Rudolfo Anaya has woven a bilingual holiday tale for children | Entertainment News

By MORGAN LEE, Associated Press

SANTA FE, NM (AP) – An author known as the father of Chicano literature left a bilingual children’s book after his death in 2020, telling a story about Christmas in the American Southwest.

The story of Rudolfo Anaya, who died of natural causes at the age of 82, is published posthumously for the holiday season by the Museum of New Mexico Press with parallel text in Spanish and English. The story extends a cycle of illustrated children’s books from Anaya with a playful cast of animal characters, centered around a curious little owl named Ollie Tecolote.

The book was carefully designed by Anaya during her senior year to invite children to explore literature in English and Spanish, said Enrique Lamadrid, editor and retired chair of the Spanish teaching department at the ‘University of New Mexico. Lamadrid worked closely with Anaya in his later years to translate the “Straw Hat Owl” series into Spanish.

“We designed this very, very, very carefully to make the kids feel comfortable,” said Lamadrid, who first befriended Anaya in the 1970s. “You start with l You have to fall in love with your second language to be any good with it at all.

Anaya gained lasting literary fame and influence with the 1972 novel “Bless Me, Ultima” about a boy’s coming of age in New Mexico after WWII under the guidance of a spiritual healer. traditional. The book has become a movie – and an opera.

Anaya first wrote her “New Mexico Christmas Story” for kids in English, sprinkling a handful of Spanish words and phrases on Hispanic holiday comfort food and traditional Christmas pranks played by ” abuelos ”.

Literally translated, “abuelos” means grandfathers or grandparents, while it is also used as slang for costumed family elders in northern New Mexico who traditionally go house to house on Christmas to ask the children. surprised if they were mean or nice.

The book’s images come from pop culture painter and muralist Moises Salcedo – who goes by El Moisés – and offer a vivid visual tour of winter vacation traditions in northern New Mexico, from the handcrafted “farolito” candles with a steaming “pozole” stew and an adventure that touches the three wise men.

Michelle Garcia, a preschool teacher in the city of Albuquerque, reads a previous Owl in a Straw Hat book to her 4 and 5 year old students, seated in a semi-circle, allowing for comments and questions.

Hispanic traditions run deep in New Mexico, where Spanish settlers arrived in 1598. Almost half of the state’s population claims Hispanic heritage, and some students in Garcia’s class – but not all – recognize the Spanish words in Anaya’s book. Garcia says that a short English-Spanish glossary in the book helps him answer all of the questions.

“There is just such a variety of formulations they can relate to, especially if they are of Chicano descent or any type of Spanish descent,” said Garcia, who traces his Hispanic roots and comfort with Spanish expressions to grandparents from northern New Mexico and southernmost Colorado.

Garcia took a day off to meet with Anaya shortly before her death, knowing he would show up at a public library dedication on her behalf.

“He said he had met his wife at the library,” Garcia said. “It was just this amazing story to encourage kids to come to the library, read and open a book. It just encouraged me to tell these stories.

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