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9780809324767 Academic Inspection Copy

The Voices of Hope

Poems, Stories, and Drawings by the Children of La Esperanza, Guatemala
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Collected and translated by Carolyn Alessio, this bilingual anthology of poems, stories, memories, and philosophies was written and illustrated by the children of La Esperanza, Guatemala. Drawing upon the fortitude of their mothers, who began hand-sewing crafts to sell in the United States in order to survive the hardships of this war-torn, impoverished country, Alessio's students, aged four to sixteen, reveal amazing survival skills, fertile imaginations, and dreams of attaining better lives. The resulting work is a collection of poems and drawings that are terse, funny, sometimes sad, but always humanly, gloriously alive. As Alessio explains, "At first, I thought I might be imagining the echoes of magical realism, but as I continued to read the students' writing and study their drawings, I found similar themes. Witches killed children who didn't respect the spirits; women abused by their husbands sought refuge in trees with magical doors. People who didn't have money or jobs lived on the road and in forests, where they alternately fought and partied with the animals."
Carolyn Alessio teaches English at Cristo Rey Jesuit High School in Chicago's Pilsen neighborhood. She has taught creative writing and literature and has worked as an editor and writer for the Chicago Tribune and as a prose editor for the Crab Orchard Review. Her work has appeared in the Chicago Tribune, TriQuarterly, Boulevard, and several anthologies.
"Each translator knows that along with the gift of speaking comes the responsibility of hearing. All real translators must learn to listen. But the really great ones then learn to make us listen as well. . . . The text that follows is truly a celebration." -Luis Alberto Urrea, from the Foreword
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