Every once in a while I feel overwhelmed and so inadequate to think, read, or understand the numerous health and educational issues that affect our Latino populations. I’m volunteering with “La Clinica” a neighborhood free clinic for the growing number of Hispanics moving in to the St. Louis area. Physicians, nurses, psychologists, social workers, and I (1 bilingual SLP) help out during the week to see families with health needs. I’m still trying to figure out how I can help. I screened a Spanish speaking Head Starter this morning, and knew that he wasn’t going to get services in Spanish, so I’ll refer him to La Clinica, and maybe his parents will bring him once a week to see me. But I know there are few more children out there that need help. At times I feel overwhelmed with the needs of our people.
I felt that way again when I read 2 book reviews published in the Harvard Educational Review, Vol. 72. number 2 & 3, 2002. The books that were reviewed were The Best for Our Children: Critical perspectives on literacy for Latino students by Maria de la Luz Reyes & John J. Halcon and Latinos: Remarking America, by Marcelo M. Suarez-Orozco and Mariela M. Paez.
The Best for Our Children: Critical perspectives on literacy for Latino students by Maria de la Luz Reyes & John J. Halcon address issues, theories, and practices of literacy that systematically exclude Latino students from traditional academic discourse. The fourteen chapters written by respected researchers in the area of literacy in Latino students discuss systems of exclusion and propose alternative and inclusive strategies that are known to work well with students. Some of these writers are my heros and heros in bilingual literacy. Authors such as Luis Moll, Barbara Flores, Maria de La Luz Reyes, and Sonia Nieto are a few of the researchers.
Part I, is the Sociocultural, Sociohistorical, and Sociopolitical Contexts of Literacy. This section lays down the theoretical foundations of literacy within a cultural context. Part II, Biliteracy, Hybridity, and Other Literacies, addresses the issues of Latinos as linguistic minorities and the use of language dominance to strategically exclude other languages and dialects. That is, English becomes the focus. This section presents success studies and offer possibilities for pedagogy. Part III, Reading the Word by Reading the World, is another collection of success stories of literacy, reflections on linguistic codes, and parents’ discussions on these issues. This book is moving theory into practice and provides examples that can help Latino students and families.
Latinos: Remarking America, by Marcelo M. Suarez-Orozco and Mariela M. Paez have brought together leading minds in the study of the U.S. Latino population. The book has 21 chapters and is divided into 2 parts. Part I discusses Histories, Migrations, and Communities and Part II, is Health, Families, Languages, Education, and Politics. The writers are from different fields and it includes commentaries by a variety of Harvard scholars from different fields to give an objective or outside perspective concerning Latino issues. This is definitely unusual and I can imagine this provides tremendous credibility to the work that is presented in this book.
Topics include historical and current territory for the now largest minority group in the United States. Issues addressed include: Latinos’ mental health in the process of immigration, access to health care, the consequences of family separation during immigration, and the study of anti-immigrant attitudes. There is a discussion of the cultural interpretation of music and literacy tradition and the history of Miami Cubans. There is a history of the Mexican American from the Southwest, and the dynamics of identify formation in youth. There is an analysis of the role of labor organization and the politics of international labor. One chapter addresses the immigrants’ religious organization skills and how this transcends national, race, and language boundaries. There is an overview of Latinos’ health. This chapter discusses the relationship between Latinos’ access to more wealth and the worsening of their health due to living conditions in the U.S. Another chapter discusses the sad summary of lack of access to the health-care system and the consequences on health and cost of intervention. An interesting chapter is concerned with the effects on Latina women leaving their children behind. Language is also addressed from the views of psycholinguists and sociolinguists. The last chapters address the higher education dilemmas for Latinos.
This is a most impressive collection of scholars and review of the many faceted issues that face the Latino population. Knowing the issues and complexity of what so many families face each day in the U.S. maybe will help us to boldly challenge the status quo and make those changes that will help children and families. The problems are really big. But I’ll work on something small. I’ll go to “La Clinica” tonight and do my work, and hope that some how it’ll help one person.
