They Call Me Guero

LS 5663 Module 2 (2/3)

Bibliography:

Bowles, David. They Call Me güero: A Border Kid’s Poems. Cinco Puntos Press, 2018. ISBN 978-1-947627-06-2

Summary:

David Bowles is the award winning author who wrote this beautiful book in verse. It is his story of growing up between two worlds. The book explores his life on the border and the challenges he faced on both sides of the river. Guero is his nickname because he has such pale skin. At home “guero” is a term of endearment but being light skinned comes with its own set of problems he must face. They Call Me Guero is a coming of age story that explores tradition and family, friendship and first loves, and above all, finding yourself.

Analysis:

The cover of the book is brightly colored and features a boy in a mask that the reader will soon recognize on page 35. The poem titled Trickster, is depicted as the cover art of the book. The book includes a table of contents that lists all 49 poems as well as a glossary that translates the Spanish words to English. Before I read the book all the way through, I wanted to read a few pages out of context to see if they could stand alone. I was pleasantly surprised that the pages were just as meaningful when read in isolation. Of course, reading the book through told a story but each page could stand alone. The book in verse has a few variations of entries. Some poems rhyme, some are a few pages long and some only take up a quarter of a page. There is even a series of 8 haikus on page 60. This book is geared to 10-14 year olds but I feel like it would be of interest to older students as well. The topics are written in the point of view of a young boy, however the style is so unique and beautiful, an older reader would appreciate it. The story itself is of high interest because we are shown so many news stories of people on the border. This book will give its reader insight to how that life really is. Not so foreign as they might think. In fact the poem titled Sunday, is very relatable in some ways to most kids.

Activities:

Sometimes students feel intimidated to write poetry because they think they need something deep to say. The poem Sunday shows that a typical day can be poetic. Encourage your students to take a notebook around with them on Sunday and jot down things they do even the mundane tasks. On Monday, take some shared activities and write a class poem brainstorming together. Use the same two line rhyme format David Bowles used for his poem.