Alma Flor Ada

El vuelo de los colibríes
El vuelo de los colibríes

BOOK DESCRIPTION

A grandmother’s story of her child­hood in rural Mex­ico and her family’s deci­sion to come to the United States allows her grand­daugh­ter to feel pride in their fam­ily legacy of endurance and courage. This is an ideal book for explor­ing issues of migra­tion, immi­gra­tion and fam­ily legacies.

AUTHOR’S NOTE

My work of many years with migrant farm work­ing fam­i­lies has been one of the most enrich­ing expe­ri­ences in my life. I reflect on how much I have been inspired by their lives of strug­gle and resilience, by their dig­nity and fam­ily val­ues, in my mem­oirs Vivir en dos idiomas. These expe­ri­ences have also inspired much of my writ­ing. The poems of Gath­er­ing the Sun are a trib­ute to their lives. Suni Paz has cre­ated orig­i­nal music for those poems and recorded as songs in a CD with the same title. In the book Imá­genes del pasado, I have included a piece, “Teatro camp­seino, ¡que flo­rezca la luz!” about the impor­tant role of the Teatro campesino in the Farm work­ers strug­gle. Isabel Cam­poy and I have writ­ten the biogra­phies of César Chavez, for the book Paths or Caminos in the series Gate­ways to the Sun or Puer­tas al sol and the biog­ra­phy of Luis Valdes for the book Voices or Voces of the same series.

In this book I have incor­po­rated many anec­dotes told to me by var­i­ous fam­i­lies and by some of my doc­toral stu­dents along the years. I wanted to cre­ate a coher­ent nar­ra­tive that will show the plight of the Mex­i­can campesinos, their love of fam­ily, and their deter­mi­na­tion to strug­gle to sup­port their loved ones. The hard work­ing spirit, the resilience, the sol­i­dar­ity, and the love passed on through gen­er­a­tions in this story all reflect the val­ues I have wit­nessed in hun­dreds of farm work­ing fam­i­lies and wanted to honor.

READERS’ RESPONSES

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