Soto, Gary. (1992). Neighborhood Odes. New York: Harcourt Brace & Company, 80 pp.

Grade Range: 6-12

Genre: poetry

Summary and Critique

Gary Soto's poetry compilation, Neighborhood Odes, beautifully reveals the uniqueness of a Mexican-American childhood. Soto describes common experiences such as weddings, birthdays, pets, and friends. The difference is that he recollects a Mexican-American's youth; therefore, each event has distinctive Mexican aspects that one finds primarily in the memory of a Mexican-American. Soto uses the Spanish words in the middle of the odes. A pet dog is a perrito, snow cones are raspas, and a birthday party is not a birthday party without a piñata. Only at a traditional Mexican or Mexican-American wedding would one eat chicken mole and talk with compadres. Soto also describes familiar memories such as days at the park and running through the sprinkler in the yard. None of these memories, however, lack the Mexican flavor that is folded into each ode. Going to the park on a Sunday afternoon, after mass, is a common family outing for Mexican-Americans, and Soto remembers running through the sprinkler como un chango—like a monkey.

Students of different ethnicities will not only enjoy Soto's memories, but they will be able to relate to the odes as they recall their own experiences at weddings, birthdays, and days spent at the park. Each ode can easily trigger memories and ideas for essays and/or poetry.

Theme/Topics

Families

Friends and Enemies

Generations

Race, Ethnicity, and Culture

Challenges and Triumphs

Author Information

Soto grew up in Fresno California and currently resides in Berkeley, CA. He has received numerous awards from a variety of organizations. In addition to being an author, Soto also devotes his time to the California Rural Legal Assistance (CRLA) and the United Farm Workers of America (UFW).

For more information on Gary Soto:

http://www.garysoto.com/ Official Gary Soto website.

Media Connections

Movies

The Sandlot (1993) When his stepfather is too busy to teach Scotty to play baseball, the neighborhood boys help out.

Now and Then (1995) A group of grown women reminisce about their childhood experiences and adventures.

Sister Act 2 (1993) A more light-hearted look at the lives of inner-city Teens , and how they overcome their surroundings to succeed.

And the Earth Did Not Swallow Him (1995) A thirteen year-old Chicano, Marcos, reflects on his life thus far. His family does migrant farm work in the 1950s, and he thinks about the prejudice that goes on between different races as well as the cruelties that take place amongst his own people. There are some questionable scenes that you will want to censor, or you can only use clips from the film.

My family (Mi Familia) (1995) This film follows three generations of a Mexican-American family striving for the American dream. The characters reveal the importance of family and culture in Latinos'lives as they struggle to push through the obstacles that Latinos face in Southern California, in East Las Angeles. Some scenes may be inappropriate; some scenes may be excellent.

Television

The New Addams Family A spooky, yet fun and unique family made up of Mom and Dad, Sister and Brother, and Uncle and Cousin. With episodes about their family tree, Halloween traditions, and the children's first day of school, there are numerous ways to discuss the differences and similarities among cultures.

Family Matters About a middle class, African-American family and the everyday humors and trials of their family life.

Music

"Don't Let Me Get Me," "Dear Diary," and "Family Portrait." Performed by Pink. From Missundaztood. Arista, 2001. These songs can help in discussions on sad, or hurtful memories or events in a student's life.

Online Resources

http://www.hallkidsreligions.com/social_science/228.shtml Site's home contains links to books and information about the religions of the world, but also has great links to reviews of books with themes from a girl's memories of her Mexican-American childhood. There are also links to many other books with themes like customs, traditions, friendship, religion, manners, family life, and more.

http://www.pages.drexel.edu/~ags25/hpmission.htm Comprehensive site of books, videos, research, articles, websites, and programs dealing with adolescence and the coming of age in different cultures and societies. Graduate students and librarians who work with young adults developed this site together.

http://www.cvmc.net/index.jsp Contains lists, video-jacket pictures, and video summaries of coming-of-age films.

Related Texts

Cisneros, Sandra. (1984). The House On Mango Street. New York: Vintage Contemporaries. 128pp. Witty, yet revealing short stories about a young Latina's childhood experiences. There are a variety of themes, which both Latino/a and non-Latino/a readers can relate to.

Lopez, Tiffany Ana. (1993). Growing Up Chicana/o: An Anthology. New York: William Morrow & Co. 272 pp. A collection of stories by twenty Americans of Mexican descent—including Gary Soto, Sandra Cisneros, and Rudolpho Anaya—dealing with the issues of growing up Chicano.

Ciavonne, Jean. (1999). Carlos, Light the Farolito. Putnam Pub Group. 24pp. A fun story about a boy's excitement during Las Pasadas, a Mexican Christmas tradition. This is a great book to read out loud to the students.

Milord, Susan. (1992). Hands Around the World: 365 Creative Ways to Encourage Cultural Awareness and Global Respect (Williamson Kids Can! Series). Charlotte, VT: Williamson Publishing. 158 pp. Creative activities geared for younger children, but that can be appreciated by and helpful to older students.

John McCormick and Sharon Begley with Karen Springen."How to Raise a Tiger." Newsweek December 9,1996. An article about Tiger Woods' up bringing.

Reed, Ishmael. (2002). From Totems to Hip-Hop: A Multicultural Anthology of Poetry Across the Americas, 1900-2002. New York: Thunder's Mouth Press. 400pp. American poetry from poets of all races and backgrounds.

Teaching Ideas

(1) "Poetry from a Memory Web Chart" Students bring in photographs form their lives. Discuss what is going on in the pictures. What people, activities, and places do the pictures show? The pictures will evoke memories and emotions, and open conversations about similar experiences. Students can use a memory web as a prewriting activity. They place their pictures in the center of the paper and fill in bubbles around it. These bubbles'titles can pose questions such as Emotions?, Dialogue?, Setting?, Actions and Reactions?, Who are the people?, and Why is this a strong memory?.

[Summarized/adapted from "Using a Memory Web Chart to Write Poetry" by Christi McAuliffe and Guadalupe G. McCall in Classroom Notes Plus. Urbana, IL: National Council of Teachers of English. October 2001. pp.8-9.]

(2) "Copy Change Poetry" Any of the odes in Gary Soto's book would be great poems to do a"Copy Change" poetry assignment, in which students choose one of the odes about a memory that they share with the author, and then follow the same form, filling in their own memories. If they ran threw sprinklers as a child, for example, they can copy the "Ode to the Sprinkler" poem to tell about their own memory.

(3) "Teaching Theme" Discuss the themes in Gary Soto's poems, and then discuss themes in other books such as Sandra Cisneros'The House On Mango Street. Bring in 35 to 40 other children's books so that each student has one to read and pick out the theme. The students can then pass around the books and discuss the themes with one another.

[Summarized/adapted from "Teaching Theme Through Children's Books" by Judith Lewis in Ideas Plus. Urbana, IL: National Council of Teachers of English. Vol.15, p. 40. 1997.]

(4) "Poetry and Snapshot" Taking from Lea Ann Ponder's idea to use old photographs from the 1930s and 40s to introduce a unit on a novel set in that time period, starting with poetry. She begins by sharing the poetry collection that was inspired by photographs. Each poem tells a story suggested by one of the snapshots. After the introduction, students choose from old pictures the teacher has collected, and tell a story about either through poetry, short story, letter, newspaper article, or play, etc. In the same way, teachers can bring in photographs of magazine pictures to match the memories in Neighborhood Odes and introduce the poems that way. Then the students can either their own pictures from past events in their life, or find pictures from magazines that represent those memories and write a story, in any form, from those pictures. This activity can lead into a novel with a related theme.

[Summarized/adapted from "Snapshot Connections" by Lea Ann Ponder in Notes Plus. Urbana, Illinois: National Council of Teachers of English. October 2001. pp. 2-3.]

(5) "Poetry" The purpose of this activity is to help students of all ages understand and come to appreciate the role of poetry in our lives and to create and communicate through their own poetry. Materials: greeting cards, songbooks, books of nursery rhymes, books of poems for children, books of inspirational poetry, a variety of music, advertising that contains poetry, samples of sports cheers, and samples of mnemonic rhymes. First, display the items that use some form of poetry for the students to look over, and then start a discussion of the items and how each one might be used. Ask about students'memories of nursery rhymes, etc. As a class, make a list of all the uses people have for poetry, and how they think poetry may be useful in their lives. Neighborhood Odes is a great introductory book of poetry to start with following the activities mentioned above. Personal memories are often the easiest for students to write about, or the book can simply be an example of one way poetry is useful to people. In this case, the odes help the author express his feelings about his childhood, and they tell stories that enable the reader to better understand the author's memories.

[Summarized/adapted from "Poetry: You Can't Live Without It" by Karen Ogdahl in Notes Plus. Urbana, Illinois: National Council of Teachers of English. December 1995. P.6.]

(Review written by Brooke Turner and edited by Jennifer E. Moore)