Identity & Storytelling in:
Solito
Embedded Files
Use the following texts to supplement your reading of Solito and to explore the essential quesitons. Guiding quesitons for each text are in bold.
Essential Question: How does immigration shape a person's identity?
Student Podcasts:
Listen to one or more of these student-created podcasts ranging in topic from their own journeys to the U.S., or learning about their parent’s immigration stories. How are the stories alike? How are they different? How can they help us to understand what it means to be an immigrant in the U.S. today?
What Does Identity Mean for an Immigrant?
In this emotional TEDTalk from Tan Lee, who immigrated from Vietnam to Australia, she tells the story of her immigration journey and discusses how being a refugee and immigrant defined her identity. How does her story emphasize the connections between identity and immigration?
Do We Need Borders to Define Our Identity?
This TedTalk is by journalist and documentary filmmaker, Milene Larsson, who explores issues related to gender, migration, and LGBTQI and civil rights, showing the often damaging effects of rigid norms and borders. How do the "lines” that we draw between groups of people often prevent us from seeing our own humanity?
Meet Young Immigrants:
Read and watch modern-day immigration stories from young people. Each story includes photos, a written story, and a video. How has each each person’s identity has been shaped by their unique immigration experience?
The Immigration Story:
This is a collection of immigration stories by a non-profit whose mission is to, “To document, narrate and curate stories about immigrants in order to promote empathy and advance an inclusive community.” As you read or listen to the stories, consider how immigration has shaped their identity - both how they are perceived by others, and how they percieve themselves?
Essential Question: How does storytelling impact our understanding of others and ourselves?
In this TedTalk by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, she beautifully and clearly demonstrates why we need to hear all stories - not just the dominant narrative of media and culture. According to the talk, why are stories powerful, and why must we seek out stories from those who are different from us?
This article is about the concept of “narrative identity” and how we are all storytellers, constantly engaged in telling an internalized story about our lives. What types of stories do we tell about ourselves, and how do stories impact how we see our own identity?
The Magical Science of Storytelling
This entertaining TedTalk takes a scientific approach, explaining the neuroscience behind why storytelling is so powerful, and how we can use this to our advantage. How can storytelling help us shape our history, our identity, and the world around us?
This article also seeks to understand the power of storytelling through neuroscience. It is about how the writer’s research is “uncovering how stories shape our brains, tie strangers together, and move us to be more empathic and generous.” Why are we so attracted to stories, and what makes a good story so effective?
Essential Question: What other stories or poems, including our own, can we connect to Zamora’s experiences?
For My People by Margaret Walker
This poem is a great conversation starter for discussions about identity and belonging. Analyze this poem with the essential questions in mind, or use it for a copy change to write about the groups and people and places that make up your own identity.
This poem reflects on what it means to belong in two places - two countries, cultures, languages. Use this poem discuss your own dueling identities and what it feels like to belong in multiple worlds.
This short story highlights a common experience among immigrants, both wanting to honor and identify with their native culture, but also wanting to “fit in” and be seen as American. Make connections between this story and Solito, as he longs for an “American” dream life, or to your own lives and similar experiences.
We Are Not From Here by Jenny Torres Sanchez
For students who are interested in these themes or want to read another book similar to Solito, this novel follows three teenagers as they make their way from Guatemala to the U.S. It has many of the same themes as Solito about identity, immigration, injustice, and what it means to have hope. Copes available in the library or on Sora.
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