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A review by claudiaswisher
Latino USA: A Cartoon History by Lalo Alcaraz, Ilan Stavans
3.0
This is one of the required books for the YAL class I teach at OU...it hits two genre: Graphic stories and nonfiction. I think I fought the book the whole way through because the topic's too BIG to cover in 200 pages in a graphic format. Starting with Christopher Columbus and ending, with the new edition, very recently, there's so much to cover.
I was horrified by two typos (it's for its) and one factual error, and it distracted me from the good stuff in the book.
I did appreciate the nuanced discussion of Hispanic cultures...not just Cuban, or Mexican, or Puerto Rico...not just The Alamo...not just Diego Rivera...not just Fidel Castro. The recent history, being events I remembered, was entertaining...I could compare and contrast my own recollections.
I found the format harder to follow than a traditional story and didn't feel like I was really getting it. The 'actors' who commented on the story in random ways were also distracting to me.
Then, in the last pages, I fell in love. Stavans has the characters in his history DEFINE history from their POV...I found those pages fascinating and it put everything I'd learned into perspective.
As a quick, surface introduction to the subject, I think this book has value. As a discussion of the complex, complicated human issues, not so much.
I'm interested to see what the students see.
I was horrified by two typos (it's for its) and one factual error, and it distracted me from the good stuff in the book.
I did appreciate the nuanced discussion of Hispanic cultures...not just Cuban, or Mexican, or Puerto Rico...not just The Alamo...not just Diego Rivera...not just Fidel Castro. The recent history, being events I remembered, was entertaining...I could compare and contrast my own recollections.
I found the format harder to follow than a traditional story and didn't feel like I was really getting it. The 'actors' who commented on the story in random ways were also distracting to me.
Then, in the last pages, I fell in love. Stavans has the characters in his history DEFINE history from their POV...I found those pages fascinating and it put everything I'd learned into perspective.
As a quick, surface introduction to the subject, I think this book has value. As a discussion of the complex, complicated human issues, not so much.
I'm interested to see what the students see.