In honor of Día de los Niños, Día de los Libros, Latinas 4 Latino Literature are hosting a blog hop and giveaway. It is with great pleasure that I share a beautiful piece written by Eric Gonzalez. I was already familiar with Eric’s work because we are the proud owners of Rosita y Conchita (a book created, illustrated, and co-authored by Gonzalez) that was gifted to us by a friend with obviously great taste.
An Educational Lesson From My Dad
By Eric Gonzalez
My parents emigrated to the U.S. from Mexico before I was born. My father was a dairy worker who milked cows for a living. When we were kids, my brothers and I would sometimes go to work with him. At the time, I didn’t understand why. I figured it was to give my mother a break from us four boys running around the house breaking the few nice things she owned, or maybe to train us to be dairy workers and follow in his footsteps. As I got older, I started to understand what my dad was trying to teach us, and it wasn’t the exciting profession of milk extraction.
The life of a dairyman was hard, really hard. You had to work two shifts, one in the day and one at night. It was hot in the summer and freezing in the winter. You literally had to walk around in cow poop all day and the cows tried to kick you every chance they got. It was a lot of work for not much pay. Aside from getting to spend time with our dad, my brothers and I hated it. After every workday with my dad, he would ask us sarcastically how much fun we’d had, then waited with a smile on his face for us to groan in response. He knew he wasn’t just punishing us with backbreaking labor. He knew he was implanting that ever-so important idea that every young Latino needs to know: If you get an education and follow your dreams, you don’t have to break your back for a living at a job that you hate.
I owe my dad everything for teaching me that important lesson. As an adult, I get to draw cartoons and write books for a living. I actually get paid to sit in an air conditioned office and draw characters and backgrounds for animated TV shows and then I get to go to a wonderful home with my beautiful wife and baby girl and not once step in cow poop. In my spare time, I get to write and draw books with my friends then travel around and share them with people. Although my dad has since passed on, I know that he would consider his life a complete success just knowing that I get to live a life like that.
I tell this story not to brag about the wonderful things in my life, but to hopefully instill this same idea into you as a parent or a young Latino or Latina. We must teach our children, as my dad taught me, the importance of education for the advancement of not only ourselves, but Latinos as a people. This is especially true here in the U.S. where our people are expected to take the lowest paying and most labor-intensive jobs. Latinos are known for their pride and their warrior spirit, and we must never let anything or anyone take that away from us or our children.
Eric Gonzalez was born in Corona, California to parents from Guadalajara, Mexico. He graduated with a degree in Animation from Cal State Fullerton and has worked as a designer at Warner Bros., Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon, and Fox. He has worked on such shows as MAD, Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends, Class of 3000, El Tigre and Playhouse Disney’s Tasty Time With ZeFronk. He is also the creator, illustrator and co-author of the children’s book, Rosita Y Conchita. Visit his site at www.muertoons.com.
The Giveaway
L4LL has put together a wonderful collection of Latino children’s literature to be given to a school or public library. Many of the books were donated by the authors and illustrators participating in this blog hop. You can read a complete list of titles (as well as the blog hop SCHEDULE) here on the L4LL website.
To enter your school library or local library in the giveaway, simply leave a comment below.
The deadline to enter is 11:59 EST, Monday, April 29th. The winner will be chosen using Random.org and announced on the L4LL website on April 30th, Día de los Niños, Día de los Libros, and will be contacted via email – so be sure to leave a valid email address in your comment! (If we have no way to contact you, we’ll have to choose someone else!)
By entering this giveaway, you agree to the Official Sweepstakes Rules. No purchase required. Void where prohibited.
¡Buena suerte!
I would love to win these wonderful books for my school’s library – CC Ronnow Elementary in Las Vegas, NV!
My rural 1 library town could soooo benefit from this. Thank you for showing the love of being latino. Gracias for the giveaway- Wakulla County Library Fl is who I nominate for this collection.
I think this is a great giveaway. Any school would benefit from the amazing books being donated.
I share a similar story to you. My parents also came from Mexico a little before they were born. My dad worked crazy hours at a factory that produced aluminum products. My mom stayed at home and worked just as hard taking care of us and making sure things ran smoothly. They taught me a strong work ethic and the importance of educating oneself to have a better quality of life. I am now a teacher and many of my students are either new to the U.S. or first generation. It is my turn to instill those same ideologies in the next generation.
Thanks for sharing your story. You will be an inspiration for my boys. I’m going to look up your site and tell them all about your job and your background! It’s great for them to read about successful, educated male Mexican Americans and know that they can do the same.
Great essay – love the calavera character. Please enter the Becker Elementary Library in Austin, TX in the giveaway. Thank you, bcardenas78703 -at- gmail.com.
what a great story thank you for sharing, I think we all can relate who grew up in simiilar situations. Many times we complain about our jobs, you know being stuck in an air conditioned office for 9 hours, and then I stop and think how ruff my parents had it, each working two jobs just to make end meet. Our rent when we were kids was $250.00 a month in the 70’s and my parents both worked very hard to raise thier 7 kids. Taught us many great lessons that we try to instill into the new generation. I think starting them very young is key. My nieces school is in Anaheim, Ca and they started the dual immerssion program 2 years ago (Benit Juarez), I think your books would be most beneficial for them and their library. We went to the day of the dead festival last year in Santa Ana and she fell in love with the story of Rosita & Conchita…
Great story, great person. I can’t explain how happy I was to find this book. My wife and I are can’t speak Spanish but have the year around tan to make you think different. We put my daughter into a duel immersion program to get back the language and culture we lost. This book helped her and us transition to speak both languages in our home.
Our Latino population is growing, and some of our children can’t speak Spanish and aren’t truly connected to their culture. These wonderful books fill a deep need in our libraries. ¡Qué viva el espiritu latinoamericano! Shari Shaw, Riley Upper Elementary, Livonia, MI
This book and cute doll is an absolute favorite in our house! Every Dia De Los Muertos my daughter paints her face just like Rosita!
Thank you for your story. 🙂 I would love to win this for my local library here in Rancho Cucamonga, CA. 🙂
We all have a story to tell. Thank you for sharing your story. I have to get this book, I’m in love with calaveras. It’s a beautiful part of my Mexican culture that I want to pass on to my children.-St Richard School, Chicago
We LOVE your book! And we’re hoping to win the giveaway for Arco Iris Spanish Immersion in Beaverton Oregon!
I love this blog for its support of familias raising multilingual book lovers! My daughter’s trilingual Immersion school would love these books. It is so fulfilling to see her love of reading grow. Thank you!
Very nice.What a wonderful initiative!