Caminar

This Latino Literacy Now International Latino Book Award winner takes place during the Guatemalan Civil War in the 1960s-90s, and follows Carlos, a Guatemalan boy who speaks a Mayan indigenous language, as he comes of age amidst the conflict. The book centers on the fictional town of Chopán, and its encounters with the Guatemalan army and the rebel guerrillas. Since the novel is comprised of many, often very short, poems, this book adds some diversity not only content-wise but also genre-wise to the set, as well as including Latinx representation, Guatemalan history, and translanguaging with a Spanish glossary at the back of the book. In her poems, the author does some really cool things with spacing, shape (one poem, "I Climbed a Tree" is written in the shape of a tree), structure, and repetition.

Possible Engagements

• Since this book highlights human rights issues in Guatemala, it would be cool to tie in activist Rigoberta Menchú and her work in Guatemala to the novel, and then connecting this to the overarching theme of activism in the text set.

• Since there is a lot to analyze in regard to the poems and the craft of them, students could do a close read of a few poems, highlighting what they noticed and why the author might have chosen to portray the text in this way. Then, there could be a writing activity tied to poetry in which students write a poem using one of the devices or strategies they saw in the novel.

• Students could research more about the background of the Guatemalan Civil War, humanizing some of the sides and people that Carlos encounters, perhaps relating this knowledge to the way the sides are portrayed in the book.

• This book allows students to take a more nuanced view on who is "good" and who is "bad", or which side is the "right" side to be on. This could be a discussion or a writing prompt.

Advantages & Shortcomings