César Chavez
Ya tus pasos no cruzan los campos
polvorientos
ni los alumbras con tu buena voz
pero tu ejemplo
y tu palabra
retoñan en los surcos
en brotes de callada esperanza.
Glossary
|
WORD
|
DEFINITION
|
POSSIBLE SYNONYMS
|
|---|---|---|
| brotes (n.) | compact, knoblike growths on plants that develop into leaves, flowers, or shoots | buds, shoots, blossoms |
| buena (adj.) | of high quality | fine, good, excellent, exceptional, splendid, exquisite, superb |
| callada (adj.) | expressed in a restrained or understated way | quiet, hushed, stilled, muted, whispered |
| campos (n.) | areas of open land, especially those planted with crops, typically bounded by hedges or fences | fields, pastures, pasturelands, meadows |
| con (prep.) | accompanied by another person or thing | with, accompanied by |
| cruzan (v.) | from the verb cruzar meaning to go or extend across to the other side | they cross, they traverse, they negotiate, they navigate |
| de (prep.) | expressing the relationship between a part and a whole | of |
| ejemplo (n.) | a thing characteristic of its kind or illustrating a general rule | example, precedent, lead, model, role model, lesson |
| en (prep.) | expressing the situation of something that is or appears to be enclosed or surrounded by something | in, within, enclosed by |
| esperanza (n.) | a feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen | hope, dream, expectation, faith, belief, conviction, promise |
| los (art.) | object of a verb or preposition that refers to two or more people or things previously mentioned | the |
| los alumbras (v. + direct object pron.) | from the verb alumbrar meaning to light up | you illuminate them, you enlighten them, you ignite them, you brighten them |
| ni (conj.) | used to introduce a negative statement | nor |
| no (adv.) | not performing an action, the precise nature of which is often unspecified | do not, don’t |
| palabra (n.) | a distinct, meaningful element of speech or writing used to form a sentence | words |
| pasos (n.) | steps taken by a person in walking, especially as heard by another person | footsteps, steps |
| pero (conj.) | used to introduce something contrasting with what has already been mentioned | but, yet, nevertheless, even so, nonetheless, however, still |
| polvorientos (adj.) | covered with or resembling dust | dusty, soiled, sooty |
| retoñan (v.) | from the verb retoñar meaning to sprout | they sprout, they shoot, they reappear, they come alive |
| surcos (n.) | long, narrow trenches made in the ground by a plow, especially for planting seeds or for irrigation | furrows, trenches, grooves, ruts, channels, hollows |
| tu (poss. pron.) | belonging to or associated with the person or people that the speaker is addressing | your |
| tus (poss. pron.) | belonging to or associated with the person or people the speaker is addressing | your |
| voz (n.) | produced in a person’s larynx and uttered through the mouth as speech or song | voice |
| y (conj.) | used to connect words | and, together with, in addition to |
| ya (adv.) | at the present time | now, at the present, in this time |
Background
About Free Verse
Free verse is a literary device that can be defined as poetry that is free from limitations of regular meter or rhythm and does not rhyme with fixed forms. Such poems are without rhythms and rhyme schemes; do not follow regular rhyme scheme rules and still provide artistic expression. In this way, the poet can give his own shape to a poem how he/she desires. However, it still allows poets to use alliteration, rhyme, cadences or rhythms to get the effects that they consider are suitable for the piece.
Bio
Alma Flor Ada was born in 1938 and grew up with her extended family in a big house on the outskirts of Camagüey, Cuba. Her grandmother taught her to read by drawing the names of things with a stick in the dirt as they walked around the family farm. For instance, to teach Alma the letter R, her grandmother wrote the word Rosa with an elegant capital letter and explained that this was “a rose that wanted so much to see the world outside and was climbing the garden wall because of the wonders that exist in the world outside.”
At the age of 15 Alma came to the United States to study English at a high school in Pennsylvania and then a college in Colorado. This was “my first experiences of living in a different country,” Alma recalls. “I was trying to study and learn in another language, and I was awakening to the destructive forces of racism and discrimination which could lead people to renounce their own language and identity.” Since 1970 Alma Flor Ada has worked as a professor of education and children’s author. She has published more than 200 books for children, both in Spanish and English. She feels more comfortable composing poetry in Spanish, so when writing in English she chooses to focus more on the narrative, telling a story.
While Alma Flor Ada was in college, in 1959, there was a revolution in Cuba, as Communist leader Fidel Castro threw out the hated dictator Batista. Alma chose not to return to Cuba, but went on to study in Spain, Perú and the United States. She became a professor of education at San Francisco State University, but she did not limit herself to the university environment, traveling to rural areas to work hand in hand with farmworker families, beginning in the 1970’s when César Chávez and Dolores Huerta were establishing the United Farm Workers union to bring basic rights to immigrant workers
As an educator, Alma Flor Ada has been most deeply influenced by the Brazilian philospher Paolo Freire (1921-1997). Paolo Freire believed that education is a political act. He found that the dominant system of education creates a “culture of silence” that eliminates the paths of thought that might lead to critical thinking. According to Freire, “No pedagogy which is truly liberating can remain distant from the oppressed by treating them as unfortunates and by presenting for their emulation models from among the oppressors. The oppressed must be their own example in the struggle for their redemption.”