Mi Mamá, Alicia Sanchez: A Story Inspired by the Lives of Alicia Sanchez and Her Daughter Eleanor Montour - Softcover

Reseña del editor

This book is the product of a desire shared by three university students to provide an educational tool to counteract the intense racial and anti-immigrant rhetoric so pervasive during and since the 2016 US election cycle. The book began as a community engagement project for the International and National Voluntary Service Training (INVST) program at the University of Colorado-Boulder, but it soon evolved into much more than a simple program assignment. The authors were simultaneously involved with the Boulder County Latino History Project, an organization that encourages and supports the teaching of Latino history in local public schools, and that involvement inspired the authors to write a bilingual, illustrated children's educational book for use in schools. Already passionate about education, the authors worked closely with the BCLHP to create a book that reflected the history of local Latino children specifically. None of the authors had previously written a book for children, though they variously possess skills in creative writing, illustration, and digital imaging. They approached the project with sincere passion in the hope of reaching children at the classroom level and in order to provide a platform for the discussion of racism beginning during childhood. The authors drew on their individual personal experiences of the systemic bullying, violence, and inequity of access that too often begins early in life. It is the authors' hope that their book will enable children to identify and address issues of racial and anti-immigrant sentiment in their communities and schools, and that it will also provide teachers with a tool for open conversation about those issues. In the authors' own words, "If this book can contribute to the just world that we wish to see and are working towards, then we will have achieved our goal."

Based on the lives of Alicia Sanchez, best-known for starting Clinica Campesina in Boulder County, Colorado, and her daughter Eleanor Montour, the story follows a young girl (Eleanor) through her experiences of discrimination in school and her admiration of her mother's (Alicia's) dream of creating a health clinic for local Latinos, the future Clinica Campesina. Though the story presented here is fictional, it is based closely on actual events that took place in the lives of Eleanor Montour and Alicia Sanchez. The incident of discrimination in school detailed in this book recounts in slightly altered form an actual event from Eleanor's life, while the abbreviated story of the founding of Clinica Campesina is accurate. The authors seek to highlight the existence, history, and work performed by Clinica Campesina and its individual supporters. Alicia Sanchez, Clinica Campesina, and all of those who supported its development represent important local figures and are an integral part of the history of Boulder County. The authors chose to touch more lightly on two issues rather than to delve deeply into just one in order to emphasize injustice and the power of community to address that injustice in multiple spheres of life.

Through highlighting of the issues of discrimination in local schools and lack of access to health care, coupled with concrete ideas for resolving such problems effectively, the authors hope to raise awareness of other issues of injustice that occur on a broader scale, as well as of the power and ability of community action to resolve those issues. This book seeks to provide content useful for facilitating discussions around themes of 'power in community', overcoming difficult situations, self-worth, racism and discrimination, health care, and local Latino history. The authors hope that 'Mi Mamá, Alicia Sanchez' will become an important resource for children and teachers and will make a significant contribution to the educational system by encouraging diversity in the curriculum.

Biografía del autor

Though born in Santiago, Chile, Andrea immigrated to the United States with her family at eight years of age, providing her with personal experience on the issue of immigration. She is passionately about the use of art and education as vessels for the creation of more-equitable social systems and loving relationships.