That's Not Fair!: Emma Tenayuca's Struggle for Justice: ¡No Es Justo!: La Lucha de Emma Tenayuca Por La Justicia (Bilingual English/Spanish)
by Carmen Tafolla (Author) Terry Ybanez (Illustrator)
Emma aprende a preocuparse profundamente por la pobreza y el hambre durante una época en que muchos mexicoamericanos se morían de hambre y trabajaban horas irrazonablemente largas con salarios de esclavos en las fábricas de cáscara de nuez de la ciudad. A través de la percepción astuta, el cuidado y la acción personal, Emma comienza a involucrarse y eventualmente, a la edad de 21 años, lidera a 12,000 trabajadores en la primera acción histórica significativa en la lucha por la justicia mexicano-estadounidense. La historia de Emma Tenayuca sirve como modelo para jóvenes y mayores sobre el coraje, la compasión y el papel que todos pueden desempeñar para hacer que el mundo sea más justo.
Emma learns to care deeply about poverty and hunger during a time when many Mexican Americans were starving to death and working unreasonably long hours at slave wages in the city's pecan-shelling factories. Through astute perception, caring, and personal action, Emma begins to get involved, and eventually, at the age of 21, leads 12,000 workers in the first significant historical action in the Mexican-American struggle for justice. Emma Tenayuca's story serves as a model for young and old alike about courage, compassion, and the role everyone can play in making the world more fair.
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School Library Journal
Gr 2-6 The title of this bilingual biography echoes the theme of the life of a legendary Mexican-American activist in Texas during the 1920s and 1930s. The story moves from Tenayuca's childhood introduction to the poverty and unfair treatment of Mexican Americans living in her hometown of San Antonio to her increasing awareness of the injustice they suffered, and ultimate fight for their civil rights. Their plight made her angry: "She saw so many people go to work when it was still dark and not come home again until late at night. Many worked so many hours that they were coughing and sick, and still they did not earn enough to feed their children." In 1938, at the age of 21, she led a successful strike of 12,000 pecan shellers whose pitiful wages had been cut from six cents to three cents an hour. In an afterword, which includes photographs of Tenayuca, the rest of her story is related: jailed many times, forced to move, she eventually worked her way through college and returned later to San Francisco as a reading teacher for migrant children. Sstriking illustrations, framed by pecan-tree branches, are reflective of traditional Mexican mural art, with bold colors and simple shapes. An important book celebrating the struggle for justice and civil rights.
Lee Bock, Glenbrook Elementary School, Pulaski, WI
Copyright 2009 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
Review quotes
JNF007000 - Juvenile Nonfiction | Biography & Autobiography | General
JNF025110 - Juvenile Nonfiction | History | Mexico
Women
Spanish language materials
Bilingual
Labor leaders
Women labor leaders
Tenayuca, Emma
