Picture Books for Navidad

René Colato Laínez

Here is my list of books for navidad for 2009. Enjoy them and feliz navidad y año nuevo.

To view the previous lists of books for navidad, click on the year.
2008
2007


Piñata in a Pine Tree: A Latino Twelve Days of Christmas by Pat Mora. Illustrated by Magaly Morales.

In this adaptation of the folk song "The twelve days of Christmas," a little girl is given such gifts as a piñata and "cuatro luminarias." Includes pronunciation and glossary of Spanish words and a description of Christmas foods and other holiday traditions from different Latin American countries.

Growing up with tamales/ Los tamales de Ana by Gwendolyn Zepeda. Illustrated April Ward . Spanish translation by Gabriela Baeza Ventura.

Six-year-old Ana looks forward to growing older and being allowed more responsibility in making the tamales for the family's Christmas celebrations.



Noche Buena: Hispanic American Christmas Stories by Nicolas Kanellos.

A family seated round the fireplaceSinging and making merry;A sprightly waltz played with graceNoche Buena brings us all the magic of the Christmas season as seen through the eyes of the Hispanic Americans who celebrate it.



Las Navidades by Lulu Delacre

A bilingual collection of popular Christmas songs from Latin America, illustrated to depict the Hispanic culture's rich and exuberant holiday celebrations.



La jaula dorada / The Golden Cage by Alma Flor Ada. Illustrated by Vivi Escriva.

A little boy's search for the perfect gift for his grandmother teaches him about ingenuity, generosity, and freedom.




Benito's bizcochitos by Ana Baca. Illustrated by Anthony Accardo. Spanish translation by Julia Mercedes Castilla.

As they prepare to make the traditional Christmas cookies known as bizcochitos, Christina's grandmother tells her the story of how a magical butterfly first introduced these sweet treats to her great grandfather, a shepherd in the hills of New Mexico.


Salsa stories by Lulu Delacre.

It is New Year's Day, and friends and family from all over Latin America arrive at Carmen Teresa's house for the festivities. Seven heartwarming and humorous stories follow, highlighting holidays from all over Latin America. Each story is told by a different family member, giving the narration a warm, lively sense of family tradition.

Una sorpresa para Josefina: un cuento de Navidad (Josefina's Surprise: A Christmas Story) by Valerie Tripa and Jose Moreno. Illustrated by Susan McAliley and Jean-Paul Tibbles.

The second Christmas after their mother has died, Josefina and her three sisters find that participating in the traditions of Las Posadas helps keep memories of Mamá alive.


Navidad latinoamericana / Latin American Christmas by Charito Calvachi. Introduction by Marco Vinicio Rueda.

Includes text of carols recorded on accompanying compact disc, a novena of prayers before Christmas, and Christmas traditions in Latin American countries


The twelve days of Christmas : a piñata for the pinon tree by Philemon Sturges. Illustrated by Ashley Wolff.

Celebrate the holidays with this lively adaptation of the classic Christmas song. This vivacious rendition, filled with vibrant illustrations, features musical notations and a special recipe for bizcochitos, cookies that can be found in every New Mexican home during Christmas time.

ReadMe: Mimís Parranda

Mimís Parranda is also a great book for navidad. You can find it on La Bloga list of books for navidad of 2007.

Learn more about the author, Lydia M. Gil and her book in this interview at www.spanglishbaby.com.

The "They don't want Us here" argument

What's all below doesn't directly reflect the above title, but it came to mind as I composed this.

"They don't want Us here."

The phrase comes up whenever racists, xenophobes, English-onlys and Limbaughers rear their little minds to fill the Internet, town halls or periodicals with opinions inevitably blaming immigrants (legal or otherwise), Spanish-speakers or just plain old U.S.-born, English speaking Chicanos for a laundry list of economic, social or educational failings in this country. On the surface, yes, it sounds, looks and smells like "They don't want Us."

I don't buy the argument, nor the victim-mentality it encourages, because it's a simple reaction to an immediate, specific situation, and no matter how accurate it may be, it fails to include the larger, more complex picture.

They problem lies in the signification They. Without proposing a new conspiracy theory or resurrecting a new one, we tend to throw They around to refer to distinct groups, when we might be better off always thinking of it as the distinct whole--U.S. society, meaning to include the predominant (and some fringe) groups, segments of the population, agencies, governmental bodies, body of law, philosophy and discourse.

When we include all that as They, I'd argue They do want Us here. Someone has to maintain the U.S. hotel toilets, motel bedrooms, Calif. gardens, housing developments and restaurant kitchens at a low enough wage and without drawing down on their tax contributions or good-old-Americans will go without. The food won't get harvested and delivered to those restaurant tables without Us. Manipulating the politics and repressing the economies of Latin America has kept that flow of all types of labor immigrants at an economically profitable level for most of our history.

And after we're here, They still want Us here. The racist, anti-immigrant rhetoric should be interpreted to mean, They want Us here as less-educated scapegoats, the kind that will suffer inhuman abuse in all the verbal, physical and psychological ways that America is so adept at devising. Our norms here are that it's okay to cut off funds to immigrant children, accuse their parents of being members of an ignorant race (sic), while at the same time employing Us at substandard wages without benefits, and even recruiting Us to fight the Iraq-Afghan-Pakistan War.

Homeland Security should erect a monstrous billboard on the border, facing northward, stating:

"Don't leave us. We need your labor and sweat and without you we might realize we're all fokked because we'd have to find new scapegoats and there are enough Muslims around to take all the abuse."

So, the next time your Chicano or mexicano friend says, "They don't want Us here," please try to educate them.

For a good exposure and a set of some real moronic responses, go to "Most Oregon schools slow to get English learners proficient" to see how the Oregon government thinks "punishing" school districts for under serving English language learners can be best implemented by providing even less money for that.

To read about a state notorious for never having understood how to educate Us (Chicano and mexicano kids), and where for years teachers have fought against the myopic standards-based CSAP exam, go to Colorado's new educational standards stress strategic thinking. Dumping the old one doesn't mean a new one will be any better, but the state has at least added the concept of "thinking" to its dialogue. Would they'd extend the concept to Us where education is involved.

Go here for a review/interview of La Bloga's contributor Lydia Gil and her book Mimi's Parranda that's posted on the website Spanglish Baby. It has everything to do with what They should see in Us.

And BTW, you only have today and tomorrow to win a copy of that book!

Almost lastly, Go to the Jim Lopez/Ty Gorton's Antique Children website to read a stranger adult story featuring a kid, written by yours truly. It's not so much about a non-Anglo kid as much as it's about myopic attitudes toward children.
(Click on the menu bar Subjects and scroll down to Fiction.)

A Grain of Sand is the second one.
Leave comments here to let me know your review of that one.

In the spirit of the coming year's-end, and my unsubstantiated ranting above, and your determination to make the new year different, I invite guest posts on that topic. Leave a comment below if you have something to submit.

RudyChG