Bringing Hispanic Heritage Month to Life

September 22, 2022 | Marie Bouteillon

Bring Hispanic Heritage Month to Life

September 15th marked the beginning of Hispanic Heritage Month! Is your classroom stocked with culturally relevant, authentic read-alouds that speak directly to your students? We know teachers want the best, so we’d like to start off this celebration of Hispanic culture by highlighting some of our best books for bringing these experiences to life!

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A Mirror Into Hispanic Experiences

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Individual Titles

La joven maestra y la gran serpiente

The young teacher was assigned to a school in the Amazon jungle, where she arrived laden with her books. Her students liked her reading stories to them the most. Then they would take them home, and the mothers and grandmothers, although they did not know how to read, would look at those books with curiosity. The inhabitants of the jungle villages used to tell many legends, but at that time the young teacher believed that they were just that: legends. Accustomed to the city and books, the young teacher will have a culture shock when she encounters a different reality. But she will soon realize that she is not the only one who has things to teach. This book is a tribute to Latin American women teachers, who give up everything to pursue the dream of education, but also to the legends of the most remote villages, which their people have passed down through generations, thus preserving their cultural richness and popular wisdom.

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Pablo encuentra un tesoro

Pablo and his sister spend every day at "La Montaña del Tesoro", the local garbage dump. There, they rummage through the mounds of garbage looking for items that his mother can sell to provide food for the family. Every once in a while, they find a "real" treasure, like a piece of food that is still edible or an illustrated book, which Pablo loves even though he can't read. The work is exhausting, and sometimes not very lucrative, but the worst they have to face is Cara-Sucia, a brutal bully who steals all the children's finds. But one day, Pablo discovers a real treasure? Will he be able to prevent it from falling into the hands of Cara-Sucia?

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Rescatando palabras

In the city of Bogotá, in the neighborhood of La Nueva Gloria, live two Josés. One is a boy who dreams of Saturdays, the day when he and other children from the neighborhood visit Paradise, the library. The other José is a garbage collector. From dusk to dawn, he scans the sidewalks of the streets where he drives, squinting under the dim light in search of hidden treasures... Books! Some in neat piles, as if waiting for Joseph to discover them. Others require more effort to find. Ever since he discovered the first book, Ana Karenina, José has been rescuing books from the trash: thick, thin, used and almost new books, to expand the library he has in his home. And on Saturdays, children like little José run until they reach Paradise and discover a world full of books and magic.

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¡Esquivel! Un artista del sonido de la era espacial

Gorgeously illustrated by Duncan Tonatiuh, this lively biography follows Juan Garcia Esquivel from Mexico to New York City. Juan grew up to the sounds of mariachi bands; he loved music and became a musical explorer. Defying convention, he created music that made people laugh and planted images in their minds. His musical dreams brought him from Mexico to America and gained him worldwide renown. Juan’s space-age lounge music—popular in the fifties and sixties—has found a new generation of listeners. This account honors Esquivel as one of the great composers of the 20th century.

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Manos que bailan

As a little girl, Teresa Carreño loved to let her hands dance across the beautiful keys of the piano. If she felt sad, music cheered her up, and when she was happy, the piano helped her share that joy. Soon she was writing her own songs and performing in grand cathedrals. Then a revolution in Venezuela forced her family to flee to the United States. Teresa felt lonely in this unfamiliar place, where few of the people she met spoke Spanish. Worst of all, there was fighting in her new home, too—the Civil War. Still, Teresa kept playing, and soon she grew famous as the talented Piano Girl who could play anything from a folk song to a sonata. Yet with the country torn apart by war, could Teresa’s music bring comfort to those who needed it most?

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