Chicken Beaks

CHICKEN BEAKS: GROWING UP HISPANIC, tells a story about family, religion, and values. The setting is northern New Mexico during the late 1950's and early 60's. Told in first person, using dialogue sprinkled with Spanish, each event comes alive as told through the eyes of a child. Every chapter has an underlying lesson mixing humor, love and drama. Though Hispanic in flavor, the vignettes have universal appeal. Portions have appeared in Reminisce and Sun magazines.

This book is written for older children and adults. Hispanics account for 35.3 million people in the United States, and census figures show a 60 percent growth in the last decade. Cultural similarities that exist among Hispanics include a strong commitment to traditional values such as family, religion and heritage. While the common language, Spanish, is regionalized, the need to learn English is a binding tie. Hispanics are notorious for learning to read by employing humor. That explains the high sales of comic books in Mexican and South American markets. Even so, there is a shortage of Hispanic writers.

CHICKEN BEAKS: GROWING UP HISPANIC developed from the stories the author told his children about his life.

What people are saying about CHICKEN BEAKS: GROWING UP HISPANIC

"Many parents like myself, forget there were happy childhoods without Game Boys, cartoon networks and Beanie Babies. Fresno resident Ben Romero recounts such a childhood in "Chicken Beaks: Growing up Hispanic" The book is filled with stories about life in the village of Nambe, N.M., which had a populations of fewer than 300 when Romero was a child.

"Romero could have titled his collection of stories "What Are You Doing?" That often was his mother's refrain after, just in the nick of time, finding her boys on the verge of doing something that could have caused serious injury."

Mary Lou Aguirre, Fresno Bee