Dreams from Many Rivers
A Hispanic History of the United States Told in Poems
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- $16.99
Publisher Description
From award-winning poet Margarita Engle comes Dreams from Many Rivers, an middle grade verse history of Latinos in the United States, told through many voices, and featuring illustrations by Beatriz Gutierrez Hernandez.
From Juana Briones and Juan Ponce de León, to eighteenth century slaves and modern-day sixth graders, the many and varied people depicted in this moving narrative speak to the experiences and contributions of Latinos throughout the history of the United States, from the earliest known stories up to present day. It's a portrait of a great, enormously varied, and enduring heritage. A compelling treatment of an important topic.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This urgent historical survey by Engle (Dancing Hands) is ambitious in its scope: to tell the story of the lands now known as the United States through a combination of Hispanic voices and fictionalized composites. Starting with the Native Ta no people of Borik n present-day Puerto Rico in 1491 and concluding with anti-gun activist Emma Gonz lez in 2018 Florida, the collection, told in verse, is divided into six parts that track the ebb and flow of borders and their impact on the colonized and occasionally the conquistador. Unfortunately, a lack of contextualizing details leaves many of the poems without clear historical anchors, even as they lean on expository lines ("My wife is the granddaughter of Hern n Cort s,/ who conquered the Aztec emperor Moctezuma") that outnumber resonant moments. Hernandez's muralistic illustrations peopled landscapes, representative maps provide some emotional resonance. The work is stronger as one of curation, lifting unsung stories and centering Latinx perspectives for example, the deportation of thousands of American citizens during the Great Depression. Engle makes a case for the necessity of bearing witness to both suffering and survival, and young readers might use her text as a jumping-off point for further reading and for documenting their own stories. Ages 10 14.
