



































Herrera (2018) Proof 2.pdf


Educational Renaissance Vol. 7  (2018)

Voices of  resist ance: Int erdisciplinary approaches t o 
Chican@ children's l i t erat ure  

Luz Yadira Her rera, PhD.  California State University, Fresno
     email: lherrera@csufresno.edu

Voices of resistance: Interdisciplinary approaches to Chican@ children's literature  
By Laura Alamillo, Larissa M. Mercado-López, and Cristina Herrera (Eds.)

$76.00, Hardback (ISBN: 978-1475834031)
$38.00, Paperback (ISBN: 978-1475834048)
$36.00, eBook (ISBN: (978-1475834055)

Book Review

Voices of Resistance: Interdisciplinary Approaches to 
Chican@ Children's Literature gathers a wide range 
of experts from diverse academic fields in the 
analysis of Chicanx children?s and young adult (YA) 
literature. The editors make the case for the 
urgency of using multicultural children?s literature 
as a means for empowerment and social justice. 
The book provides a framework that is useful to 
multiple audiences?from caregivers, teachers, 

school leaders, community members, to teacher 
educators, and beyond. The book highlights the 
Chicanx history of resistance situated in the 
various US socio-political contexts that have 
negatively impacted people of color since the 
country?s formation. The book reminds readers of 
the important role that literature has on the lives 
of children, and its potential to either affirm an 
asset-based perspective connected to their lives, 

The banning of Mexican-American Studies and censorship of Chican@-authored books in Arizona 
were part of a succession of anti-Mexican and anti-Chican@ policies that were enacted across the 
state and in the education system. The counterstories offered through these classes and literature 
not only created a sense of cultural inclusion, but ignited a political and activist consciousness 
among the mostly Chican@ youth, and reinvigorated conversations among educators about the 
teaching of race, ethnicity, and culture in the classroom, particularly through youth literature. While 
most work on youth literature has emphasized ?multicultural? literature as a means of being 
inclusive, Voices of Resistance: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Chican@ Children?s Literature recognizes 
that our present moment--one that is rife with continued anti-Mexican sentiment but that has given 
rise to our first Chicano National Poet Laureate--demands a more focused study of children?s and 
young adult literature by and about Chican@s. This collection re-examines how we view multicultural 
and diversity literature and recognize literature that invites social transformation. Using multi- and 
interdisciplinary perspectives to critically examine a wide range of Chican@ children?s pictures book 
and young adult novels, this collection reaffirms Chicano@ children?s literature as a means to achieve 
equity and social change. (Rowman & Littlefield, 2018)

mailto:jonidegner@gmail.com
https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781475834048/Voices-of-Resistance-Interdisciplinary-Approaches-to-Chican@-Children's-Literature#
https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781475834048/Voices-of-Resistance-Interdisciplinary-Approaches-to-Chican@-Children's-Literature#
https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781475834048/Voices-of-Resistance-Interdisciplinary-Approaches-to-Chican@-Children's-Literature#
https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781475834048/Voices-of-Resistance-Interdisciplinary-Approaches-to-Chican@-Children's-Literature#


HERRERA|  VOICES OF RESISTANCE

cultural identities, gender constructions, and home 
language practices of Chicanx children and youth 
or to perpetuate a harmful deficit view. 
Furthermore, the book reminds readers that 
powerful children?s and YA literature can help raise 
Chicanx children?s consciousness, even from a 
young age, towards sustaining self-love in the 
uplifting of Chicanx identity, culture, and linguistic 
practices schools.  

The book includes a variety of authors from 
different fields, exploring a collection of children?s 
books and YA literature along with prevalent 
Chicanx scholarship and theory. It is a celebration 
of the timeless and critical contributions of 
thinkers such as Gloria Anzaldúa and Cherríe 
Moraga, and it articulates how their theories 
prevail in the lived experiences of Chicanxs. These 
theories are used for framing the analysis of 
Chicanx children?s literature. 

The book is divided into three sections, each given 
a theme that is further explored and delved into by 
the chapters that follow. The first section analyzes 
manifestations of Chicanx identity and 
consciousness, highlighting the complexity of this 
effort given the diversity in the Chicanx 
experience. The second section focuses on 
characters in select children?s and YA literature, 
specifically examining their journeys in 
constructing their gender identities and 
negotiating their sexuality.  

Finally, the third section examines culturally and 
linguistically sustaining pedagogies through the 
use of children?s literature. The authors in this 
section explore the fluid gender identities as well 
as language practices in children?s book that can 
support its young readers? own sense of self and 
their linguistic practices. This includes 
translanguaging, in which speakers draw from a 
variety of features available in their linguistic 
repertoires, such as those from Spanish and 
English. For instance, in the chapter, 
?Translanguaging con mi abuela: Chican@ 
Children?s Literature as a Means to Elevate 
Language Practices in Our Homes,? author Laura 
Alamillo analyses prominent children?s books, such 

as Grandma and Me at the Flea by Juan Felipe 
Herrera and Mango, Abuela and Me by Meg 
Medina, and illustrates how grandmothers are 
often important characters in Chicanx children?s 
stories. Alamillo highlights their roles in the 
negotiation of language practices with their 
grandchildren. The author argues that language 
practices that includes translanguaging is common 
in Chicanx families and should also be reflected in 
the language practices that are honored in 
schools.  

One strength of this book is its interdisciplinary 
undertaking, asserting the importance of reflecting 
on and examining literature through various 
lenses. The authors included in the text represent 
a variety of fields, including education, Chicanx 
and Latin American studies, women?s studies, film 
and visual studies, English, as well as others. The 
lens represented in the book reflects how these 
often intersect.  

The book uses children's and young adult 
literature as a means for empowerment and 
identity formation and affirmation, while making 
the various stakeholders in children's lives?from 
caregivers to teachers and community 
members?critically aware of their roles and 
responsibilit ies. These two elements in the book 
prompt readers to recognize the heterogeneity 
that exists within the Chicanx population and a 
variety of experiences, social-economic statuses, 
sexual orientations, gender identities, family 
structures and relationships, and cultural and 
linguistic practices. For instance, one of the books 
that the authors use in their analysis is Maya 
Christina Gonzalez?s Call Me Tree/Llámame Àrbol. 
The text features a variety of gender fluid 
characters that are rarely represented elsewhere 
in children?s literature. In addition, Cristina Herrera 
engages readers in an analysis of Belinda Acosta?s 
YA book, Damas, Dramas, and Ana Ruiz, and shows 
how two Chicanas, a mother and daughter, 
reinvent themselves as their family structure shifts 
and continuously challenge gender norms. 

The text also recognizes that schooling is a 
powerful establishment in the formation of the 
self and ways of being; a significant space through 
which a multitude of (often opposing) perspectives 

37



HERRERA|  VOICES OF RESISTANCE

can be upheld or challenged, though not always in 
a linear way, and thus can be in perpetual state of 
negotiation.  

The book is a call to action. The editors extend an 
important reminder for readers to collaborate in 
the effort towards sustaining Chicanx youth?s ways 
of being. According to the National Center for 
Education Statistics (2015), one in three 
school-aged children will be Latinx by 2023, and in 
states such as California, New Mexico and Texas, 
more than half of the children already are of Latinx 
descent (as cited in Gándara, 2017, p. 4). This is a 
significant increase from the current number of 
one in four, or 25 percent, of children in K-12 
schools in the US that the authors cite. The 
authors also remind us that the majority of the 
Latinx population is Chicanx or of Mexican 
descent. Consequently, it is everyone?s 
responsibility to not only recognize the vast and 
rich diversity in community, experiences, cultural 
and gender identities, language practices, and 
other ways of being that exist within the Latinx 
population, but also the need for these to be 
normalized.  

A recommendation for the text is to include an 
expanded bibliography or list of additional books 
and resources. This would be a valuable tool for 
educators who might be looking for additional 
resources. An additional recommendation for the 
editors is to explore a wider variety of books and 
resources, though such an undertaking would 
reasonably require at least an additional volume to 
this text. For instance, authors in different 
chapters examine the same two books: Juan Felipe 
Herrera?s Downtown Boy, and Maya Christina 
Gonzalez?s Call Me Tree/Llámame Àrbol. Each 
chapter examines the books through a different 
lens, but readers may be interested in additional 
book titles and authors. 

The book asserts the critical need and importance 
for more authors and editors, such as Alamillo, 
Mercado-López, and Herrera, whose work values 
and affirms the experiences of young people of 
color. Voices of Resistance amplifies the 
multifaceted and complex stories of Chicanxs as 
they are represented in the literature. That aspect 
alone makes this book an important contribution 

for more than just researchers and teachers. It is a 
valuable text for anyone that seeks to better 
understand the dynamic identities and 
experiences of Chicanxs and Latinx people.  

  

References 

Acosta, B. (2009). Damas, Dramas, and Ana Ruiz. 
New York: Grand Central Publishing.  

Alamillo, L., Mercado-Lopez, L. M., & Herrera, C. 
(2017). Voices of resistance: Interdisciplinary 
approaches to Chican@ children's literature. New 
York, NY: Rowman & Littlefield. 

Gándara, P. (2017). The potential and promise of 
Latino students. American Educator, 41(1), 4-11.  

González, M.C. (2014). Call me tree/Llámame árbol. 
New York, NY: Children?s Books Press. 

Herrera, J. P. (2005). Downtown boy. New York, NY: 
Scholastic Press. 

Medina, M. (2015). Mango, Abuela and Me. 
Somerville, MA: Candlewick Press. 

Rowman & Littlefield.  (2018).  Voices of Resistance.   
Retreived from https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781475
834055/Voices-of-Resistance-Interdisciplinary-Appr
oaches-to-Chican@-Children's-Literature#
  
 
 

 
 

38

https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781475 834055/Voices-of-Resistance-Interdisciplinary-Appr oaches-to-Chican@-Children's-Literature#
https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781475 834055/Voices-of-Resistance-Interdisciplinary-Appr oaches-to-Chican@-Children's-Literature#
https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781475 834055/Voices-of-Resistance-Interdisciplinary-Appr oaches-to-Chican@-Children's-Literature#

