A collection of powerful poems, in Nahuat, Spanish and English, that celebrate Indigenous life and language despite efforts to eradicate them.
These poems are a moving and eloquent description of how great poet Jorge Argueta came to know the almost extinct language of his ancestors. The poems tell stories of Jorge's life growing up in the Salvadoran village of Witzapan, where his own grandmother taught him his first words in Nahuat.
There are poems about the clay used to construct the village, the trees that grow in the countryside, the corn used to make tortillas and pupusas, and the Tepechapa River. Beautiful illustrations painted by Salvadoran artist El Aleph accompany each poem.
In the early 1930s, the government of El Salvador massacred many Nahuat people and banned them from speaking the language, attempting to eradicate their Indigenous identity. Despite the ban, village elders continued to keep the language and culture alive.
Today there are many efforts to reintroduce the Nahuat language in El Salvador. Nahuat readers can share in Jorge's childhood world of Witzapan. So can we, whether in the original or through the Spanish and English translations of his poems.
Key Text Features
author's note
poems
illustrations
glossary
table of contents
translations
Correlates to the Common Core States Standards in English Language Arts:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.4.3
Describe in depth a character, setting, or event in a story or drama, drawing on specific details in the text (e.g., a character's thoughts, words, or actions).
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.5.4
Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative language such as metaphors and similes.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.5.7
Analyze how visual and multimedia elements contribute to the meaning, tone, or beauty of a text (e.g., graphic novel, multimedia presentation of fiction, folktale, myth, poem).
A celebration of the Nahuat language and culture, presented as a collection of poems in Nahuat, Spanish and English, about growing up in the Salvadoran village of Witzapan.
• HONORING AND REVITALIZING LANGUAGE: The Nahua are one of many Indigenous groups in Central America. Written in tribute to the Nahuat language and the Pipil Nahua people of El Salvador, this book of poems honors a language that was once made illegal, echoing the colonial oppression of Indigenous Peoples around the globe.
• THE NAHUA OF EL SALVADOR: In consciously learning Nahuat, poet and Pipil Nahua Jorge Argueta felt more connected to the world and culture in which he was raised. Jorge's cousin, Juan Valentín Ramírez García, is a noted translator and teacher of the Nahuat language, and ensured that Jorge's oral knowledge of the language was correctly translated to the page.
• AWARD-WINNING POET: Jorge Argueta is a highly acclaimed poet. His books are the winners of the Américas Award for Children and Young Adult Literature, the Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award, the USBBY International Honor List and the Junior Library Guild List, among many other honors.
author's note;poems;illustrations;glossary;table of contents;translations
