Literacy Map Cuba

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Literacy Map Cuba

• By Amanda Enriquez and Yanelys Abreu

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In-depth analysis of Characterization Flight to
Freedom
Quote
In-Depth analysis of Characterization Celia
Cruz, Queen of Salsa
Favorite book Flight to Freedom
By Ana Veciana-Suarez

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Annotated Bibliography Discovering Cultures Cuba

• Gordon, S. (2003). Discovering Cultures Cuba.
  New York Benchmark Books.
  
• Grade levels 2-6
• Discovering Cultures Cuba is an informational
  book about Cuba.
  
• In this book readers will learn about different
  aspects of the
  
• Cuban culture. For example, the books explains
  what it is like living
  
• in Cuba and what school life is like there. The
  book also explains
  
• what people in Cuba do for fun, for example,
  playing baseball, which
  
• is the most popular sport in Cuba. Boxing is
  also popular, and going
  
• to the beaches or playing dominoes. It also
  tells about how music is
  
• the heart of the Cuban culture. This is great
  book to learn about
  
• the Cuban culture and even teaches readers how to
  count in
  
• Spanish and some of the Spanish vocabulary.

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Annotated BibliographyCelia Cruz, Queen of Salsa
Chambers, V. Maren, J. (2005). Celia Cruz,
Queen of Salsa. New York Penguin Young
Readers. Grade levels 2-4 Celia Cruz, Queen
of Salsa is a biography about the Cuban salsa
singer, Celia Cruz. It tells about her life gro
wing up in Havana, Cuba, and how
she loved to sing all around town. Crowds used
to gather around her home at night to listen to
her beautiful voice while she sang lullabies to
her brothers and sisters to put them to sleep.
It tells about the music that
she loved which was blended traditional
Afro-Cuban rhythms with the flavor and folklore
of the tropics. It also tells about her
struggles with deciding to pursue singing or bec
ome a school teacher like her father
wanted. She eventually did move to Hollywood and
became famous for bringing salsa music to every
corner of the earth. She recorded over
twenty gold albums and is known around the world
as the Queen of Salsa.
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Annotated Bibliography Flight to Freedom

• Veciana Suarez, A. (2002). Flight to Freedom.
  Orchard Books.
  
• Grade levels 5-6
• This is a first person fiction book which
  depicts immigrant life.
  
• This book portrays the fictional life of Yara who
  emigrates with
  
• her family from Havana to Miami in 1967 as a
  result of the
  
• oppressive leadership of Fidel Castro. This is a
  touching
  
• inspirational story of Yaras struggle to adapt
  to life in a new
  
• country. Yara knows very little English and she
  finds that the other
  
• students in her new school have much more freedom
  than she and
  
• her sisters. Later tension starts developing with
  her own parents
  
• because they are becoming more independent.

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Annotated Bibliography Children of Flight Pedro
Pan

• Armengol Acierno, M. (1994). Children of Flight
  Pedro Pan. Silver Moon Press.
  
• Grade levels 3-5
• This is a historical fiction novel that is part
  of the Stories of
  
• the State series. This book takes us back to 1961
  in Cuba. Ten year
  
• old Maria Aleman and her younger brother Jose
  have been put on a
  
• plane by their parents . They have decided to
  send the children to
  
• Miami to get them away from Fidel Castro. Maria
  and Jose have no
  
• idea what to expect in the new country and they
  are going all
  
• alone without their parents and very few
  belongings. This book
  
• shows the positive and negative aspects of
  immigrating to and
  
• coping with a new country, different culture, and
  language are
  
• adequately covered.

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Annotated Bibliography Country Insights Cuba
City and Village Life

• Morrison, M. (1998). Country Insights Cuba City
  and Village Life. Raintree Steck-Vaughn.
  
• Grade levels 3-5
• This is an informational book on Cuba. It
• describes the land ,climate, home life, work
• life, school, plants, animals, history, economy ,
  
  
• language and the future. It also looks closely at
  
  
• the city of Havana and the Village of Republica
• de Chile. Cuba is the largest island in the
• Caribbean region.

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In-depth analysis of Characterization Celia
Cruz, Queen of Salsa

• Veronica Chambers, the author of Celia Cruz,
  Queen of Salsa, uses
  
• different techniques to develop the
  characteristics of Celia Cruz. The
  
• author reveals Celias beautiful voice through
  simile. She looked like a girl
  
• and talked like a girl, but everyone who ever met
  her agreed, she sang like
  
• a bird. (p. 1) She also shows her passion for
  singing because she sang
  
• wherever she went. Celias job was to sing
  lullabies to put her younger
  
• brothers and sisters to sleep. (p. 4) In high
  school, she began singing in
  
• school shows and local clubs. (p. 9) Celias
  character is shown growing up,
  
• from living in a poor section of town as a little
  girl, to attending high
  
• school and college, to then pursuing her dreams
  and eventually bringing
  
• salsa music to ever corner of the earth.
• Her determination to pursue singing is shown
  through her perseverance
  
• to continue singing Still, she jumped at every
  opportunity talent contests
  
• a the national theater and amateur nights on the
  radio. (p. 14) The
  
• author also explains how she still continued to
  go to school like her father
  
• asked her to. She studied piano, voice, and
  musical theory in Cubas
  
• National Music Conservatory.

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In-depth analysis (cont.)

• Celias love for singing and actions of not
  giving up are shown when she
  
• first gets her big break and she joins the most
  popular band of that time
  
• called La Sonora Matancera. But the public was
  outraged and Celia begins
  
• to wonder whether she should really be doing
  this. Then she asks herself,
  
• Why do I sing? Is it for fame and fortune and
  for fans that do not exist?
  
• (p. 16) No, she told herself. I sing for my
  parents, the ancestors, and the
  
• saints. I sing because when I lift my voice up
  high, I feel like the first
  
• pajaro of the day, whistling buenos dias to
  anyone who will listen. (p. 18)
  
• The author continues to show characterization by
  explaining how Celias
  
• performance trademark was shouting Azucar!
  which is the Spanish word
  
• for sugar, which is the one word that many say
  perfectly described her
  
• voice. The author characterizes Celia as the
  bird girl, who grew into a
  
• princess and the princess became a beloved queen.
  She went on to record
  
• over twenty gold albums and is known the world
  over as the Queen of
  
• Salsa. (p. 26) The author uses determination
  and love of singing as Celias
  
• main focus of her character.

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In-depth analysis of Characterization Flight of
Freedom

• The main character in this book is Yara Garcia
  and she is the
  
• middle child. She was named after the Grito de
  Yara which is the day in
  
• which the Cubans made a proclamation of
  independence from Spain. She is
  
• thirteen years old and her birthday is on May
  10th. She has two sisters
  
• Ana Maria and Ileana and one brother named
  Pepito. Throughout this book
  
• Yara struggles with the difficulty of a new
  school, language, and friends
  
• and the tension that forms between her parents.
  She lived a middle class
  
• life in Cuba and is now forced to leave to Miami
  because of Fidel Castro.
  
• She knows very little English and feels like her
  parents are very strict
  
• compared to her friends in school. Yara is a very
  interesting person. When
  
• she first came to America, it was a whole new
  life she had to get used to.
  
• Yara worked hard to learn English and to fit in
  with the rest of the
  
• students at her high school. Yara is brave and
  very smart and experienced
  
• a lot of hard things throughout her adolescence
  that not most children
  
• have to encounter.

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Quote Flight to Freedom

• A few days in this place, and already I sense I
  am becoming an ant, tiny and insignificant, one
  of many. So tonight, to keep my mind off my ant
  worker life, I have given myself one goal I will
  not cry. No, no, I will not. This is what I have
  promised myself. God and Virgencita, Our Lady of
  Charity, please, please help me.
• -Flight to Freedom
• By Ana Veciana-Suarez

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Favorite Book Fight to Freedom
Author Ana Veciana-Suarez
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