CULTURAL HISTORY

500 Years of Chicano History. 1991. Southwest Organizing Project, Elizabeth Martinez, Ed.

With a Pistol in His Hand: A Border Ballad and Its Hero. 1958. University of Texas Press. Americo Paredes.

The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez (film) - based on "With a Pistol in His Hand"

Los Minores/The Miners (film). True story of an Arizona miners strike and their subsequent deportation. Produced by Luis Valdez for PBS.

FICTION

Pocho by Jose Antonio Villareal. Doubleday, 1959.

Bless Me Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya. Qunto Sol, 1972.

Growing Up Chicano: An Anthology. Tiffan y Ana Lopez, editor. William Morrow, 1993. 20 Chicano/a authors write about their childhood.

Pieces of the Heart: New Chicano Fiction. Gary Soto, ed. Chronicle Books, 1993.

POETRY

Why am I So Brown. Trinidad Sanchez Jr. March/Abrazo Press, 1991.

My Wicked Wicked Ways. Sandra Cisneros. Third Woman Press, 1987.

ART AND FOLKLORE

The Weeping Woman: Encounters with LaLlorona. Edward Garcia Krau & Judith Beatty, eds. The Word Press, 1988.

Days of the Dead/Los Dias de Los Muertos John Greenleigh (photographer); Rosalind R. Beimler (text). Collins, 1991.

Here Is My Kingdom: Hispanic American Literature and Art for Young People. Charles Sullivan, ed., Harry N. Abrams, 1994.

The Corn Woman: Tales and Legends of the Southwest. Angel Vigil. Libraries Unlimited, 1995.

NONFICTION

Always Running: La Vida Loca: Gang Days in L.A. Luis Rodriguez. Curbstone Press, 1993.

Soldados: Chicanos in Vietnam Charley Trujillo. Chusma House Press, 1990.

Quincenera: Princesa Por un Dia (film) 24 min., 1990.

REFERENCE SOURCEBOOKS

Against Borders: Promoting Books for a Multicultural World. Hazel Rochman. American Library Association, 1988.

Writers of Multicultural Fiction for Young Adults: A Bio-Critical Sourcebook. M. Daphne Kutzer, ed. Greenwood Press, 1996.

This Land Is Our Land: A Guide to Multicultural Literature for Children and Young Adults. Alethea K. Helbig & Agnes Regan Perkins. Greenwood Press, 1994.

Alvarez. Julia How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accent. Penguin Books, 1991. This series of stories tells the growing up story of four sisters from the Dominican Republic who had to escape to New York when their father got in trouble with the current political regime. They face the challenge of adjusting to a different economic status as well as coping with a new culture. Also, their family is determined to keep them confined to the narrow and confining "island ways" even though they are Americans.

Cisneros, Sandra. The House on Mango Street. Vintage, 1984. This series of vignettes tells Esperanza Corderaís story of growing up in the Hispanic quarter of Chicago. Her neighborhood is a bleak and depressing area of concrete and run down tenements. Violence, hopelessness and other harsh realities are a part of her everyday life. However, she learns that by writing down her thoughts and feelings, she can capture the beauty in her life and rise above the hopelessness.

Gee, Maurine H. Chicano, Amigo. Morrow, 1972. Kiki is an eight year old Chicano who wants to be a good boy scout. His single mindedness seems commendable, yet infuriating to Marc, chief of the den and Kikiís protector. However, when Kikiís life is in danger during an earthquake, Marc realized his affection for Kiki and works desperately to save him.

Various authors. Growing Up Latino: Memoirs and Stories. Houghton, 1993. Various fiction and non-fiction memoirs and stories show the struggle as well as joys of the Latino experience. These deal with religion, sex, family, and other universal issues that go along with growing up.

Odell, Scott. Child of Fire. Houghton Mifflin, 1974. Two teen Chicanos from a California-Mexican border town are gang leaders on parole. They have the same parole officer and are interested in the same girl. The officer works doggedly to help these boys overcome their problems and "make kit." He almost succeeds with Ernie, but a flair for the dramatic brings him to tragedy. This is not a book with a happy ending, but it does a good job of illustrating the problems of growing up Chicano.

Mohr, Nocolasa. This authorís work focuses on young Puerto Ricans living in New York. Her work has been criticized for portraying a particular community instead of allowing her characters to emerge as real people who happen to be Puerto Rican. Her strong points are the humor, sympathy, and optimism she brings to her portrayal of life in the Puerto Rican community. Her most notable books are:

Felita. Dial, 1979. The story of a young girlís relationship with her family and friends as she grows up in the Puerto Rican community.

Going Home. Dial, 1986. The sequel to Felita finds the main character coming to terms with her family and community as she travels to her familyís home in Puerto Rico.

Nilda. Harper, 1973. This is the tale of a young Puerto Rican girl growing up in New York and the racism and poverty she has to confront.

Rios, Albert Alvaro. The Iguana Killer: Twelve Stories of the Heart. Blue Moon, 1984. This is a graphic collection of graphic stories about Hispanics facing various problems reaching maturity.

Santiago, Danny. Famous All Over Town. NAL, 1983. An honest, realistic novel about a young Mexican-American growing up in a California barrio.

Soto, Gary. All of the following books are the works of this author. I found him to be the best writer of current books of this genre. His characters can be funny, loving, and smart like any other teens. They may face problems that are unique to Mexican-Americans, but they also deal with many issues that are universal.

Baseball in April. Harcourt, 1990. These stories deal with the everyday events in a teenagerís life such as first love, friendship, success and failure, however, they are told through the eyes of a Mexican-American. These tales are poignant, funny, and very readable.

Crazy Weekend. Scholastic, 1994. A great adventure story with two Mexican-Americn boys. Hector and Mando as main characters. While visiting Hectorís Uncle Julio, they witness a robbery by two very stupid and inept criminals, Huey and Freddie. They see the boyís picture in the newspaper and decide to "get" them. The results are both suspenseful and hilarious.

Jesse. Harcourt, 1994. This is a problem novel where a teen leaves a home with a drunken stepfather to go out on his own. He moves in with his older brother, and together they struggle to support themselves and go to junior college.

Living Up the Street. Bantam, 1985. These are autobiographical sketches from the authorís childhood and early adulthood. It is a funny and endearing book that makes the scrawny little Mexican-American boy come to life.

Summer on Wheels. Harcourt, 1995. Hector and Mando, the two characters from Crazy Weekend reappear again in this book with another great adventure story. They take a bike trip from East Los Angeles to Santa Monica to visit relatives. They get to do neat things like be in a TV commercial and get to sit in a private box at the stadium because they are the one millionth visitors to a Dodgerís game. They meet lots of interesting people, including Mandoís nerdy cousin, Bentley who they teach to be cool. This is a low-key, fun story.

Taking Sides. Harcourt, 1991. Lincoln Mendoza, the bookís main character is from an upwardly mobile family. His mother moves him from the Mission District in San Francisco to a nice house in a smaller town down the Peninsula. He has to struggle to fit in to his new neighborhood and school. He also has to struggle with divided loyalties between his old friends and new ones. He learns to value both.