Alma Flor Ada

Paths
Caminos

Book Descrip­tion

This book includes the biogra­phies of three very dif­fer­ent indi­vid­u­als, each a remark­able con­trib­u­tor to her/her society.

Peo­ple who are ded­i­cated to improv­ing the lives of oth­ers pos­sess spe­cial qual­i­ties: José Martí, Frida Kahlo, and César Chávez are three such peo­ple. This book explores their lives and shows the ways in which each of them con­tributed to change the world.

Author’s Note

José Martí, extra­or­di­nary writer and excep­tional human being, liked to say “Hon­rar, honra” imply­ing that when we honor those who deserve it, we some­how par­take of the honor. His mes­sage that it is impor­tant to honor those who have open roads that we now travel has inspired this biog­ra­phy series.

Isabel and I would like chil­dren to real­ize that the peo­ple we admire earned that admi­ra­tion as they faced life with courage and dig­nity, deter­mined not to be stopped by dif­fi­cul­ties, but con­sis­tently fol­low­ing their dreams.

It is our great hope that chil­dren will rec­og­nize that hum­ble begin­nings or phys­i­cal lim­i­ta­tions, while cre­at­ing unques­tion­able chal­lenges, should not be seen as impos­si­ble bar­ri­ers, and that these biogra­phies will be for them an inspiration.

Con­nec­tions

The three fig­ures whose biogra­phies form this book have been very influ­en­tial in my own life, and for that rea­son they appear in mul­ti­ples places in my work.

José Martí – Read­ers of Martí biog­ra­phy will also enjoy read­ing his poetry. Some exam­ples can be found in Eng­lish and Span­ish in the books Chuchu­rumbé or Fly­ing Dragon. The inspir­ing poem, Los dos príncipes, appears in Rios de lava and La niña de Guatemala in Huer­tos de coral. Tiene el leop­ardo un abrigo in La rama azul. The story in verse Los zap­ati­cos de rosa is included in El son del sol, num­ber 10 in the Col­lec­tion Música amiga and in the accom­pa­ny­ing CD of the same title, with music and voice by Suni Paz.

La rosa blanca, one of the best known poems by Martí is in El camino de tu risa, num­ber 9 in the Col­lec­tion Música amiga and in the accom­pa­ny­ing CD of the same title, sang by Suni Paz.

Addi­tional poems can be found in the anthol­ogy Días y días de poesía orga­nized in a cal­en­dar for­mat with a poem for each day of the year.

Fryda Kahlo — One of Fryda’s self-portraits can be enjoyed in Brush and Paint or Brocha y pin­cel, another in the inter­ac­tive jour­nal Pen­cils or Pince­les. In Can­vas and Paper or Lienzo y papel there is a paint­ing by Frida’s hus­band, Diego Rivera. In Blue and Green or Azul y verde there are two more of Rivera’s paint­ings which can also be appre­ci­ated in the inter­ac­tive jour­nal Col­ors or Col­ores.

César Chávez – The life of César Chávez is tied to the Migrant Farm Work­ers strug­gle. Thus an inter­est­ing con­nec­tion would be the biog­ra­phy of Luis Valdés which appears in Voices or Voces, another book of this series.

In Gath­er­ing the Sun, an alpha­bet book of poems, writ­ten in honor of the Farm Work­ers, there is a poem to César Chávez. It can also be lis­tened to, turned into a pow­er­ful song by Suni Paz, in the CD of the same title.

A sim­ple poem to César Chávez appears in Días y días de poesía:

César Chávez
Alma Flor Ada

César, amigo del campesino,
César, que dig­nifi­cas nues­tra labor.
César, abriendo siem­pre nuevo camino,
César, para el hon­rado trabajador.

“Teatro campesino: ¡Qué flo­rezca la luz!” en Imágenes del pasado is a reflec­tion about the Teatro can­pesino and the Migrant Farm Work­ers experience.

Gath­er­ing the Sun/ Puer­tas al sol Col­lec­tion Description

This col­lec­tion high­lights the genius, the tenac­ity and the achieve­ment of His­panic cul­ture. For His­panic read­ers, the col­lec­tion pro­motes pride in their cul­ture; for non-Hispanic read­ers, it fos­ters an appre­ci­a­tion and an acknowl­edg­ment of—and a respect for—Latinos. The col­lec­tion com­prises the fol­low­ing 6 series. Each book and jour­nal is pub­lished in sep­a­rate edi­tions in Eng­lish and in Spanish.

Poetry Series Gate­ways to the Sun

These poetry antholo­gies are divided in sec­tions fea­tur­ing poets from var­i­ous coun­tries from the Span­ish speak­ing world. The sec­tions open with orig­i­nal poems by Alma Flor Ada and F. Isabel Cam­poy cel­e­brat­ing the poets and the poet’s coun­try of ori­gin. Selected poems by the fea­tured poet com­pletes each sec­tion. The con­tri­bu­tion of Lati­nos is acknowl­edged as well as that of the anony­mous poets who cre­ated the rhymes of the tra­di­tional folk­lore, enrich­ing our heritage.

Art Series Gate­ways to the Sun

A wide vari­ety of gen­res, tech­niques, media, and his­tor­i­cal events in His­panic art are depicted in these over­size strik­ingly beau­ti­ful books. Each book includes repro­duc­tions of paint­ings selected from the best His­panic artists of all times, from clas­si­cal to con­tem­po­rary. Each paint­ing is accom­pa­nied by brief poetic readings.

Each book is paired with an inter­ac­tive jour­nal where chil­dren can learn more about art and begin their own artis­tic expressions.

Biog­ra­phy Series Gate­ways to the Sun

This series offers the biogra­phies of twelve sig­nif­i­cant fig­ures from var­i­ous coun­tries in the Spanish-speaking world, rep­re­sent­ing var­i­ous fields and occu­pa­tions. These his­tor­i­cal and con­tem­po­rary fig­ures are role mod­els, who over­came obsta­cles to make a dif­fer­ence in the world.

The­ater Series Gate­ways to the Sun

The­atri­cal adap­ta­tions of well known sto­ries and folk­tales as well as orig­i­nal plays are enhanced by beau­ti­ful art. The illus­tra­tions, by sev­eral His­panic artists, sug­gest cos­tumes, props and stage designs to help on the stag­ing of the play

• Rat-a-Tat Cat | Teatro del gato Garabato
• Roll ‘n Role | Teatrín de don Crispín
• Top Hat | Esce­nario de Polichinela
• Cur­tains Up | Teatro de doña Rosita

Lan­guage Series Gate­ways to the Sun

These frac­tured fairy tales books bring new twists to the lives of well-loved char­ac­ters from sto­ry­books. They pro­vide ample oppor­tu­ni­ties for lan­guage devel­op­ment as they use diverse forms of language.

• One, Two, Three… Who Can It Be? | Uno, dos, tres. ¡Dime, quién es?
• A New Home for the Seven Lit­tle Kids | El nuevo hogar de los siete cabritos
• Happy Birth­day, Lit­tle Red Rid­ing Hood | ¡Feliz cumpleaños, Cape­rucita Roja!
• A New Job for Pérez, the Mouse | Ratoncito Pérez, cartero

His­panic Lands Series Gate­ways to the Sun

Three over­size books on the rich­ness and diver­sity of the Spanish-speaking coun­tries of the Amer­i­cas. The poetic, but highly infor­ma­tive text, brings atten­tion to the extra­or­di­nary achieve­ment of the indige­nous peo­ple. The strik­ing illus­tra­tions are care­fully designed by Mae­stro Felipe Dáva­los. They offer ample infor­ma­tion to sup­port and enrich the text that reflects on the responses of human groups to the chal­lenges of their envi­ron­ment, and empha­size respect towards diver­sity, envi­ron­men­tal and eco­log­i­cal aware­ness, com­mu­nity involve­ment, and appre­ci­a­tion for education.

• The Quetzal’s Jour­ney | El vuelo del quetzal
• On the Wings of the Con­dor | En alas del cóndor
• Eyes of the Jaguar | Ojos del jaguar

READERS’ RESPONSES

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