Keep it authentic!

Attending to students’ cultural identity as well as others’ cultural identities is needed to shape them into culturally sensitive people. The books that teachers and librarians provide to students must give students they can relate to and books of people that are different from them. As Temple (2018) explains, “culturally specific books illuminate the experience of members of a particular cultural group (Sims Bishop, 1992)” (Temple, 2018, p.92). The books that students read must be real and about them – it must avoid the stereotypes associated with their culture. Students can relate to books when it is authentic to them and when they feel like they are speaking about them through the characters in the book. In Marcus Vega Doesn’t Speak Spanish, Cartaya (2018) describes Marcus as a big kid who helps his mother through “taxing” students for services he offers without her knowing, a helpful student of the staff on campus, the caretaker for his brother, and in search of himself through wanting to finally meet his father. The cover of the book provides the imagery through the way her chose to portray the word Spanish. The word Spanish has palm trees, one by the S and the other by the H, in it with a building in the middle between the palm tree. Cartaya (2018) also has this sign that says “Springfield, PA 1581mi” pointing to the right, and “San Juan 19mi” pointing to the left. Using these two images, Cartaya can depict the context of how the Spanish language is going to be used – through Puerto Rican culture.

Authentic experiences of peoples’ culture are essential to the engagement of a book. In order to have good multicultural literature, Temple (2018) describes the issues for teachers and librarians to consider as, “ (1) whether a work presents cultural details authentically, (2) whether the author writes from an inside or an outside perspective, (3) whether a work promotes stereotypes, and (4) which cultural group is being described in the work (Temple, 2018, p.94-95). The person writing a book must have an insider or outsider perspective of someone’s’ culture, but it must be actual and reflective of the peoples’ culture. Cartaya (2018) gives vivid examples as to how Marcus acts with his family and how he begins to talk to his uncle. He gives the perspective, that I can relate to, of a Latinx-American. Latinx-Americans typically lose part of their culture when they are born here because they begin to assimilate and assume themselves more closely with the American culture. I can relate to the story that Cartaya describes – I was twelve years old when I first visited Honduras. Cartaya (2018) continues to describe how Marcus’ mother hides her Puerto Rican identity because Marcus was shocked to discover how much Spanish his mother spoke.

It is important that books reflect authenticity of peoples’ culture. The multicultural literature that teachers and librarians provide to students must be reflective of their own culture and of other peoples’ culture- there must be a balance between both.

References:

Cartaya, P. (2018). Marcus Vega doesn’t speak Spanish. New York: Viking.

Temple, C., Martinez, M., & Yokota, J. (2018). Children’s books in children’s hands: An introduction to their literature 6th Ed. New York: Pearson.