Hispanic Heritage Reading: Final thoughts for 2022

(ETA: I posted as 2023, but 2023's month hasn't happened yet. Remember, I was catching up.)

This is to give some more attention to the books that did not necessarily fit into any of the previous posts.

Best for young readers:

A Box Full of Kittens by Sonia Manzano
Dolores Huerta Stands Strong: The Woman Who Demanded Justice by Marlene Targ Brill

Manzano, whom you may know better as Maria from Sesame Street, wrote a picture book, so when I say young readers... younger for this than for the Delores Huerta book, which is probably good for tweens and middle schoolers.

I can recommend either of them.

For people with complicated families:

Caramelo by Sandra Cisneros
Violence Girl by Alice Bag

Among other characters, Caramelo starts with "the horrible grandmother". As much as you initially feel that the title is mean, you cannot deny its justice as you continue to read. Then there is a reversal and you learn how she became as she was. All along there is a dialogue between the author and the departed grandmother about how she is being portrayed.

Although it is fiction, there are events at least inspired by Cisneros' own life, even if some of them were only things that seemed to be happening at the time.

Bag's story is more straightforward, with less fiction, but still with people who hurt each other; they also love each other and have good times together. In addition, you do see how violence inspires other violence, and you get an interesting look into the beginning punk scene in Los Angeles.

If you want more music history...

Decoding Despacito: An Oral History of Latin Music by Leila Cobo

I found this one fascinating. I know I will want to return to it eventually for all that there is about different musical styles, how they came together, and what happened when the songs they inspired were released.

I will also definitely want to get back to...

What You Have Heard Is True by Carolyn Forché

Sometimes there are books that cover so much information -- often things that I partially remember -- that I know that there is much more. That was true with Decoding Despacito, but music history is lighter than the history of El Salvador and US involvement in that. I  have a note to later check out two movies, some historical figures, and Forché's poetry.

More tracing the connections:

Aztlán and Viet Nam: Chicano and Chicana Experiences of the War edited by George Mariscal
Silver, Sword, & Stone: Three Crucibles in the Latin American Story by Maria Arana

Arana's book is probably the more discouraging of the two, but it is not hopeless. 

It is also more ambitious, weaving together different elements that have influenced the area over time. For example, for "silver" there is the use of it in pre-Columbian times, the European demand for silver and the impact of the new silver supply there, and the mine workers today.

I had mentioned Aztlán way back when writing about the songs, because of a poem in there that compares California Chicanos and Tejanos, if you will, and their musical tastes.

https://sporkful.blogspot.com/2022/12/hispanic-heritage-month-2022-songs.html

There are contrasts between those cultures -- perhaps not as much as there would be between Nuyoricans and Cuban expats in Miami, but still significant.

That was interesting food for thought, but it was not the primary contrast, which was between the movement for peace and the recognition of the immorality of war, and also the long tradition of military service among Latinx families.

This was a good background for some of the other reading. The heavy enlistment of Mexican-American soldiers did not stop the white enlisted men from going after Mexican zoot suiters.

It also reminds me of Ken Burns trying hard to get a racially balanced four part series on WWII, but he really needed a fifth part.

https://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/fl-xpm-2007-09-25-0709240238-story.html

The book is a collection of many disparate voices, even if seemingly from one culture, in a time that was culturally significant for the country. Some of those pieces may not be as well-written or as easy to relate to, but recognizing that variety is important.

If you are really into oratory:

The Words of Cesar Chavez by Richard J Jensen

This was not what I expected, though it was right in the title.

Yes, there is some biographical information on Chavez which is very interesting. Yes, you get to read quite a bit of his speeches and the contexts. And yes, there are also long passages evaluating the rhetorical methods and Chavez's performance as a "rhetor". 

The focus on that is not even wrong; Chavez was a remarkable speaker and would not have studied rhetoric at the level at which he used it, but it is kind of a niche interest. There are probably biographies out there that would have made me happier.

I think the real problem is that I don't care for literary fiction:

Of Women and Salt by Gabriela Garcia

Roxane Gay read and praised this book before it was published, so I had been waiting to read it a long time. 

It is good, but it is also a lot of people making bad choices, and fictional. In a great over-simplification of things, l like what I read to be real or happy, but why would you choose to wallow in despair? (Except that sometimes the material requires it, but there are reasons I mainly read non-fiction now, and when I do read fiction it tends to be YA.)

It felt a lot like I felt about The Book of Unknown Americans by Cristina Henríquez, way back in 2019.

Coming up...

In theory, around September 15th I will start again, and it can include the rest of those movies from that one list, and the four books I added after I started this round of reading, and the authors listed by Sandra Cisneros in A House of My Own, and material in my El Salvador note from What You Have Heard is True. For whether I start on time, and how much of it will I get to and how long it will take me... 

and yet, I feel good about the journey.