basic rhythm of a dance isvery closely related to the music. Musicand dance belong together. They are bothbased on rhythm and movement.

Dance can he an expression of ouremotions, or it can help us feel a specificway. Dance has helped some religiouspeople express their love for God. Dancecan also be used to tell a story.

In the early 1800s, traditional Mex-

ican folkloric dancing began. This type ofdance is very important to the Hispanicsbecause it expresses emotion and heritage.It is a blend of the Spanish, Indian, andCaribbean cultures. Folk dancing is handeddown from one generation to the next.Many folk dances were made for pleasure.Some of these dances are for dating andhave the dancers flirt with each other. TheCuban rumba is a dance that tells the storyof a flirtatious exchange. The dancersmove to show boy meets girl, boy chasesgirl, and girl runs away! In a dance calledBullfighting, the matador is flirting withdeath.

The styles of costumes for the danceshave been passed down from generationto generation. For example, Mexican cos-tumes are chosen by color and expressionfor each dance and are handmade. Thedancers like to pick the colors for theircostumes unless they are for a group per-

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Dancers from Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish, Denver

formance in which all the costumes mustmatch. The dresses usually have full skirtswith lots of ruffles, lace, and ribbons. Theyarc very long, almost to the ground, andmake the girls look like big butterflieswhen they hold their dresses out to theirsides. The men usually wear black suitswith white shirts. The pant legs arc taperedwith rows of silver buttons down the out-side of the leg. A large sombrero, a widebrimmed hat, is the finishing touch on themen's costume. Some dancers use color-ful fluttering scarfs, castanets, and handclapping.

The dance called La Raspa, meaningto scrape or scratch, is a Mexican folk

dance consisting of an alternate shufflingof the feet forward and backward andending with a polka pivot. This dance hasspecific music for its dance steps. Childrendance La Raspa at parties and birthdaysand just to feel good.

The Mexican Hat Dance Oarab. Tapa-t io) is a well-known Mexican dance. Thisdance came together when popular Span-ish music was put with musical styles ofblacks and Indians. The Jarabe becameknown as the Mexican Hat Dance becauseit's a dance performed around a hat. Theboy dancer dances on one side of the hat,and the girl dancer dances on the otherside. It's sort of a boyfriend and girlfriend

42 FUN, FOOD AND FESTIVALS

type of dance because all the time thedancers arc dancing they are flirting witheach other. The Jarabe Tapatio has con-

tinued to be a popular Mexican dance. It'sfrequently performed by the Ballet Folklorico Nacional across America. ManyHispanic communities across our coun-try have Ballet Folkloric° dance groupssuch as the ones in San Antonio, Texas, andLos Angeles, California.

Today in America, strolling musi-cal groups called mariachis perform atstreet fairs and in restaurants. The mari-achi groups have singers, musicians, anddancers. The dancers perform to livelymusic. They use a few basic steps, like hop-ping, heel and toe tapping, and scratching.The musicians use all types of guitars,brass horns (like trumpets), and percus-sion instruments like maracas and cas-tanets.

Hispanic dancing is a world filledwith history and tradition. It is a reallygood thing for kids to learn. ThroughoutAmerica, in community churches andcenters, there arc many groups that holdclasses to learn Hispanic dance. If you areinterested in being a member of a dancegroup, contact Hispanic churches andcenters to ask them about opportunitiesin your area. After students learn to dance,some perform for festivals and othercelebrations. Learning Hispanic dance isa great way to learn about the culturewhile having lots of fun!

Note to Readers: There arc so many moreHispanic festivals, recipes, and customsto explore. \Xle hope you take the time toattend a Hispanic celebration or do someinvestigation on your own.

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Art has a great part in historyIt brings to beauty life's mystery.The paint, the pen, the ordinary thing,The joy and pain that art can bring.

As Americans across our coun-try become more aware of tak-ing care of our environment,

American artists are starting to use re-cycled items in their art. This trend hasbeen a part of Hispanic art for years. ManyHispanic artists use creativity to turn ordi-nary household stuff into beautiful, inter-esting pieces of art.

The artists discussed below createtheir art using Hispanic techniques, andat the same time, they portray their His-panic heritage. Hispanics have come fromCuba, Mexico, Spain, Puerto Rico, andmany other places around the world.Where they come from makes their artdifferent; for example, Cubans, who arcislanders, might paint water, but Mexicans,

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might paint mountains or land becausethey have lived near this type of area.Religion is an important part of Hispanictradition, and it is this religious heritagethat is used in Hispanic art. Artists usetheir feelings about family, saints, and His-panic tradition to help learn and share thebeauty of the Hispanic culture.

Also in this chapter we will tell aboutfolk art, retablos and santos. Many times,saints and other religious beliefs are usedas ideas for this art, and so are things fromeveryday life. Some of the art is colorful,and some is plain, but all of it is a beautifulexpression of the artist's talents.

Piñatas. luminarias, and molas arcthree exciting art projects we talk aboutwhich you will he able to make. We have

ARTISTS 45

provided the directions and a list of ma-terials for each at the end of this chapter.

Read on to find out about five His-panic artists, three types of Hispanic art,and three art projects that you might liketo make at home.

ARTISTS

Consuelo Gonzalez Amezcua

Do you know which Hispanic artist's nick-name was Chelo? It was Consuelo Gonza-lez Amezcua. She was born in Mexico in1903 but was brought up in Del Rio, Texas.She was offered a scholarship to attend anart school but wasn't able to attend be-cause of her father's death. She neverreally went to school to learn art.

Chelo began drawing with doodling.

She used plain old ordinary ballpoint pensin red, blue, black, green, and purple, butnot all of her drawings had color in them.Chelo enjoyed painting but not as muchas she enjoyed drawing. She called herdrawing "Filigree Art, a new Texas cul-ture?' She took a three-dimensional designand turned it into a flat drawing. Most ofher art ideas came from the things shelearned and saw at church because shedidn't go to school.

Writing poetry was another of Chelo'sinterests. She has won prizes for her poe-try. Sometimes she would have poetry inher drawings, using plain words to expressher ideas.

Even though Chelo's family didn'talways encourage her, she always knewshe wanted to be an artist. Her designs anddetails amaze many of her admirers.

Carmen Lomas Garza

Carmen Lomas Garza is a talented artistwho has shared her Hispanic heritage inher work. She was born in Kingsville,Texas, in 1948. Garza was the second childborn in a family with five children. Shewent to a public school in Kingsville, and

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46 ART

one thing she remembered from her child-hood was getting spanked for speakingSpanish in class. Speaking Spanish inschool was against the law then. Garzagraduated from the Texas Arts and Indus-tries University in 1972.

Garza's mother was a florist, and hergrandmother made paper flowers. Theirartistic talent and projects helped Garzato decide, when she was a teenager, to be-come an artist.

In college, Garza became involved in"El Movimiento," the Chicano movement.Artists like Garza joined this movementbecause they were proud to be of Mexicandescent. Their paintings showed a specialpride in their heritage. A historian of theChicano movement, Jacinto Quirarte, hasstated that the reason these artists enjoyedtheir work was not to he famous but "toteach the Chicano community about it-self, to strengthen it, and to nurture it."This means to learn more about yourselfand to be proud of who you are. Garzawanted to help the community grow in itsunderstanding of its heritage.

Garza's paintings sometimes showHispanic people with their family. Forexample, one of her paintings, called San-dia Watermelon, shows a scene where theparents, children, and grandparents aretogether on the porch eating watermelon.Extended families living together such asgrandparents, aunts, uncles, grandchil-dren, and cousins are important in the His-panic culture. Another one of her famouspictures done in 1977 is called DeathCart. This picture shows a skeleton thatcould represent a part of the November 1

Day of the Dead celebration. (Read moreabout the Day of the Dead in Fun, Food,and Festivals.)

Another example of Garza's work isher Homage to Frida Kahlo, a famousMexican artist who is an inspiration tomany Mexican-American women artists.Kahlo's paintings are like little memoriesfrom life, a life that had a strong desire topaint even with pain and suffering.

Carmen Lomas Garza now lives inSan Francisco, California, and has hadexhibits at the San Francisco Museum ofModern Art, the Mexican Museum of SanFrancisco, El Museo del Barrio (Museumof the Barrio) of New York, and Intar LatinAmerican Gallery of New York. Garza wasrecently featured in Hispanic Art in theUnited States: Thirty ContemporaryPainters and Sculptors by John Beardsleyand Jane Livingston. You might ask for thisbook at your library so you can see somephotographs and examples of her work.

Eduardo Chavez

Eduardo Chavez was an interesting man.He was born in Wagon Mound, New Mex-ico, in 1917. Even though he went to Colo-rado Springs Fine Arts Center for a shorttime, he believes he taught himself topaint. Senor Chavez featured Americansubjects in his murals, which are locatedin Glenwood Springs and Denver, Colo-rado; Geneva, Nebraska; Center, Texas;and Fort Warren, Wyoming. He has trav-eled throughout Europe and Mexico.

When Senor Chavez started his artcareer, he had two really good friends

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ARTISTS 47

who one day died in a car accident. Afterhis friends died, he made all blue paintingsbecause painters paint the things they feel.He used blue because it represents sadfeelings. As time passed, Chavez started toadd more color to his paintings. Soon hispaintings were more colorful and less sad.Today, his blue paintings are his mostfamous works of art. Our favorite paintingof his is Ocate 1. It's very colorful. It hasmany shades of blue, and the colors seemto dance around all the other colors. Thisis a happy blue painting!

Octavio Medellin

Octavio Medellin is a Hispanic sculptorwho is well known throughout Texas. Heuses wood and stone to sculpt his wonder-ful statues and sculptures. He usuallysculpts figures and animals that lookstrong and sturdy. They are huge and veryheavy.

Medellin was born in Mexico in1907. Living during the Mexican Revolu-tion was not easy, and his family wasforced to move many times. Finally theysettled in San Antonio, Texas, in 1920.That is when he began to study art. Hestudied Indian crafts, which had a greatinfluence on his sculptures. He also stud-ied painting and life drawing. He tried toenroll in the San Carlos Academy of Mex-ico but was not accepted because he didn'thave enough schooling in art. He begansculpting in 1933. No one had ever taughthim how to sculpt, so he is considered tobe self-taught.

Medellin set up his very own gallery,

the Villita, to help himself and other artistssell their artwork. After starting the art gal-lery, he taught for three years at two mu-seums. It seems that you have to sell yourart before anyone thinks you know enoughto tell others about it. Sometime later,Syracuse University Library asked for hispapers and art studies to put in its Collec-tion of Manuscripts of Sculptors. Afterthat, he began to run his own art school.

A lot of his sculptures have themesabout history. One of Mcdellin's pieces isa great example of this living history. It iscalled The History of Mexico. On each sideof it are carvings of things that happenedat a certain time. These carvings tell a storyto the viewer.

Since the late thirties, Medellin's arthas been exhibited a lot, and he continuesto make lifelike sculptures. He is a greatsculptor because he uses ideas from hisown mind and puts them into his piecesof art.

Gregorio Marzan

Gregorio Marzan was born in 1906 inPuerto Rico. He attended school until hewas nine years old, when he had to finda job. Marzan worked on the island ofPuerto Rico as a carpenter and as a fieldhand. While he was working there, he gotmarried and had five children. In 1937, hedecided to move to New York City so hecould find a better job. New York hadmany more job opportunities to help sup-port his family. Sadly, his wife died beforehe got to New York. Eventually, when hecould afford it, he brought his five kids,

HISPANIC ART FORMS 49

who had been living with their grand-mother, to New York.

In New York, Marian couldn't finda job as a carpenter, but he did find a jobmaking toys, dolls, and stuffed animals. Heworked in lots of toy factories until heretired in 1971.

During his retirement, Madan startedmaking small birds and houses typical ofrural Puerto Rico to sell to gift shops. Hetried to sell these home decorations to sev-eral gift shops, but they were not inter-ested. When he was trying to sell his workto the gift shop at El Museo del Barrio, themuseum director thought that his pieceswere so good they belonged in themuseum! This happened in 1979. Themuseum has been collecting his art piecesever since.

Marian does not think of himself asan artist. He says he can make anythingthat he sees. His ideas come to him whenhe is walking around or they come fromhis memories of Puerto Rico. We considerhim an artist and like his work because itis very beautiful. For example, The Dachs-hund has a lot of glitter and parts of it looklike shiny colored ribbon.

SOME TRADITIONAL HISPANICART FORMS

Retablos

Retablos (re- TAH- hlohs) are small, reli-gious oil paintings. These paintings helpothers to see a picture of what a holy per-son might look like such as Jesus or the

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Lady of Guadalupe, who is also called theVirgin Mary. They are usually painted ontin by untrained artists who haven't goneto an art school. Some artists use copperinstead of tin for the retablos. Retabloswere a favorite form of art in the earlyyears of the nineteenth century. Thou-sands of these holy pictures were paintedduring that time.

Santos

Later, some artists decided to carve saintsand holy people out of wood instead ofpainting them on tin and copper. Theseworks are called santos. They arc three-dimensional so you can walk aroundthem. They are colorful, with reds, yel-lows, blues, greens, and browns. Blackwas used for outlines. Santos can be sev-eral inches or a few feet in height. They arevery beautiful.

Folk Art

Artists also did folk art. Much of this waslike the santos, only plain, with no colors

J

50 ART

at all! We saw some that were three-dimen-sional. Folk art makes statements aboutthings in the everyday lives of the Hispanicpeople. These events could include work,gardening, sports, or church or familyactivities. For Hispanic people, folk art isan expression of the way they carry out

everyday activities. It paints a better pic-ture of their community.

Folk art changed a little from thecolorful santos but not very much. Thefolk artists wanted something new anddifferent. They had less color comparedto the retablos and the santos. Santoslooked more realistic than the retablopaintings. The folk art is plainer anddoesn't have as many details. Folk art isusually made of natural wood so there isonly the color of the wood.

The Hispanic people often use thingslike old cardboard and paper to write ordraw on or even to make into new paper.They also use pieces of tin and copper andother materials to create sculptures. Theyuse these leftover scraps to create interest-ing pieces of art. Something like an alumi-num can could be made into a colorfulChristmas tree decoration.

Folk Art Projects

atasMaking piñatas is an experience filled withhistory. Piñatas didn't start in Mexico.They started in Italy, and they were firstcalled pignattas. Back in the EuropeanRenaissance of the fourteenth and fifteenthcenturies, the pignattas were shaped likea clay ice cream cone. This cone shape was

called apigna. Later the single cone be-came three cones put together like a star.The star symbolized the Three Kings andthe gifts they brought to baby Jesus atChristmas. Each point represents one ofthose Three Kings.

In 1498, on Columbus's third voyage,

FOLK ART PROJECTS 51

Father de Las Casas, a Spanish priest, trav-eled as a missionary to Cuba. He showedthe pinatas to the native people and toldthem how each point represented a king.Father de Las Casas saw how excited thenatives were to find treasures and candiesin the points of the star pinatas. He toldthem that if they became Christians, theThree Kings would fill the pinatas withcandy and toys for them. The Indians,thinking this was true and knowing howmuch they loved the cand and goodies,decided to accept some of the Christianbeliefs.

Mexico first used pinatas during theFeast of the Three Kings. Young childrenwere told that the Three Kings were theones who put candy and toys in thepinatas. Children made their pinatas bigbecause the bigger the star, the more giftsthe kings would leave. At celebrations,they would hit the pinata with a stick. Itwould crack open, and the goodies wouldspill out.

Today, pinatas are a fun thing for anyparty. They are a smashing success, liter-ally. You can make a pinata, too! Here'show.

Materials: You will need one balloon,some thin newspaper strips, art glue orregular glue for making papier-macho,three large rectangular pieces of paper,string, masking tape, tissue paper, Elmer'sGlue, and lots of clean-up supplies.

1. First blow up your balloon.2. Take the newspaper strips and put

them through the art glue that youput into'a small tub.

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3. Next, take your pointer finger andyour middle finger, put them likescissors, and go down the strip. Becareful not to tear it. You do this sothe art glue doesn't glob up and looksloppy.

4. Now wrap your balloon with theglued strips enough so that its colordoesn't show through. Set your bal-loon to dry in the sun for about a day.Make sure it doesn't get dirty and thatit does not drip on people.

5. Now you're ready to take the threerectangular pieces of paper and turnthem into cones. You do this by hold-

52 ART

ing the paper sideways with yourthumb and pointer finger in the mid-dle. Fold the paper toward the mid-dle, being careful not to crease it. Dothe same with the other side. Makesure there is a point at the top of the

cone.6. Do all of this with the three pieces of

paper and tape the cone together soit doesn't unravel.

7. After that, tape these to the balloonso that it appears to be a three-pointedstar when you look down on it.

8. Your next step is to take the three

pieces of string and tie them togetherso they look like a fat Y. Now put thestrings where they are tied togetherunder the piñata. Bring them up inbetween the cones, and tie them to-gether again at the top. Now you'll beable to hang up your piñata.

9. Then take the tissue paper and cutit into one- to two-inch strips, thelength of the paper. Fold the strips inhalf and cut the width of the strip tomake a fringe. Be careful to keep itattached.

10. Take the side that's not fringed andput a thin line of Elmer's Glue on it.

11. Take the piñata, and start wrappingthe tissue paper you just fringedaround the tip at one cone. Make sureyou cover the newspaper. When youget to the center, wrap the strips in acircular motion, being careful tocover the top and bottom. If youmissed a spot, you can use the extratissue paper to patch it up.

12. If you want to, you can use any extratissue paper as streamers. These areglued to the pointed ends of thepiñata to make it more decorative.

13. Now you get to clean up! Let yourpiñata dry out by hanging it up some-where for a while. This also makesyour room look festive, and you caneven have fun while you'recleaning!

MolasMolas are a colorful part of Hispanic cul-ture. Their origin goes hack to the CufiaIndians of Panama. A mola is a brightlycolored geometric design. The Indians


used shapes of living things like plants andanimals for their designs. A mola is madeof layers of the colored design placed oneon top of the other. The Cufia Indians usedfabric for their layers. The shapes were justa bit bigger for each layer. They would putthese layered shapes on a background andcover this background as much as possi-ble. They could make them into pillowsand blankets, and they even put the molasright on their clothes. The Indians stillmake molas today. If you like the molas onthe Indians' clothing, they take them offand sell them to you.

Molas are fun to make. In fact, manyAmerican tourists have brought these backfrom their visits to the Panama Canal area.Many art teachers in American schoolshave their students make molas as a His-panic art project. They can be all sorts ofcolors and shapes, and you can start withany size you want.

This is a fun way of making molas.

Materials: Pencil, white paper, scissors,lots of colored construction paper, a largepiece of white paper, and glue.

6 :1

1. Draw a picture of your design on the

LuminariasLuminarias are lights set out along pathsto lead the way on dark nights. During LasPosadas, which is a reenactment of whenJoseph and Mary were looking for a placeto stay, many people use luminarias tolight the sidewalks and doorways to theirhomes. In America, luminarias are usedto put on houses and walkways to light theway for guests. This is usually donearound Christmas time because they aresuch a festive decoration.

white paper. You have to make allof the designs out of something innature.

2. Cut it Out with your scissors andtrace your shape onto a piece of con-struction paper. Every time you cutit out, trace your shape bigger thanthe last one, and use a different color.Then layer them from the biggest onthe bottom to the littlest one on top.After that, glue each design together.

5. Glue all of the designs on one largepiece of paper covering as much ofthe paper as possible.Mo las arc a great way to show one

thing the ancient Club people do. You canmake one and hang it on the wall to showto your friends.

There are many different kinds ofluminarias. Sometimes they arc madeusing a brown bag with a candle inside.The kind described here is made out of a

A


tin can, using a hammer and nail to put inholes for a neat lighted effect that shinesthrough the spaces. The designs are flashedacross the walls and ceiling where theluminarias sit.

Materials: Tin can, wood post, hammer,nails, can opener, paper, pencil, and imagi-nation. The tin can could be any kind suchas a coffee can, bean can, or soup can. Itneeds to be able to slip on the round woodpost.

1. Use your pencil and paper to make arepeating design something like this.

2. Get a tin can (like a small coffee can).Cut the ends out of the can with acan opener.

3. Tape your designs onto the tin can.4. Take the wood post and stick it

through the ends of the can.5. Put the end of the posts on two tables

or two chairs.

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6. Use the hammer and nails to putholes for each dot on the design.Remember to pound the nail throughthe tin so that when you put the can-dle in the can, the light will shinethrough.

7. When your design is done, removethe tape and paper design, put a can-dle inside, and place the luminaria ina dark place so that you can see howit works.

65

FUN WITH WORDS

Words! Words! Words!Lots and lots of words.Phrases, okes, riddles, laughter.Lots and lots of fun with words.

We would like you to see howneat words can he in Englishand Spanish. Both languages

surround us in many areas of the UnitedStates. Fun with Words will help you tolearn and understand dichos [DEE-chohs],chistes [CHEEH-stebs] or bmmas[BROH-mahs], adivinanzas [ah -dee- vee- NAHN-sahs], cognates, palabras Ipah-lAH-brahs1,frases [FRAN -sehs], ntimeros [N00-meh-rohs], colorer [coh -1,0H rehs], and Span-ish names.

DICHOS [Sayings]

Some dichos are passed on from genera-tion to generation. They are sayings thatyou hear often. For example, "Del dicho

1)

al hecho hay mucho trecho"It is easiersaid than done. You can't always translatedichos directly. Sometimes they help youlearn lessons or convince you to do some-thing. These sayings are like a piece ofadvice and will help you to avoid mistakeswith people and in life. They will nevergrow old. Here are some dichos we pickedout just for you.

"Con la vara que midas, semis medido"[With the rod that you measure, you willbe measured]."Hablando del rey de Roma, mira quiense asoma" [Speaking of the devil, lookwho's here]."El que no habla, dins no lo oye" If youdon't speak up, you won't he heard].

ADIVINANZAS 57

CHISTES [Jokes]

Chistes are jokes in question and answerform that make people laugh. They arealso known as bromas. Some chistes arevery strange. They are easier to understandin Spanish than in English. Sometimes it'shard to understand or catch the punchline. To help you understand chistes more,here are some.

SpanishP: ePor que tienen los elefantes la piel

arugada?R: Porque no se lo quitan Para dormir.EnglishQ: Why do elephants have wrinkled

skin?A: Because they don't take it off to sleep.

SpanishP: "Por que no dejo Caperucita Roja que

el lobo se la comiera?R: Porque no tenia permiso de su

mama.EnglishQ: Why did Little Red Riding Hood not

let the wolf eat her?A: Because she didn't have permission

from her mom.

SpanishP: iPor que se fUeron los cochinitos de su

casa?R: Porque su mama era una cochina.EnglishQ: Why did the piglets leave their house?A: Because their mother was a pig.

SpanishiSabes que le dijo un olvidadizo a otro?

6

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wQue?Ay, se me olvido.EnglishDo you know what one forgetful person

said to another?What?Oops, I just forgot.

ADIVINANZAS [Riddles]

Adivinanzas are riddles. They are similarto jokes but longer. Sometimes they areconfusing, funny, and mysterious. Theyuse words that sound alike but have differ-ent meanings, and this makes them funny.These words are called puns. When youtry to translate them from English to Span-ish, they're not as funny. This is because

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ADIVINANZAS 59

in English the similar words cannot beused to mean the same as in Spanish. Ifyou know someone who speaks Spanish,try to get them to tell the adivinanzasbecause the humor is in the pronuncia-tion. You have to use your mind to get theanswer, but it's funny even if you don't getit. We think jokes make you laugh harderthan riddles.

SpanishBaila, Pero no en la harina. eQue es?EnglishShe dances, but not in the flour. What is

she?RespuestalAnswer: Bailarina [dancer]This just combines the two words below.(baila : dances) + (harina : flour)

SpanishUna vieja largo y seca, que le escurre la

manteca. eQue es?EnglishA tall old woman, dried up stick, who

drips fat. Who is it?Respuesta I Answer: (Ina vela [a candle]

SpanishBlanco Como la nieve,Prieto como el carb6n,Anda y no tiene pies,Habla y no tiene bocci. ;Que es?EnglishWhite as snow,Black as coal,It walks and has no feet,It speaks and has no mouth. What is it?Respuesta I Answer: Una carta (a letter)

PAoar, tic et tsposo beil,"&?

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60 FUN WITH WORDS

COGNATES

We thought you might enjoy some cog-nates. Cognates are words in Spanish andEnglish that sound the same and havesimilar spelling and the same meaning.

EnglishChocolateTomatoBootsLemonApplaudRoseMapPaperMusicMusicianBottleCafeteriaMuchSaladVirginNumbersColorsVegetableExplorerIntelligentNo

Spanishel chocolateel tomatelas botasel limOnaplaudirla rosael mapael papella mtisicael aztisico

botellala cafeteriamachola ensaladala Virginlos nfinzeroslos coloresel vegetalel exploradotinteligenteno

Now, it is with great pleasure thatwe proudly present some cognates wethought of just for you, just for fun. Youmight even find these elsewhere in ourbook.

Pronunciationchoh-coh-LAH-teh]toh-MAH-teh]BOH-tahs]lee -MORN]ah-plah-00-THEER]ROH-sahlMAH-pah]pah -PEHL]MOO-see-cah]MOO-see-coh]hoh- TEH -yah]cah-feh-teh-REE-yah]MOO-choh]ehn-sah-LAH-dah]BEER-henjNEW-mehr-dohs]cob-LOH-tells]veh-heh-TAHL]ehks-ploh-rah-DOHR]een-teh-lee-HEHN-tellnob]

LOS COLORES 61

SPANISH PLACE-NAMES

Have you ever wondered why so manyplaces in the southeastern and southwest-ern United States have Spanish names? Itis estimated that over 100,000 Spaniardscame to the Western Hemisphere duringthe first half of the sixteenth century.When they came, they named many com-munities, rivers, areas, and settlements.Here are just a few for you to visit.

Arizona (Arid Zone)Colorado (Colored State)Florida (Place of Flowers)Montana (Mountain)Rio Grande (Big River)El Paso (The Pass)San Antonio (Saint Anthony)San Jose (Saint Joseph)Santa Fe (Saint Faith)Pueblo (Small Town)San Francisco (Saint Francis)Los Angeles (The Angels)San Diego (Saint James)Trinidad (Trinity)

The next time you look at a map, tryto see how many Spanish names you canfind. A clue to look for is that many Span-ish words end with a vowel. Spanishnames for places often include: San (malesaint), Santa (female saint), rio (river), andthe words Los or Las (the).

LOS COLORES [Colors]

Here is a poem describing colors. Wetranslated each color into Spanish andplaced it right next to the color word.

I see red (rojo) as the fire at night,I see the sky as blue (azul) and white

(blanco).I see brown (cafe') in coffee cups,I see black (negro) spots on little pups.I see green (verde) as stubby grass,I sec gray (gris) as swimming bass.I see gold (tiro) as the burning sun,I see silver (plata) as a shining gun.I see orange (anaranjado) as pumpkin

seeds,I see yellow (amarillo) in dandelion

weeds.I see pink (rosado) as a tie-dyed ant,I see purple (morado) as a frozen eggplant.No matter what color it is that we seek,It makes no difference what language we

speak.

FRASES [Phrases]

Here is a list of phrases that are easy tolearn. You may want to use some of themthe next time you are talking to a Hispanicfriend.

Or, it might be fun to fool a friend by learn-ing to say these Spanish sayings and usingthem.

Good morning Buenos dfas Please. Porfavor.Good evening Buenas tardes Excuse me. Con permiso. /Goodnight Buenas noches PerdOneme.Good grief Que barbaridad You're welcome. De nada.See you tomorrow.Hasta ma fiana. What is your eCOmo se llama?Hello Hola name?Good-bye Adios I'm lost. Estoy Perdido.How are you? eComo estd usted? Can you help? eMe pueda ayudar?Clean your room. Limpia to cuarto. I don't speak No hablo espanol.Be quiet/Shut up! No hables/iCallate! Spanish.Get lost. Vete/iQuItate de I don't know. No se.

aqui! Merry Christmas Feliz NavidadI love you. Te amo. Happy New Year Prospero AnoKiss me. Besame. NuevoThank you. Gracias.

7

CUENTOS [Stories]

Stories are fun to hear.Full of laughter and fear.A word of wisdom to everyone.A tradition of real Hispanic fun.

Storytelling is a very importantpart of the Hispanic culture.Before there was even a written

language, there was storytelling. Storieswere told not only as entertainment butalso as a way of teaching lessons and ex-plaining why things were the way theyarc. They tell about a culture because theylook at the morals and values of traditionsand the lessons they teach. Every goodstory has something you can learn fromit, even if it's just the idea that it's good tolaugh and he entertained.

Storytelling is an art. Not everyoneis able to do it well. Storytellers tell theirstories in a way they feel most comfort-able. No two storytellers tell the samestory the same way. Storytellers use a lot

of expression. They not only tell the storyby using words but also by using all kindsof body movements. It's fun watchingthem as they move around while tellingtheir stories. Many storytellers also useprops such as hats, animals, other people,or musical instruments to add to theirstories.

A famous saying among storytellersis, "I never let the facts get in the way ofthe truth." This means that although themessage is usually true, the facts are some-times exaggerated.

The best atmosphere for storytellingis a place with no visual or sound distrac-tion, a comfortable audience, and spaceto move around as you tell the story. If youwant to be a successful storyteller, keep

64 CUENTOS

practicing, for you may have the talentinside you. Find a story you like and prac-tice telling it in front of a mirror, your pet,your friends, or on a tape. Keep your bodymoving. You may even be good enough tobecome a professional storyteller.

In this chapter, we share sonic of thestories we have heard or read. Each con-tains a part of Hispanic culture whetherit is funny, scary, true, religious, or roman-tic. We hope you enjoy reading them.

OUR LADY OF GUADAWPE

Do you believe in miracles? If not, thenafter you read this story you may have tothink twice. If you already believe, well,

then here's another one to add to your col-lection.

Most Americans have heard of OurLady of Guadalupe. She is the patron saintof Mexico. Our Lady of Guadalupe hasalso appeared in places other than Mex-ico, and when she does, she takes on thenationality of that country. For example,she was called Our Lady of Fatima whenshe appeared at Fatima in Portugal. Forthese reasons, stories about the appear-ance of "Our Lady" have been carried onfor many generations. Her popularity isshown by the large number of churchesnamed after her in the United States. Thatis why we have included this story. It is apart of the past that will continue to heshared in the future.

In the year 1531, an amazing thinghappened in the country now called Mex-ico. An Indian man named Juan Diego wit-nessed a miracle that changed his lifeforever.

On his usual Saturday morning routeto the church, Juan Diego heard beautifulmusic from the hillside of Tepeyac. He fol-lowed the sound to the top of the hillwhere he saw a glistening white cloudwith rays of rainbow colors all around. Ashe came closer, he heard his name beingcalled. Suddenly the cloud split apart, andthere before him stood a woman wholooked like a beautiful Aztec princess.Right then and there he knew she was asaint, so he fell to his knees in praise.

The woman spoke very softly, say-ing, "I am the Mother of God, and I havecome to give you an important message.Go to the bishop of Mexico and tell him

7 4

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OUR LADY OF GUADALUPE 65

I wish to have a church built in my name,here on this hill, to show my love for allmy people."

Juan Diego told her, "I shall do asyou wish." He ran as fast as he could to thebishop's house where he had to wait inline for a long time. Finally one of thebishop's helpers questioned Juan Diego asto why he wanted to see the bishop. Afterexplaining what had happened, Juan wasable to tell his story to the bishop, whowas not sure if he should believe him. Hetold Juan Diego to come back in a few daysso as to give him time to think abouteverything.

Juan went back to Mary, the Motherof God, and told her he was sorry but thathe had failed. The bishop had not believedhim. Mary told Juan to go back to thebishop and demand that he build a churchon that spot.

Juan returned to the bishop's housein hopes that he would be believed thistime. He again had to wait to see thebishop. When Juan saw the bishop, he wasnot greeted warmly. The bishop told Juan

to go hack to the Lady and ask her forsome kind of proof that the vision wasreal. Juan rushed back to the hilltop andgave Mary the news. She told Juan to re-turn the next morning for the sign.

When Juan returned home, he foundthat his uncle was very ill and close todeath. All night they tried different an-cient remedies to cure his uncle. Nothingseemed to work, so Juan was sent to fetchthe priest to give his uncle his last bless-ings. On the way, he saw the Lady and told

her why he couldn't meet with her. She

told him not to worry because his unclehad been cured. She then told him to goto the top of the hill, gather some roses,and bring them back to her. Juan was puz-zled because he knew no roses ever grewon the hilltop, especially in winter. But,since he believed in the Lady, he went any-way. At the top of the hill he found a gar-den of beautiful roses. They still had dewdrops on them. He collected as many ashe could hold in his cloak and returned tothe Lady. The Lady tied his cloak aroundhis neck and gently arranged the roses in

it. She told him to take this sign to thebishop but not to show it to anyone else.

Juan took the roses and went swiftlybut carefully to the bishop's home. He

66 CUENTOS

had to wait in line for the third time. Theguards tried to get Juan to show themwhat he was hiding. Juan forgot his prom-ise and showed the guards a small glimpse.Every time they would try to touch a rose,it disappeared into the cloth of the cloak.Not knowing what to do, they rushed himto see the bishop. While in the bishop'sprivate study, Juan opened his cloak andlet the roses fall to the floor. Then he no-ticed that everyone was looking at hiscloak. Juan looked down at it and on itsaw a beautiful painting of the Lady. Thebishop fell to his knees in prayer. Thecloak was paraded around town so every-one could witness the great miracle. Soona small church was built just as the Lady

had requested. Many years later, a beautifulcathedral was built in its place and namedLa Virgin de Guadalupe (The Virgin ofGuadalupe). In this cathedral hangs theactual cloak that Juan Diego wore. Eventhough it is over 400 years old, it showsno signs of falling apart. This made be-lievers Out of us.

LA LLORONA [The Weeping Woman]

Have you heard of the boogeyman? Inthe Hispanic culture, the boogeyman isknown as La Llorona. Even though she isfeared by many children, adults use herstory as a warning to behave your best.

Once, in a small Indian village, therewas a girl named Maria. She was the pret-tiest girl in the village. She swore shewould marry the most handsome man.Her abuelita (grandmother) said that sheshould marry a good man and not worryabout his looks. Maria didn't pay anyattention. She wanted to marry a good-looking man. One day Maria saw a mancome to the village. Maria thought that hewas very handsome. She asked him hisname. He said his name was Gregorio. Inabout one month, they decided to getmarried. They had two kids after the mar-riage. The marriage worked out the firstcouple of years, but then things startedfalling apart.

Gregorio started to sec other womenin front of his wife. He would take hisgirlfriend to visit his kids at home. Hewouldn't even talk to Maria. All he woulddo was ignore her.

P.'" ri 43

LA LLORONA 67

Maria realized that her husbanddidn't care for her. He only cared for thekids. Soon Maria got jealous of her kids.She got very angry at her husband. Shetook her kids to the river and drownedthem. Maria did this because she thoughther husband would love her more withoutthe kids around. When Maria got home,her husband just became angrier. Mariareali7fd what she had done. She went backto the river and began running along the

riverbank looking for her children. Pay-ing more attention to the river instead oflooking where she was going, she trippedover a root and fell right into the river andsmashed her head on a rock. She drowned.Two days later, they found her body by theriverbank. The town priest wouldn't lether be buried in the holy graveyard be-cause she had killed her kids. The priestsaid to bury her by the river. And to thisday, people swear they hear her spirit cry-ing for her children by rivers and lakes. Ifshe sees children, she picks them up andtakes them away because she thinks thatthey are hers. Parents tell their childrenthat if they are not good or don't comehome on time, La Llorona will come andget them.

There is a story of Pablo who didn'tbelieve in La Llorona. One day Pablo wasplaying by the river with his friends.Pablo's friends said it was starting to getlate and they should go home. Pablo said,"Why go home? We are having fun." Theysaid La Llorona would get them if theydidn't go home. They left, but Pablo stayedbecause he didn't believe it.

Pretty soon, it got dark and windy.Pablo started to see a white shadow com-ing through the trees. It started to soundlike a ghost. Pablo tried to run, but hecouldn't. A voice started saying, "Dondeestdri mis nirios?" (Where are my chil-dren?) Pablo suddenly saw a white ghostthat was flapping through the wind. Theghost, La Llorona, grabbed him up, think-ing he was her child. Suddenly, she heardthe hell for mass and disappeared in thetrees. Pablo ran home as quickly as he

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could. When he got home, his mom wasmad at him for not coming home on time.He said, fearfully, "Mama, La Llorona."She didn't believe him and was ready togive him a good shaking when she saw onhis shirt five red stains of blood left by LaLlorona's fingers. Pablo's mom said thatthe story of La Llorona was true. So she gotall the kids in the village and told themthat when it gets dark, you better get homeor La Llorona will get you.

This is one of the many versions ofLa Llorona. We think the original versionwas told during the time of Cortes.

EL GRILLO [The Cricket]

Many stories have a hidden moral or mes-sage. In this story, the hidden messagedeals with stretching the truth. We knowit is easy to exaggerate, but a story like thishelps remind us how important it is to tellthe truth.

In New Mexico, there once lived twomen who were neighbors as well as corn-padres (godfathers to each other's chil-dren). One of the men was wealthy, hard-working, and well respected. The otherwas poor because he was lazy and didn'tlike to work at all. He had the nickname,"The Cricket," because he talked andtalked and never was quiet, just like acricket at night when you're trying tosleep.

The Cricket would brag that he wasan adivino (fortune-teller) with specialpowers. Whenever The Cricket would getbehind on paying his bills, he would takethe rich neighbor's prize-winning muleand hide him in the mountains. His neigh-bor would come to The Cricket and beghim to use his special powers to find hisprize-wi -ling mule. The Cricket wouldpretend to see a vision. He would tell hiscompadre where the mule was to be found,and, lo and behold, the mule would bethere. The neighbor was so grateful to TheCricket that he would pay all his bills. Thishappened many times over the years.

One day, the rich neighbor was hav-ing lunch with the governor of New Mex-ico. The governor mentioned to his guestthat he had lost his ring. The rich manbragged that his compadre was an adivino

70 CUENTOS

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and could easily find the governor's ring.The governor didn't believe in adivinosbut thought it was worth a try. The Cricketwas called before the governor. He triedto get out of the situation by denying hehad magical powers. He said that he hadbeen lucky once in a while. The governorgot real suspicious and decided to put TheCricket on the spot. He locked The Crick-et in a room and gave him three days tofind his missing ring. If he was able to tellwhere the ring was, he would be richlyrewarded. But, if he wasn't able to find thering, he would he properly punished.

It just so happened that the ring wasnot lost but had been stolen by three of thegovernor's servants. They had it hiddenin a safe place until they could sell it andsplit the money between the three ofthem.

All day, The Cricket sat next to thewindow watching the sun rise and set. Hetries' to think of a way to get out of the sit-uation. At the end of the first day, one ofthe servants brought The Cricket his sup-per tray. He set the tray next to The Cricketand started walking toward the door.When The Cricket saw his supper tray, heknew that one of his three days had runout. He said, "Of the three, there goes thefirst." The servant thought The Cricketwas talking about the three servants andnot the three days. He ran down to tell theother two servants that The Cricket wastruly an adivino. The other two servantstried to convince the first servant therewas no such thing as an adivino.

The next evening a different servantbrought The Cricket's supper tray. TheCricket again, thinking of the days, saidout loud, "Of the three, there goes the sec-ond." The second servant ran down thestairs and told the others that it was true.The Cricket did know all about them. Hereally was an adivino.

On the third evening, the last servantdidn't even wait for The Cricket to sayanything. He put down the supper tray,fell to his knees, and started confessing.He asked The Cricket not to tell on them.They would do anything he asked. TheCricket was not a stupid man, so when heheard the confession he caught on rightaway. He told the servant he wouldn't tellif he would take the ring and make surethe governor's fattest goose swallowed it.

When questioned by the governor,The Cricket acted like he had seen a vi-sion. He told the governor that he had

EL GRILLO 71

seen the ring inside the stomach of his fat-test goose. The governor did not believehim but decided to give The Cricket achance. He was surprised to see the ringwhen they opened the goose's stomach.He rewarded The Cricket with a bag ofgold and the goose for his wife to cook.

A few weeks later, the governor ofChihuahua was talking to the governor ofNew Mexico. The governor of New Mex-ico was bragging that in his state therelived a real adivino. The two men beganarguing about the truth of adivinos. Theyfinally ended up betting $1,000 overwhether The Cricket was a fake or not.The governor of Chihuahua said he wouldput something in a box and raise it to thetop of the flagpole. The Cricket wouldhave to tell what was in the box. If hecouldn't, the governor of New Mexicowould have to pay the $1,000 to the gover-nor of Chihuahua or vice versa.

The governor of Chihuahua decidedto try and trick The Cricket. He took a bigbox and put a smaller box inside it, thenput a smaller box in that one, and so on,until he had a tiny box. He went out intothe garden to find something small. Justthen, a cricket hopped across the path. Hepicked up the cricket, put it inside thesmallest box, scaled it, and had it pulledup to the top of the flagpole.

The Cricket was brought forth to set-tle the bet. There was no way for him toescape, because on one side stood the gov-ernor of Chihuahua and on the other thegovernor of New Mexico. To make it evenworse, a circle of soldiers surrounded thethree.

There stood The Cricket looking upat the box, speechless. An hour passed,then two hours. Finally, the governor ofChihuahua started to chuckle, so the gov-ernor of New Mexico got mad and said,"Tell us what's in the box in one minuteor I'll have your head!" The Cricket startedto stutter, "In the box . . . um, in the box. . . in the box . . ." The governor of Chi-huahua was astonished. He thought TheCricket could see there was a box insidea box inside a box. Finally, The Cricket,only thinking of himself, moaned, "Oh,you poor Cricket, they've got you now!"When they opened the box, the gover-nors, of course, found the little cricket inthe last box. The governor of Chihuahuahanded over the money to the governorof New Mexico and became a true be-liever. The governor of New Mexico wasso pleased that he gave half the money toThe Cricket.

While walking home, The Cricketpromised never to tell anyone he was anadivino ever again. He soon came uponthe neighborhood kids who always teasedhim. They had filled a gunnysack full oftrash and asked him to use his specialpowers to see what was in the bag. TheCricket was mad, so he yelled, "Leave mealone, that's just a hunch of garbage!" Thatcomment made believers out of the boys.They spread the news, and soon everyonewithin miles called on The Cricket to findanything they had lost. The Cricket gottired of always being called on, so hemoved to someplace where nobody hadever heard of an adivino.

CUENTOS

LOS RATONCITOS [The Little Mice]

This story about a mouse family is shortbut has a very important message. Wechose it because this message is importantfor all Americans. See if you can guess whatthe mother mouse teaches her children.

There once was a mother mousewho had four children. The baby micewere so young that they had never beenoutside before. One day, they climbed allthe way up the hole to see what they weremissing. They smelled the air, which wasvery fresh. They went down the hole andasked their mom if they could take a walk.

She thought it was a wonderful idea, soshe led them up the hole and through tinegrass. Just then, they heard, "Meow, Hiss,Meow, Hiss!" It was, el gato, the cat! Shetold her children to run. They all ran andhid. The mother knew she had to protecther children so she looked the cat in theeye, stood up real tall, and while shakingher fist said, "Ruff, Ruff, Ruff, Ruff!" Thecat got scared by the sound of the barkingdog and ran away. The mother mouse toldher children to come out. She made surethey were all there by counting them andsaid, "It always pays to know a secondlanguage."

EL PRINCIPE Y LOS PAJAROS 73

EL PRINCIPE Y LOS PAJAROS[The Prince and the Birds]

Once there was a Spanish prince whosefather locked him in his room. The onlytwo people who came to see him were hisfather and his tutor.

One day, a dove flew onto his window-sill. The prince fed him some bread andwater. Then he put him in a golden cage.The next day, the prince saw the dove cry-ing. The prince asked him what waswrong. The dove told him he wanted tosee his loved one. The prince asked thebird what a loved one was. The bird saida loved one was somebody who comfortsyou. The prince let the bird go.

The next day, the dove came backand told him of a beautiful princess. Hewas sorry he couldn't take him on hisback, but he suggested writing a letter. Ina couple of days, the bird came back withan arrow through his heart but a locketaround his neck. The prince opened thelocket, and there was a picture of the prin-cess. He decided he would set out to findthe princess. So the prince escaped fromhis room by smashing the lock on thedoor and went to look for the princess.

On his way, the prince ran into somebirds who helped him. Phoo was one ofthem. Phoo said to go to the castle. Theprince went to the castle and saw a parrot.The parrot took the prince to see a raven.The raven told him about love.

They went to a castle in a differenttown, where the princess lived. The par-rot went to the princess and told her the

prince had come. She told the bird to takeher scarf and tell the prince there wouldhe a tournament and she was the prize.The prince was scared because he didn'thave any fighting stuff.

Just then, the stork came. He tookthe prince and the parrot to his cave. Heshowed him some fighting stuff. The nextday, the prince got ready for the tourna-ment. lie knew he would not be allowedin the tournament because he was theonly one that could beat the king. Theking knew this was true, so he ordered hisguard to keep the prince out of the tour-nament. The king really did not want hisdaughter to marry anyone. The princekilled the guard to get into the tourna-

1

74 CUENTOS

ment. He beat all the people. Finally, theking himself was to fight the prince. Theprincess fainted because she was afraid herfather might die. When the princess didnot awaken, the king hired many peopleto try and heal her.

One day, the prince dressed up as awizard and went to the princess. He readto her the poems he had written. Shewoke up. They stepped onto his magicrobe and flew away with the princess.They lived happily ever after.

Note to Readers: If you like these stories,check in your local library, your school oruniversity libraries, or any bookstore formore. Here are just a few suggestions:

The Silver Whistle by Ann Tompert,illustrated by Beth Peck (New York: Mac-millan Publishing Co., 1988). This is abeautiful story about a Mexican boy whogives a special gift to the Christ child.

The Day It Snowed Tortillas, retoldby Joe Hayes, illustrated by Lucy Jelinek(Santa Fe: Mariposa Publishing, 1990).This book has many folktales from Span-ish New Mexico. There's bound to be oneyou like.

The Lady of Guadalupe written andillustrated by Tomie de Paola (HolidayHouse, 1980). This is the story of how OurLady of Guadalupe became the patronsaint of Mexico.

Pedro and the Padre, by Verna Aar-dema, illustrated by Friso Henstra (NewYork: Dial Books, 1991). This is a story thatteaches a lesson about telling lies.

8

REAL PEOPLE-HISPANICS INAMERICA TODAY

Real people have their own ways.They have their own traditions.They have their own beliefs.History is in their hearts.

We are proud of this section.The people we interviewedhave Cuban, Puerto Rican,

Spanish, or Mexican backgrounds. Theirlives and heritage tell the story of part ofAmerica's history. Some have come fromCuba to find a new life. Others came to theUnited States as migrant farm workers andimproved their lives through education.Some came from families who were hereeven before the pilgrims. We chose peo-ple from all walks of life, professionals andnonprofessionalspeople involved ingovernment, business, education, and reli-gious jobs. A group of fifth graders madeup questions to ask them because wewanted to know about them, their fami-lies, traditions, and values. We asked them

about their favorite childhood memories,their views on prejudice, and their fam-ily traditions because we think that thisis how we can understand each other bet-ter. Again and again, we heard familiarthemes that Hispanic families care foreach other and have strong religious tra-ditions and a strong desire to serve ourcountry. Our real people shared their ownfeelings and let us explore their lives. Asyou read about them, remember that theyare just like you and me, not made up orsuperheroes but normal everyday peoplewho are proud to be Americans.

-7() REAL PEOPLE

TINO MENDEZ

When you meet Tino Mendez you will beimpressed with his dedication, bravery,friendliness, and sense of humor. Heworks hard to remind people what free-dom is and how important it is to have. Healso likes to encourage others to work tokeep America free.

Mr. Mendez was born in Cuba in1944. He was an only child for a long time.When he was twelve, his parents had adaughter. Two years later, they had anotherson. He loved his little brother and sistervery much. Mr. Mendez has many goodqualities, especially his pride and his lovetor freedom. His family means everythingto him.

Tino Mendez

In high school, Tino Mendez was agood student. He was involved with theschool government and played basketball.His early life was just like that of any oneof us, but then a big change took place. In1959, there was a revolution on the smallisland of Cuba. Mr. Mendez felt the newgovernment started to control his town

and high school. He decided if he wasgoing to get help for his people, he hadtwo choices. He could either stay and tryto change things or leave and hopefullyreturn and fight for freedom. It was a pain-ful decision, but he decided he had toleave.

You must realize how hard it wouldbe to get up and leave your family. Whenhe was sixteen, Mr. Mendez filled outmany papers, and at seventeen, he took aplane from Cuba to Florida. There hebecame a refugee. He was in a strangecountry with a strange language that hehardly knew.

When Mr. Mendez got to the UnitedStates, he entered a Catholic Charitiescamp for children under eighteen years ofage. At the camp, a bishop came and tookMr. Mendez to Kansas, where he found afoster home.

Mr. Mendez went to Benedictine Col-lege in Atchison, Kansas, and there hestudied math. During this time, he workedat many jobs to try to pay for his educa-tion. One of the jobs he had was to work

Cn

BERNADETTE VIGIL 77

on the farm where he was living. He de-cided to quit that because he was almostkilled by a tractor! He then began work-ing at Taco Tico, a fast food place. Then hefound out about a job making a lot moremoney selling encyclopedias door to door.Mr. Mendez graduated from BenedictineCollege in three years. After that, he didn'thave to work any more odd jobs. He wenton to get his doctoral degree from the Uni-versity of Colorado.

Mr. Mendez is now a math teacher atMetropolitan State College in Denver,Colorado. He is married to Mary Ann andhas two sons, Matthew and Mark. He isvery active in our government because hewants to make certain that our countryremains free. He has served in public officeand campaigned for many candidates andcauses. He does this because he knows thesting of being controlled by the govern-ment. His goal is to make people happy byhelping them to remain free. His son, Mat-thew, told us that the best advice from hisdad was to be yourself. Mr. Mendez's fam-ily is very lucky.

BERNADETTE VIGIL

Bernadette Vigil is a strong individual. Shehas chosen to remain single and devoteher life to preserving the traditions of herheritage through her works of art. Ms.Vigil works hard to bring out her Hispanicheritage in the things she paints. Her artcontains a lot of historical and religiousideas. Much of her work is done to helppeople remember things from the His-

g .

'4;,,ioft4 th'

th

Bernadette Vigil

panic culture. Ms. Vigil's feelings about herHispanic heritage can be seen in what shepaints.

Ms. Vigil has lived in Santa Fe, NewMexico, since she was born in 1955. Shehas five brothers, one sister, and her motherand father, so there are nine people in herfamily. Her mom and dad taught her torespect other people, because that's theway you're going to want to be treatedyourself.

Her parents taught her about religionand how it was very important. They alsotaught her to believe in herself. Her favor-ite holidays are religious ones, especiallyEaster and Christmas. She believes in herreligion a lot, and her paintings show it.Many of her pictures have crosses, funer-als, and resurrections in them.

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78 REAL PEOPLE

Ms. Vigil grew up in a wonderful oldpart of Santa Fe, and her home was madeof adobe. On the street where she lived,a lot of other artists lived. When she waslittle, she played with water snakes and liz-ards. Her dream was to be a policewoman.That was because she liked the clothesthey wore. By sixth or seventh grade, sheknew she wanted to be a painter. Thatmight be because several of her relativeswere artists. Also, she would watch theartists on her street, with their canvasesand paints, painting beautiful pictures.

Ms. Vigil always liked to draw, andher parents were very supportive. Sheliked art in school. After she graduatedfrom high school, she went to New Mex-ico Highlands University. Later, she wentto the College of Santa Fe and graduated.

Ms. Vigil's house is built on land thather grandparents homesteaded a longtime ago. She doesn't plan to marry orhave children. She said, "I always wantedto be an artist, but being an artist is not atraditional role for a Hispanic woman, andin the Hispanic culture, having childrenis very important. This is my way of hav-ing a family. My paintings are a part of me.They are my children. They are my off-spring, and I hope that they can inspireothers in their lives."

Bernadette Vigil works all over NewMexico as a painter and really enjoys it.Shc likes to paint oils and frescoes, paint-ings on plaster.

We think Ms. Vigil sounds like a verynice and interesting lady. New Mexico isneat, but with Bernadette Vigil there, it'sneater.

SIDNEY ATENCIO

Sidney Atencio is the kind of person peo-ple would love to be around. He is kind,respectful, and funny. He has dark hairand a mustache. He is tanned and has alow voice, and he is big and very strong.He believes that all people should berespected regardless of their color orbeliefs. He feels that his name is somethingspecial, and he's proud of it. To Mr. Aten-cio, learning to spell and say someone'sname correctly is a sign of respect. Itshows that you care enough to take thetime and effort.

Mr. Atencio's relatives were some ofthe first people to come to the part of

Sidney Arend()

F

BENNIE AND LIL RAZO 79

Mexico that is now part of the southernUnited States. This was even before the pil-grims landed on Plymouth Rock. The fam-ily that he grew up in was very small, withthree children, but when his whole familygot together, it was completely different.In fact, people would walk by and say, "Isthat all one family?"

Mr. Atencio must believe in educa-tion because he has gone to school fortwenty-seven years. During the last fouryears of his schooling, he studied to be adeacon in the Catholic church. Mr. Men-cio adores books, and he works in theDenver Public Library.

Mr. Atencio loves family gatherings.We think he likes family gatheringsmuch because he is a deacon who helpspeople. He has been a deacon for fouryears. He works mainly with the homelessat the Samaritan Center. He counsels manypeople, such as husbands and wives withmarriage problems and much more.

Mr. Atencio has a family of his own.He has a wife and two sons named afterfamous Hispanics. His sons are calledFrancisco and Diego. His wife, Lillian, isa big part of his life. She works in the postoffice. (But it's not her fault the mail islate!)

An old tradition in the HispanicCatholic church is called quinceanera (fif-teenth birthday). This is when a girlcelebrates that she is becoming a woman.As girls approach the age of fifteen, theytake preparation classes. In these classes,they talk about friendship, dating, drugs,suicides, and family communication. Youdon't have to he Hispanic to do this. Mr.

Atencio is carrying on this tradition byholding classes and preparing the girls andtheir families for this ceremony. It is veryimportant to him that the girls learn aboutthemselves and their culture. He feels thisis a great way to keep tradition alive as wellas help the young girls lead healthier, hap-pier lives. At the end of the classes, thegirls' families and friends celebrate thequinceanera. The girls wear a white dresslike a bride, and each one has fourteenescorts (like bridesmaids and groomsmen)who march in procession. During themass, the girl has to make a speech, "WhoAm I?" Her parents talk about her to theguests. Mr. Atencio said a lot of people crybecause it is so beautiful. After theceremony, the girls have officially turned"sweet fifteen."

Mr. Atencio spends a lot of his timeteaching people to be proud of who theyare. It is important to him that peopleknow about themselves and their heritageand celebrate their beginnings. He wantspeople to pass on the traditions that theyhave through their families and theirheritage.

BENNIE AND LIL RAZO

Bennie and Lil Razo live in Chillicothe,Illinois. Both of their families came fromMexico. We chose to talk to these peoplebecause their family life illustrates a veryimportant part of the Hispanic heritage.They have a loving, caring, very close fam-ily. They have worked hard to keep closeand show their family that happiness in

80 REAL PEOPLE

Bennie and Lil Razo

life and family is the most important thingto work for.

Mr. Razo's father, Thomas, came tothe United States when his uncle got hima job working for the Sante Fe Railroad.Mr. Razo's uncle was a foreman on the rail-road. Thomas moved to Chillicothe wherethe railroad job was. Later, when his fathermarried, he and his wife moved into aboxcar to live. The railroad company of-fered only boxcars for houses to peoplewho hadn't worked for the company verylong. If you had worked on the railroadfor a long time, you could live in a brickhouse.

Bennie Razo was horn in this boxcarand lived there until he was eighteen yearsold. Then he joined the military and wassent to Korea. Mr. Razo later went to col-lege, but before he could finish, he left be-cause he needed to take care of his newfamily.

Mr. Razo married Lil. They had twogirls and two boys. He now works as a cus-

todian. Mrs. Razo is a housewife and alsoworks on an assembly line. They taughttheir kids what their parents taught them.This was to show respect for everyone,especially their parents, and not to heashamed of who you are.

When Mr. Razo was a kid, he likedgoing to the movies with his parents oncea month. When Mrs. Razo was a kid, sheliked going to the country, taking longwalks, picking blackberries, and playinggames. She remembers that once when shewas young, a boy teased her and her girl-friend about being Hispanic. Her brothercame out of the house one day and scaredhim away. He never teased them again.Mrs. Razo doesn't think people are as pre-judiced as they used to be.

Mr. Razo's hero was his high schoolcoach, George Taylor. Coach Taylor wasthere for Mr. Razo when he had trouble inschool. He made him stay in school eventhough it was difficult for him. The specialpeople who helped Mr. Razo become whohe is today are his dad and Coach Taylor.When Mr. Razo was in high school, hewanted to be a coach and a teacher.

Mrs. Razo's parents were married inMexico. They worked their way north andeventually emigrated to the United States.This means they left their home in Mex-ico to live in the United States. Many peo-ple left their homelands because of warsor sickness. Sometimes they left for polit-ical or religious reasons. Mrs. Razo's familycame to find better jobs. Her family paida penny each to cross the border. This wasa processing fee for paperwork.

As a young girl, Mrs. Razo wanted to

PETE VAI.DEZ 81

be a cosmetologist when she grew up. Mrs.Razo's brother, Joe, was her hero becausehe taught her to stand up for herself andhe proud of who she is. The special per-son who helped her become who she istoday is her mother.

Today, Mr. and Mrs. Razo's four chil-dren are grown up and starting their ownfamilies. They have all worked hard to bewhat they are. Each one has spent timein school trying very hard to succeed inlife. Jacqueline works in a bank. Reneeworks at the Area Agency on Aging, astate-funded program. Tom teaches insouthern Illinois. David works in a restau-rant and goes to college.

Mrs. Razo's advice to Hispanic youthis to he proud of yourself and "go out inlife and do the best you can." Mr. Razo'swords of wisdom are, "Study, because noone can ever take your education awayfrom you." Their goals are to live a happylife with a happy family, and they're doingjust that! The Razos know they have beensuccessful because now, as their childrenstart their own lives, they, too, are workinghard to carry on the family traditions.

PETE VALDEZ

We chose to write about Pete Valdez be-cause he represents a good example forHispanics in America. Mr. Valdez servedour country by fighting in World War II asa member of the I lnited States Army. It hasbeen estimated that nearly 500,000 His-panic people fought in World War II aspart of the armed forces. Mr. Valdez feels

91

Left to right: Rosie Valdez, Pete Valdez, Sr, Mr. andMrs. John Gore

very strongly for our country and foughtvery hard to keep it the way it is.

Mr. Valdez was one of six to win theSilver Helmet Award on April 21, 1991. Heis the first Mexican-American to win thisaward, which is a trophy that has a small,shiny helmet about the size of a smallclock on a thick dish. It is a replica of theG.I. steel helmet soldiers used in WorldWar II. In fact, it looks just like the helmetMr. Valdez used to heat his water in whenhe fought in World War II.

The Silver Helmet Award for per-forming excellent service for our countryis given by the AMVETS organization. Thisis an organization of American veterans ofWorld War H, Korea, and Vietnam. Theawards arc given to people who haveworked hard and made a difference inareas such as defense, patriotism, rehabili-tation, congressional service, and peace.All people can be nominated for thisaward. The Silver Helmet Award is some-times called the Oscar Award for veterans.

82 REAL PEOPLE

That means that it is like the awards formovie stars except it is for veterans.

Pete Valdez was born in Los Angeles,California. He is the oldest of twenty-onebrothers and sisters. There are three setsof twins in his family. His family was poor.So they could earn money for the family,Mr. Valdez and his brother would shineshoes for the people who got off the boatsat the docks. He and his brother wouldhide their shoeshine kits behind thebushes while they were at school becausethey didn't want to take them into theschool. When they got out of school, theywould go to the boats. Mr. Valdez and hisbrother would also make money by pick-ing up bananas and wood that droppedfrom the crates that came from the boats.They put both things in their little redwagon and sold them for nickles anddimes. They would also sell newspapersat the dock.

Mr Valdez's dad worked full-time asa stevedore (someone who works ondocks loading ships) and part-time as amechanic. He used to help his father in thegarage. His hands would get all greasy. Hescrubbed and scrubbed, but he couldn'tget his hands clean. Other kids used totease him about being dirty. Mr. Valdezwould fight or run away.

When he was a little boy, Mr. Valdezwanted to he a tank driver. lie was so inter-ested in this job that he enlisted in thearmy when he was seventeen. He went totank-driving school in Ft. Hood, limas. liewas very happy to go to tank school, butthen he had some bad luck. One day whenhe was in school, they called fifteen peo-

ple out. He was one of them. Mr. Valdezgot the news that he was going to theSouth Pacific to man a machine gun. Henever got to drive a tank, but he was proudto serve his country. He was lucky and gotout of the war without a scratch.

After World War II, Mr. Valdez knewhe needed an education. So, when he gothome, he applied for the G.I. Bill to go toschool. The government created this billto set aside money for military people tobe retrained after they left the service. Mr.Valdez learned to work in a machine shopand design tools and got a job in a ma-chine shop. He also was the securityguard. When he had extra time at night,Mr. Valdez would learn how to use eachmachine. After one year, Mr. Valdez wentto work at Hughes Aircraft. He worked hisway up until he was a project manager.Then he started hiring people from His-panic neighborhoods to work at Hughes.

Mr. Valdez married his high schoolsweetheart, who was his next door neigh-bor. Her name is Rosie. Marrying Rosie wasa tremendous help. Mr. Valdez says that sheis the "light of his life." Mr. and Mrs. Valdezhad four sons. They all wanted to be in theservice. Three got to serve. The other onereally wanted to serve, too, but didn't getto because he had medical problems. Nowhe's a minister. Two of the sons served inthe army, and the other served in the airforce.

Mr. Valdez is a proud American whohas contributed in many ways to his coun-try and his family. He fought in World WarII and then came back to help other sol-diers who fought in wars. He volunteers

ALICIA FERNANDEZ-MOTT 83

many, many hours to make our country agood place. Because we think Mr. Valdezis special, his advice is important to us. Hebelieves the family is important and wantseveryone to respect their parents andelders. fle told us to be honest with every-one and to try very hard to get an educa-tion so you can make more of yourself.

ALICIA FERNANDEZ-MOTT

We talked with Alicia Fernandez-Mott, avery important advocate for migrant farmworkers. She is a supervisor for the Divi-sion of Migrant and Seasonal FarmworkerPrograms, U.S. Department of Labor, Wash-ington, D.C. She works with the Job Train-ing Partnership Act. This act is meant toprovide education for adult farm workersso they can get year-round and full-timework.

Alicia Fernandez-Mott was a migrantworker herself for several years. In doingher job as an advocate for migrant farmworkers, she has met both Cesar Chavezand Baldamar Velasquez, who is the presi-dent of the Farm Labor Organizing Com-mittee. Both of these people work hard toget migrant farm workers a lot of the ser-vices they need and deserve, like healthcare and clean facilities in which to live.Ms. Fernandez-Mon feels she works withMr. Chavez and Mr. Baldamar in help-ing the farm workers. She says that theirstrength and determination for the needsof farm workers is something that sheshares with them since she, too, has livedas a migrant farm worker.

9 3

Alicia Fernandez-Mott

Alicia traveled with her family alongthe migrant streams from the age of four,off and on, until she was twenty. She actu-ally started working at the age of six bypicking tomatoes and cucumbers. Thiswas hard work because she wasn't verystrong.

Because she dropped out of schoolat the age of sixteen, Ms. Fernandez-Motthas had to work very hard to get whereshe is now. She went bark to school whenshe was thirty. She received her G.E.D. andthen went to college. She got her degreein business.

Ms. Fernandez-Mott had lots of infor-mation about migrant farm workers. Thisis just some of what she shared with us.

Migrant farr workers arc peoplewho have very determined work ethicsresulting from having to earn their keep.

84 REAL PEOPLE

They are people who have very little edu-cation or work skills. They don't speakEnglish and so they have a difficult timefinding a job. They work as migrant farmworkers because they don't need to speakEnglish and they don't need to have anyschooling. Since this kind of job keeps aperson moving, it is next to impossible toget any education or skills to learn a differ-ent job. So these people end up beingmigrant workers forever. The kids end upin the same situation as their parents. Theydo not have an education or skills, andthey also have very little knowledge of theEnglish language.

Working as a migrant farm worker isa very difficult situation. These workerstravel in migrant streams, routes to differ-ent harvest places that workers follow.They travel in crowded trucks. Sometimesthe workers travel with their family, butat other times they are separated. Thetrucks are filled with people of all ages.Sometimes they travel for two and a halfto three days straight. The workers don'tknow much about where they go. Theyjudge the distance by state borders, not bymiles. When they stop at their farms towork, the workers are packed tight intosmall cabins that don't always have indoorplumbing. They are supposed to have arefrigerator, but often they don't work.Small propane stoves are also supplied,but the migrant workers have to supplythe propane fuel and sometimes they can'tafford it.

There arc a lot of health problemsthat come with the job. There are pesti-cides, which are hug killers that can harm

people. Pesticides hurt your lungs, eyes,and skin. The type of labor involved re-quires a lot of stooping, bending, and lift-ing. All of these movements can hurt thejoints in your body. There are a few clinicsfor the workers, but these are not free, anda lot of the time the workers can't affordit. Also, these clinics don't cover all of theproblems that the workers might have.They are limited in what they can cure. Alot of the health problems of farm workersgo uncared for.

Migrant workers are paid by howmuch they pick. Their employers paythem a certain amount of money for eachbasket or bushel of food they gather. Theamount of money they make is differentat each stop. If the crops are good, thenthey will earn more money. Since theirearnings are so uncertain, farm workerscan't save money. They also don't get extramoney to cover the cost of gas to get fromone place to another.

Ms. Fernandez-Mott has been help-ing migrant workers so they won't havethe same problems as she did with gettingan education so that she could get a bet-ter paying job. She works hard to set upprograms for training and other kinds ofeducation. If the parents get educated,then their children don't have to travel allthe time. They can afford more things andcan also get their own education. She isvery determined to get Hispanic peopleto set goals and measure their achieve-ments. Ms. Fernandez-Mott feels Hispanicpeople need more education to earnrespect in the American society. She alsowants to show other people about

9 -;

Hispanic heritage and its value to theUnited States.

SYLVIA TELLES

Sylvia Telles is a person who has spent herwhole life helping people. This takes faith,courage, and love, which she has found inthe roots of her family's past.

Three flags have flown over NewMexico. They are the Spanish flag, theMexican flag, and now the American flag.Miss Tel les's ancestors have been there thewhole time. They were the settlers, ranch-ers, deputies, ditch riders, and ordinarypeople of their time. Her family never

SYLVIA TELLES 85

moved to America. The land they ownedbecame the United States territory in 1848.Even though the American flag flew overthe land, her family were not consideredcitizens. They were still called subjectsunder the king of Spain.

Miss Telles's great-grandfather, onher dad's side, was a cattle rancher east ofLas Cruces, New Mexico. Her mother'sgrandfather owned a ranch next to a lakenamed after themLucero Lake. Theoriginal farmhouse is still on this propertyand can be seen today. It is near the WhiteSands National Monument. Miss Telles'sancestors did many great things. Her great-uncle was the sheriff of Las Cruces in 1908when Pat Garrett shot Billy the Kid. Youcan read all about Pat Garrett surrenderingto Sheriff Lucero in some history hookstoday. That's neat.

Miss Telles has a mom and dad, abrother, and three sisters. They all grew upin Las Cruces. They were brought up witha deep respect for their family, their reli-gion, and their elders. She remembers atime when her dad was having a specialguest over. Miss Telles's dad made herpractice how to greet his friend. She pre-tended like her dad was the guest andpracticed and practiced until she could doit right. When the man came, she gave hima very respectful greeting.

Miss Idles also was taught to berespectful to older people in her family.When her lIncle Margarito was around, hewould ask her to get him a glass of water,and she would go directly to the kitchen.She would walk back to her uncle andstand next to him with her arms folded.

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86 REAL PEOPLE

When her uncle was finished, he gave theglass back to her, and then she wouldreturn it to the kitchen.

They had some special neighborsnamed Marquez who owned a tortilla fac-tory. Some afternoons, Grandma Marquezwould have them kneel and pray therosary with her. If they were all behavingwhile she took care of them, occasionallythey were allowed to go to the tortilla fac-tory. There they would get a hot tortillawith butter on it!

Another thing Miss Telles's parentsshared with her was their faith, but shewas not always as close to God as she isnow. When she was in college, she wenton a church "Teen Day," and she heardsome people from her school talkingabout God. She then realized how impor-tant she thought God really was. MissTelles lives in St. Paul, Minnesota, today.She works for the National EvangelizationTeams (NET). In 1987, she volunteered forten months to travel with other peopleand talk to youth about God. Then shewas hired in 1988 to help train the NETpeople. Miss Telles has even traveled toAustralia for her work. She is very gratefuland excited because NET is beginning towork with more Hispanics. They have ateam that went to Honduras this year, andthey work in areas of the United Stateswhere there arc many Hispanic people.Miss Telles really has a heart for what shecalls her raze (her race).

If you find Miss Telles today, she mayhe visiting with her family. They arc veryproud of her. She may be wearing a south-western T-shirt that she made. Miss 'Idles

and her family might even he lookingthrough old Wild West magazines abouther uncles, the deputies and sheriffs of theold times. She says it's fun.

THE MARTINEZ FAMILY

Martinez is a very common name in His-panic culture. Today, there are four gener-ations alive in this one Martinez family of75 members which began with Maria andJuan Martinez. All of them live less than150 miles from each other in the state ofColorado. By interviewing 7 members ofthis extended family, we were able to seethe changes each generation made throughtime with things like traditions, education,careers, and holidays.

The first generation is Maria Mar-tinez, the great grandmother. Next wetalked to her daughter, Odelia MartinezQuintana, and her son, Jose Martinez.They are the second generation. For thethird generation, we interviewed DianaQuintana Martinez and Jose Martinez, Jr.The fourth generation is made up of JoseIII and Julio, who are Maria Martinez'sgreat-grandchildren.

The First Generation

Maria Martinez was born on April 6, 1909.in a small town in New Mexico. She re-members always wanting to play, but shealways had a lot of work to do. Maria wentto a very small school until the third grade,when she left school to help at home withthe family.

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88 REAL PEOPLE

When Maria was 16, she marriedJuan P. Martinez, who was 27 years old.Mr. and Mrs. Martinez had some land inNew Mexico where they raised their chil-dren before coming to Colorado. In a verysmall home, they had fourteen children.Two of the fourteen children died. Theolder children would help their mothertake care of the younger children.

Mr. and Mrs. Martinez moved fromNew Mexico to Colorado with their fam-ily. Shortly after this time, Mr. Martinezdied. Some of the kids wanted to finishhigh school, but they were not able tobecause they had to work and help sup-port the family.

Maria's home is close to sonic of herchildren. The home is decorated withmany pictures of her family. There are alsomany statues and pictures of saints. Mrs.Martinez does a lot of things the same wayshe did when she lived in her small homein New Mexico. She washes her clothes byhand and hangs them on her clothesline.She makes her own special type of beefjerky and hangs it in a bedroom to dry. Shestill makes all of her own tortillas andbreads from scratch and still cans fruitsand vegetables. Maria says she has lived avery full life and that she is very happy.

The Second Generation

Odelia Martinez was born in 1928. She isMrs. Martinez's oldest living (laughter.Odclia went to school until she was four-teen. After leaving school, she moved toDenver with her cousins and got a job.When she was 21 years old, she married

Ben Quintana. They had three kids namedDavid, Thomas, and Diana.

Mr. Quintana worked as a mechanic,and Mrs. Quintana stayed home to care forher kids. Once the Quintanas wanted anew car seat for their car, so they made itall by themselves. Other people liked thework they did and asked if they couldmake cushions and seat covers for them.The word spread about their good work,and soon Mr. Quintana quit his job to be-gin the new business with Mrs. Quintana.This business, called Ben's Upholstery, isstill run by their family today in Denver,Colorado! Mrs. Quintana only finished theeighth grade, but she must be a prettysmart lady to have a family and a goodcareer at the same time.

Mrs. Quintana and her husband stilllive in the same house they bought whenthey were first married. Just like her moth-er, she still cans her own fruits and vegeta-bles and makes her own tortillas. Whenwe asked her if there was something abouther past that she would change if shecould, she said that she would like to haveknown how to borrow more money whenshe was smiling her business. She is a veryhappy person and is very proud of herfamily.

Jose Martinez was born in 1936. Heis one of Mrs. Martinez's seven sons anda brother to Maria. One of his favoritememories is when he and his brothers andsisters played with homemade guitars.

Mr. Martinez went to school until hewas in the eighth grade. He then went towork on a farm. When he was 19 yearsold, he got married to Altagracia Baca,

Q

TIIE MARTINEZ FAMILY 89

who was 18. Jose and Altagracia had fourkids Mr Martinez went back to school toget his G E D. (that means high schoolequivalency diploma). Later, Mr. Martinezbecame the manager of a farm. His jobhelped his wife to go hack to school, too,and earn her G.E.D. After she got her di-ploma, she went to college to become ateacher. Mr. Martinez is now a field workerfor a chemical company. He belongs to theKnights of Columbus and is always readyto help the community. Mrs. Martinez isa teacher in an elementary school. Mr.Martinez had advice for us. He said to stayin school. He wished that he had stayedin school when he was younger.

The Third Generation

Diana Quintana was horn in 1960. She isthe youngest of three children. When shewas growing up, she helped her motherwith the chores at home and at her par-ems' business. She also played in a nearbycreek catching hugs and play acting theMiss America Pageant with friends. Shesays her childhood was lots of fun. Sheremembers celebrating Christmas with adecorated tree and waiting for Santa Clausto come and leave gifts. When she gradu-ated from high school, she got married toMichael Martinez and went to college forone year. She is now an office manager foran insurance company. Diana doesn't haveany children, but she and her husbandhave traveled a lot since they got married.

Jose Martinez, Jr., was horn in 1958.When he was a little boy, he helped hisfather on the farm feeding the cattle and

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Standing left to right: Odelia Martinez Quintana,Diana Quintana, lose D. Martinez I, Jose A. Mar-tinez II; Sitting: Julio R. .ffartinez, Maria Marti-nez, Jose A. Martinez 111

riding on the tractors. He was in BoyScouts and played baseball. lie says thathe had a very happy childhood.

Jose, Jr., grew up believing that SantaClaus came on December 25 to leave giftsfor good boys and girls. He did not knowal)out the Three Kings and January 6th. Hewants to help his own kids understandhow religion and Christmas go together,and he is trying to help them celebrate theDay of the Three Kings.

90 REAL PEOPLE

Jose, Jr., finished high school and col-lege. Then he married Annette Acevedoand had two children, Jose HI and Julio.He was the first person in his family tograduate from college. Jose, Jr., says thathe has more opportunities in his life thanhis father did. He is now a counselor in ahigh school and has a master's degree.

The things that are the most impor-tant to Jose, Jr., are health, family, educa-tion, and remembering where you camefrom so that you can be as good a personas possible.

The Fourth Generation

Jose III (born in 1985) and Julio (born in1988) are the sons of Jose Martinez, Jr.They are learning from their parents theimportance of their heritage. As young asthe boys are, they are already saving forcollege. Jose III and Julio say, "If you wantto be cool, stay in school."

Changes over the Four Generations

Families have gotten smaller in number.They have acquired degrees in highereducation, and careers have changed.There are more choices for both men andwomen. Holidays are still celebrated andstill have some of the same traditions theydid eighty years ago!

BISHOP ROBERTO GONZALES

Many Hispanics are gaining leadershiproles across our country. Bishop Roberto

Gonzales, a leader in the Roman Catholicchurch, became a bishop at the young ageof 38.

Bishop Gonzales was born in Eliza-beth, New Jersey, on June 2, 1950. Al-though he was born in New Jersey, hegrew up in San Juan, Puerto Rico. He camefrom a very large family. There are ninekids in his family. He is the oldest. Withhis parents, that is a total of eleven people.He has many aunts, cousins, and uncles,too.

Like most of us, Bishop Gonzales hasa hero, but it's not Rambo, Superman, orBatman. The bishop's hero was his father,because he always knew what was goingon in the family and he was around whenthe family needed him. The bishop saidthat his father had a ton of love for thefamily.

His mother's grandmother, CarmenNieves, was also a very special person tohim. She taught Bishop Gonzales and hisbrothers and sisters to take care of thegraves of their relatives. They kept thegraves pretty by pulling weeds and plant-ing more flowers. This is very importantto the people in Puerto Rico. It is part ofa tradition that helps people rememberthat family love goes beyond life. Justbecause someone isn't here doesn't meanyou can't still show them love and respect.They do this by cleaning the graves andrespecting their burial sites.

Some of the favorite holidays that theGonzales family celebrated were Christ-mas, New Year's, festival days, and alsoHoly Thursday. On Holy Thursday, BishopGonzales's father would read the passage

HOMERO E ACEVEDO II 91

Bishop Roberto Gonzalez

of the Last Supper from the Bible Afterreading the Bible, the family would eatlamb and matzo (matzo is bread madewithout yeast), and each child would geta small sip of wine. The bishop also likesthe tradition called the nine days ofChristmas. During this time a person cango to church at 5:00 in the morning, singChristmas folksongs in church, and thenafter church, the whole family woulddrink hot chocolate. This celebration iscalled Misa de Aginaldo. Puerto Ricans saythat it is like a gift to go to church.

When he was little, the bishopwanted to he a doctor, a lawyer, and apolice officer, just like other kids, but bythe time he was fourteen, he knew hewanted to be a priest. In 1964, he went toNew York to a Franciscan seminary. Hefinished high school, went to college, thentheology school. After he was a priest, hestudied sociology at Fordham liniversityiti New York City. Now, at age 41, RobertoGonzales is a Roman Catholic bishop in

Weston, Massachusetts, which is a townwest of Boston

Bishop Gonzales is not married likeour moms and dads are, but in anotherway, he's married to the people that hehelps in the church. He wears a specialring that shows that he is a bishop and thathe is true to the church.

Bishop Gonzales feels that all lan-guages are God's languages and you shouldbe proud of your culture. He says, "Loveyour roots, love yourselves, love your fam-ily, and love all people We think he is agreat Hispanic leader.

HOMERO E. ACEVEDO II

Homero E. Acevedo 11 is an executive withthe American Telephone and TelegraphCompany (AT&T). Mr. Acevedo has usedhis good education and his ability to com-municate well in English and Spanish tobecome one of the youngest managers ofthe AT&T National Bilingual Center in SanAntonio, Texas. There are lots of things wecan learn from Mr. Acevedo.

Mr. Acevedo is very close to his fam-ily. Born in 1961, he is the youngest child.His family includes his late father, Ro-mero, Sr., his mother, Maria, his two sis-ters, Annette and Angelique, and his twinbrothers, Hugo and Hector.

When Mr. Acevedo was young, heN.Nras never lonesome with his brothers andsisters around. lie especially remembersgoing down the stairs Christmas morningwhen his father made home movies andblinded him with bright floodlights.

92 REAL PEOPLE

Homero E. Acevedo 11

Ilis father and mother always en-couraged him to get a good education,share with others, love others, work hard,and be all that he could be. They were alsoa good example for him. His parents wereand still are his heroes. Some day, he hopesto have a beautiful family of his own.

Mr. Acevedo's parents gave him ad-vice about how to handle teasing and prej-udice. His father told him that if someonethought there was something wrong withhim because he was Hispanic, then thatperson must not have been educated verywell and should be ignored. So, that isexactly what he has done. lie is proud ofwho he is.

Mr. Acevedo's dad taught him whatgoals are and helped him achieve sonic.One of his goals was to become an out-standing athlete. He did, and his favoritesports were soccer, baseball, and basket-ball. At one point, lie played semiprofes-sional soccer. He loves Chicago teams, es-

pecially the Bears, Bulls, Cubs, and Black-hawks. Although sports are an importantpart of Mr. Acevedo's life, they never be-came his main goal.

The most important goal was to geta good education. Mr. Acevedo realizedthat a good education would open manydoors for him in the future. In high school,he studied hard and made excellent grades.He then graduated from the University ofDenver. While in college, he had a chanceto study in Spain. By being one of the topacademic students, he got to meet the kingof Spain, Juan Carlos.

Mr. Acevedo knew that he neededto he ready to move to different parts ofthe country to advance in his career. Hemoved to New Jersey for training. He wasin charge of testing a new billing systemand a new computer system th:it wouldtake care of eighty million residential cus-tomer accounts. This was a great respon-sibility.

After six months of testing the com-puter system, he was moved to San Anto-nio, Texas. There he is an operations man-ager in charge of the International Com-munications Service Center. Many officemanagers report to him. There are about175 people in his department. He makessure that everything :uns smoothly.

Mr. Acevedo is able to communicatewith people very well. He can speak andwrite fluent English and Spanish. He feelsvery lucky to know two languages andbelieves it has helped him he a successfulexecutive. He says, "Anyone can be a suc-cess if they are secure with themselves,ready to move, and an achiever,"

MARY ANN E. ZAPATA 93

Mr. Acevedo's advice to young peo-ple is to be proud of who you are and tryto show it Love your family, and listen totheir advice Always work hard, stay inschool, and make a good life for yourself

MARY ANN A. ZAPATA

Mary Ann Zapata has dedicated her life toeducation She not only worked hard toovercome obstacles and achieve a goodeducation for herself but now she worksto get this for others.

As a teacher, she is a very catchywoman! She catches children's attentionby telling them about how she was raisedand how to get a good education Sheteaches her students to get along with oneanother, to stay in school, and not to judgepeople by their color or race.

Could you imagine moving almostevery year? As a child, Mary Ann Zapatagrew up in a migrant family. She lived inTexas until she was four. If you're wonder-ing what a migrant family is, it is a familythat moves a lot. The family moves a lotbecause crops ripen at different times ofthe year so the family must go to differentfarms even if they arc in other states.

Mrs. Zapata was born on November25,1943, in Thxas. When she was four, shemoved to Walla Walla, Washington. Each)car, her migrant family moved to Oregonand then to California. Then, she and herfamily moved hack to Walla Walla becausethat was like their home base.

When Mrs. Zapata was in first grade,the teacher showed prejudice and did not

44

Mary Ann Zapata helping thspanic students with,eadutg rn Lnghsh

like her. Mrs. Zapata only knew how tospeak Spanish. The teacher ignored herand did not want to teach her how tospeak English. Even the kids were mean.They teased her and also made faces andcalled her names. She had only one friendin first grade. I lowever, the other kids toldMrs. Zapata's friend that she was Hispanicand to stop being her friend, so soon shehad no friends. Then she did not want togo to school, but her parents made her goanyway. In second grade, the teacher waswarmer and kinder and taught her to speakEnglish. When Mrs. Zapata was older, shewanted to be a teacher because didn'twant kids to be treated poorly.

Is your father your hero? Mrs.Zapata's father was and still is her hero.When she learned English, she wanted toteach her parents. Since her father had to

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94 REAL PEOPLE

work, she would read to him every night.If you are wondering why her dad is herhero, it is because his opinions helped herto get a good education and to stay inschool. He would take her out into thefield and show her how tough life wouldhe if she did not get a good education bystaying in school.

Mrs. Zapata's favorite holidays havealways been Christmas and Easter. Shelikes spending time with her family andrelatives and has realized the importanceof family.

Mrs. Zapata has five daughters. Theoldest is married, the two youngest stilllive at home, and the other two are off atcollege. Her daughters' ages are 10, 13, 19,23, and 2 5 . Mrs. Zapata teaches her kidsto get along, not to judge people by theirlooks, and to remember to treat other peo-ple the way you would like to be treated.

Mrs. Zapata went to college to learnhow to be a teacher because her youngeryears were uncomfortable. She went tocollege for five years and is still going soshe can learn more about how to be a bet-ter teacher. She feels sadness in her heartwhen she hears somebody is going todrop out of school. Mrs. Zapata is kind,lovable, sensible, reasonable, and trusting!As she would say, "Stay in school and geta good education!'

CARLOS FLORES, M.D.

Are you proud of being Hispanic? Well, Dr.Carlos Flores is! Don't you think it wouldbe exhausting to he an emergency medi-

cine doctor, taking care of people whocome to the hospital emergency room forhelp? This is exactly what Carlos Flores,M.D., does.

Dr. Flores explained that it took a lotof hard work and ambition to get wherehe is today. When he was in ninth grade,he got very interested in biology, and thatis when he set his goal to become a doc-tor. He went to Northwestern Universityin Chicago for four years and studied veryhard as a pre-med student. Then he wentto medical school at New York Universityfor four more years. After that, he did twoyears of residency and additional trainingin emergency medicine. He has been anemergency medicine doctor for sevenyears in the New York City area. lie sayshe still has to continue to read and learnabout all of the new advances and discov-eries in his field.

Dr. Flores's job involves many differ-

CAR LOS FLORES, M.I). 95

ent kinds of medicine. He does everythingfrom helping with sore throats and earinfections to diagnosing broken bones andtaking care of people who have been inaccidents or have had heart attacks. Hismost memorable experience was when agirl was having a very bad asthma attack.She wasn't breathing very well and wasturning blue. Dr. Flores helped bring herpink color hack, and she was able tobreathe well again.

Dr. Flores was horn February 23,1956. He forgets how quickly time flies.During our interview, his wife laughed athim because often it seemed to him as ifsomething happened two years ago, whenit was really ten. He grew up in a suburbof San Juan, Puerto Rico, and went toGeorge 0. Robinson School from kinder-garten through twelfth grade. When hewas younger, he liked to play basketball.Ills idol and hero as a kid was Jerry West,who was one Of the L.A. Lakers' basket-ball players. tie had a friend named Billy,and to Dr. Flores it seemed like they wouldstay at each other's houses every otherweekend. He was also an Eagle Scout,which is the highest level in Boy Scouting,and he went to two jamborees, which arebig Boy Scout meetings. One was in Idaho,and the other was in Japan.

Although he is the only child of hisparents, Cristina and Carlos, he grew upwith a very large extended family. Thisincludes about forty cousins, aunts, anduncles. As a boy, he liked to travel with hisparents to the Itnited States. Iiis parentsspeak Spanish and English. lie would liketo teach his children Spanish.

Dr. Flores lived in Puerto Rico from1956 to 1982. His anceFtors lived in PuertoRico also. In Puerto Rico, DI. Flores andhis family did not have any probhmas withprejudiced people because alma t every-body there is Hispanic. However, he saysbeing Puerto Rican affected his life whenhe went away to college. There he had toovercome the prejudice some people hadagainst Hispanics. Dr. Flores proved themwrong by just being himself, and theysoon found out that he was just like oneof them.

Dr. Flores now lives in the New YorkCity area. He is married and has two smallboys. His wife is Jewish, so his family cele-brates all the Jewish holidays as well asChristmas, New Year's, and the Day of theThree Kings. His favorite foods are riceand beans and pasta. Although he does nothave any hobbies, he does a lot of workaround the house, such as redoing thebathroom and rebuilding the backyarddeck. He also likes to spend time with hischildren and his wife. Dr. Flores says thathis goals are to he a good father and hus-band and to he the best doctor he can be.

Dr. Flores's advice to others is to stayin school, set goals, and don't let anyonestop you.

STUDENT AUTHORS

Adrianne AlcmanDominic AtencioJames B. Bare laNichole Christine BargasBryan BrammerKevin BrandKimberly BurnellRachel CaligaRocio M. ChavezNicole CookAnastasia CordovaChristopher deBreeOlivia &Bret-Karina deOlivieraBrandon DudleyJennifer Flores-SternadAsia GarciaJaya GarciaAmanda Gomezl.anette GonzalesSergio GonzalesVanessa GonzalesBrittany. HansonJenna Maria !feints!leather HerburgerJared Daniel I lerrera(:ambri I lilgerMaria HodgeTroy I). HolderAimee I fullChristopher !lustedAmy JessupRyan Joy ccJustin JuarezGreg KarstenWhitney KastelicPerry D. KlineMichael LavdonBen LowryAy mber E. MackenzieFernando Manrique

Gonzalo ManriqueAlisha MartinezErica J. MartinezMelissa MedranoAmber A. MontoyaJacob MontoyaDaniel MurphyI larrison NealeyApril PadillaChristina Marie PadillaRoberto PadillaClint A. ParkerVickie PepperJosh Jesus PettitEmily PhelanBrian QuinnVictor Quinonez, Jr.Cliff M. RodriguezDandle Marie RodriguezDesiree Marie RodriguezSarah l.ynn RomeroLance RuvhalNick SanchezMatthew SandovalValerie Karla SchultzJennifer ShouseRicky StevensMagaret StillmanKimberly SturkAddle Jo SuazoDonna SwigertLaura SwigertAnne TatarskyKimberly TrujilloJudy Beth tirteagaCandace Elisa ValenciaTimmy C. WnardLa ra K. Vet teAngie WeghrBrandon \WinbergerJenny L. Wrzesinski

4

TEACHER PARTICIPANTS OTHER PARTICIPANTS

Angelique Acevedo (Hispanic Consultant)Annette M. Acevedo-MartinezAlex Gill BalksPia R. BorregoJean Tiran CableHelen T. Cozzens (Co-Director)Judith H. Cozzens (Co-Director)Mary Ann Garcia-PettitLorraine GutierrezMarsha HeraldJan labiumJerry LassosMartin Laydon'Fria LopezJean Makalusky- MartinezJose A. Martinez.Maria Ortiz-VenardMelanie Shioya- DavisSherry StumbaughHarvey TorreyAndra Vette

Jeff Horan (Editor)Jari Kolterman (Editor)Martin Laydon (Photographer)Katherine S. Parker (Photographer)Kimberly Jo Peterson (Editor)Shelby W. Shrigley (Editor)

/4

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INDEX

Acevedo II, Homero E., 91-93Adivinanzas (Riddles), 57Alamo, 16, 23All Saints' Day, 31American G.I. Forum, 21American Telephone and Telegraph

Company, 91Amezcua, Consuelo Gonzalez, 45Apodaca, Jerry, 21Arawaks, 3, 6Archuleta, Diego, 23Art projects, 50-55Atencio, Sidney, 78-79Aztecs 2-4, 9Battle of Puebla, 30Bare la, Casimiro, 24Battle of San Jacinto, 16Bubonic plague, 13Blades, Ruben, 22Bilingual Education Act, 17-18Cabeza de Vaca, Alvarar Nunez, 9-10Canseco, Jose, 22Carbajal, Michael, 22Castro, Raul, 21Cavazos, Lauro, 21Central America, 3Chavez, Cesar, 18-19Chavez, Eduardo, 46Chicano, 19Chicken enchiladas, 36Chistes (Jokes), 57

'f

Chorizo con huevos, 36Christmas play, 26-28Christmas traditions, 26-28Cinco de Mayo, 30-31Clemente, Roberto, 22Cognates, 60Colon, Cristobal, 5Colors (Los Colores), 61Columbus, Christopher, 2, 5-6Congressional Medal of Honor, 20Costumes, for dance, 38-42Cortes, Hernan, 9Coronado, Francisco de, 10Crusade for Justice, 24Cuba, 2, 6, 8, 20Cuentos (Stories), 63-74Dances, 38-42Day of the Dead, 31-32Day of the Three Kings, 28de Las Casas, Father, 8, 51Diaz, Franklin Chang, 22Dichos (Sayings), 56Diego, Juan, 64-65Dominguez, Aianasio, 14Drinks, 38Easter eggs, 29-30Easter season, 28-30"El Grillo" (The Cricket), 69-70"El Movimiento," the Chicano move-

ment, 46El Museo del Barrio, 49

Index 99

"El Principe y Los Pajaros" (The Princeand the Birds), 73-74

Epiphany, 28Escalante, Silvestre velez de Escalante,

14

Estefan, Gloria, 22Explorers, 3-5, 8-9; Columbus, 2, 5-6;

Cabeza de Vaca, 9-10; Cortes, 9;Ponce de Leon, 6, 8-9

Ferdinand, King, 5-6Fernandez-Mott, Alicia, 83-84Festivals, 26-32; Cinco de Mayo,

30-31; Day of the Dead, 31-32; Dayof the Three Kings, 28; Easter, 28-30;Epiphany, 28; Las Posadas, 26-28

Filigree art, 45Flores, Carlos, M.D., 94-95Flores, Tom, 22Florida, 9-10, 20Folk art, 44, 49-55Fountain of Youth, 9Frases (phrases), 62Fruit popsicles, 38Fruit punch, 38Garza, Carmen Lomas, 45G.1. Bill, 20GirOn, Rebecca Vigil, 21Golden Cross Award, 23Gonzales, Bishop Roberto, 90-91Gonzales, Rudolfo ("Corky"), 24-25Guacamole, 36Gutierrez, Sidney, 22Haciendas, 12Halloween, 32Hidalgo, Miguel, 15Hispanic art, 44-55Hispanic artists, 45-49, 77-79; Amez-

cua, Consuelo, 45; Chavez, Eduardo,46; Garza, Carmen Lomas, 45; Marzan,

Gregorio, 47; Medellin, Octavio, 47;Vigil, Bernadette, 77-79

Hispanic cooking, 32-38Hispanic dance groups, 42Hispanic heritage, 1, 15Huevos rancheros, 36Incas, 3Indians (Native Americans), 3, 10,

12-15Indies, 5-6Isabella, Queen, 5-6Jokes (Chistes), 57"La Llorona" (The Weeping Woman),

66-69Las Posadas, 26-28La Raspa, 41Lauro Cavazos, 21Lehtinen, Ilena Ros, 21Lent, 28-29Limas, Arlene, 22Little Christmas, 28Lopez, Nancy, 22Los Colores, 61Los Lobos, 22"Los Ratoncitos" (The Little Mice), 72Lujan, Manuel, 21Luminarias, 44, 54-55LULAC, 20Mariachis, 42Martinez family, 86-89Martinez, Jose P., 20-21Marzan bread, 28Marzan, Gregorio, 47Maya, 3Medellin, Octavio, 47Mendez, Tino, 76-77Mesoamerica, 5Mestizos, 13Mexican American War, 16-17

100 Index

Mexico City, 3Migrant farm workers, 18-20, 83-84,

93Missions, 12-14Missionaries, 14-15, 51; Dominguez,

Aianasio, 14-15; Escalante, SilvestreVelez de, 14-15; Hidalgo, Miguel, 15;

Serra, Father Junipero, 14Molas, 52-54Montoya, Max, 22Morales, Dan, 21Moreno, Rita, 22Muiloz, Anthony, 22Napoleon, 3, 30National Evangelization Team, 86Native Americans (Indians), 3, 10,

12-15Ocatc 1, 47Olmos, Edward James, 22Otiate, Juan de, 13Ortega, Katherine Davalos, 21

Our Lady of Guadalupe, 64-66Painting, 47Palacio de los Gohcrnadores, 14

Paltcas, 38Pena, Federico, 21Phrases, 62Piñatas, 44, 50-52Piniella, Lou, 22Pizarro, 6Plunkett, Jim, 22Ponce de Leon, Juan, 6, 8-9Posada, 26-27Presidio, 12Puerto Rico, 2, 6, 8, 20Quetzalcoatl, 4Razo, Bennie and Lii, 79-81Reales, 11Recipes, 34-38

Retablos, 44, 49Riddles (Adivinanzas), 57Rivera, Geraldo, 22Rivera, Ron, 22Rodriguez, Chi Chi, 22Salsa para los Nifios (dip), 35Santos, 44, 49Sayings (Dichos), 56Scrambled eggs and Mexican sausage,

36Sierra, Ruben, 22Silver Helmet Award, 81Serra, Father Juniper°, 14Serrano, Jose, 21Smallpox, 8, 10, 13Smitts, Jimmy. 22Spanish foods, 32-38Spanish place-names, 6lStorytelling, 63-64Taino Indians, 2-3, 8; costumes, 31-32

Telles, Sylvia, 85-86Tenochtitlan, 3Torres, Jose, 22Tortillas, 34Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, 17

Trevino, Lee, 22Tuberculosis, 8United States, 3U.S. Department of Labor, 83Valdez, Pete, 81-83Valenzuela, Fernando, 22Vaqueros, 18Ventura, Robin, 22Vigil, Bernadette, 77-78Vigil, Joe, 22West Indies, 3Zapata, Mary Ann, 93-94Zendejas, Luis, Max, Tony, 22

Zoot suits, 18

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The Quill HedgehogAdventures Series

reen fiction for young read-ers. Each title is written byJohn Waddington-Featherand illustrated by Doreen

Edmond.

Quill's Adventures in theGreat BeyondBOOK ONE51/2" x 81/2", 96 pages, $5.95, paper

Quill's Adventures in WastelandBOOK TWO51/2" x sh/r, 132 pages, $5.95,paper

Quill's Adventures in GrozzielandBOOK THREE51/2" x 81/2", 132 pages, $5.95,paper

The Kidding AroundTravel Guides

II of the titles listed below are64 pages and $9.95 exceptfor Kidding Around the

National Parks and KiddingAround Spain, which are 108pages and $12.95.

"A combination of practical informa-tion, vital statistics, and historicalasides."

New York Times

Kidding Around AtlantaKidding Around Boston, 2nd ed.Kidding Around Chicago, 2nd ed.Kidding Around the Hawaiian

Islands,Kidding Around LondonKidding Around Los AngelesKidding Around the National Parks

of the SouthwestKidding Around New York City,

2nd ed.Kidding Around ParisKidding Around PhiladelphiaKidding Around San DiegoKidding Around San Francisco

11

Kidding Around Santa FeKidding Around SeattleKidding Around SpainKidding Around Washington, D.C.,

2nd ed.

ORDERING INFORMATIONIf you send us money for a book not yetavailable, we will hold your money until wecan ship you the book. Your books will besent to you via UPS (for U.S. destinations).UPS will not deliver to a P.O. Box; pleasegive us a street address. Include $3.75 forthe first item ordered and $.50 for eachadditional item to cover shipping and han-dling costs. For air-mail within the U.S.,enclose $4.00. All foreign orders will beshipped surface rate; please enclose $3.00for tie first item and $1.00 for each addi-tional item. Please inquire about foreign air-mail rates.

METHOD OF PAYMENTYour order may be paid by check, moneyorder, or credit card. We cannot be respon-sible for cash sent through the mail. All pay-ments must be made in U.S. dollars drawnon a U.S. bank. Canadian postal moneyorders in U.S. dollars are acceptable. ForVISA, MasterCard, or American Expressorders, include your card number, expira-tion date, and your signature, or call (800)888-7504. Books ordered on AmericanExpress cords can be shipped only to thebilling address of the cardholder. Sorry, noC.O.D.'s. Residents of sunny New Mexico,add 5.875% tax to the total.

Address all orders and inquiries to:John Muir PublicationsP.O. Box 613Santa Fe, NM 87504(505) 982-4078(800) 888-7504

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America's

HERITAGEWESTRIDGE YOUNG

WRITERS WORKSHOP

"NW' 10111/

An enthusiastic and genuine glimpse into theHispanic culture that is part of our national heri-tage. Chapters on history, food, stories, jokes, andbiographical entries give information in a low-key,informative, and readable manner."

Scbool LibraryJournal

ritten by kids for kids, this book is intended to help Americans(of all ages) enjoy and appreciate a unique part of their heritage

Eighty-two students in the Westridge Young WritersWorkshop col-laborated to produce this kids' -eye view of America's Hispanic culturehistory, food, festivals, art, stones, and language. They also invite usto share the experiences of sonic real people who are part of theHispanic community in America today.

Kids Explore America's Hispanic Heritage gives us all a closerlook at just one of the many wonderful cultures that contribute somuch to American culture.

ISBN 1-56261-034-1

78156211 0

610340

5 0 7 9 5 >

John Muir PublicationsSanta Fe, New Mexico

US$7.95

UST COPY AURAE

4,401040.

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