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THE STATUS OF CHILDREN'S FICTION LITERATURE WRITTEN IN SPANISH BY U.S. AUTHORS Margarita Gonzalez-Jensen Arizona State University - West Campus Abstract
Hispanic student enrollment in schools increased between the period of 1980 to 1991 by 48% and the number of Spanish speaking children in the U. S. continues to grow (National Center for Education Statistics, 1993). The number of limited English speaking children whose home language is not English is estimated to be anywhere between 2 and 4 million. Of that number, 72.9% or about 1,682,560 children come from a Spanish language background (Fleischman & Hopstock, 1993). These school-aged children are placed in either bilingual, English as a second language, Spanish language or in regular English classrooms. Spanish language children's literature, therefore, should be an open market - growing and expanding in numerous literary directions. Unfortunately, there is little evidence of such growth. Children's literature in the last twenty years has undergone tremendous growth. However, during the 1980s, only 1.5% of all children's literature represented the African American group, and other minorities including Hispanic American groups fared even less well (Yokota, 1993, p. 157). The "1990 Notable Children's Books" list had no book about Hispanic Americans (Norton, 1990). If Spanish children's literature books follow today's population growth figures for Hispanics in the United States, then the public should have seen an increase in the number and availability of these products. However, during this same period and into the 1990s, the situation for children's books written in Spanish is discouraging. Yet, in spite of its still relatively small percentage, the amount of Spanish children's literature available in the United States in the last decade has grown (Schon, 1993). Much of this literature comes from Spanish speaking countries and a large amount represents translations of English works. Literature written in Spanish by Hispanics living in the United States is only slowly starting to appear. In an analogous illustration, this would be comparable to having children's literature in American schools authored and published only by the British, with no American authors represented. Several issues demand that this unreasonable situation be examined: (1) minority children should see their cultural and linguistic diversity reflected in the literature they read; (2) literacy programs should reflect diversity; and (3) minority authorship needs to be encouraged for the sake of authenticity. An issue being debated now (Barrera, 1992; González-Jensen & Sadler, 1997) deals with the importance of the cultural and linguistic origin of the authors who are writing in Spanish today. As Schon (1992) reports, there is a paucity of books that "reflect the cultural background, environment, thoughts, needs, and feelings of Spanish-speaking children and adolescents." Alma Flor Ada further substantiates the need for books that reflect the culture of children when she asserts,
In regard to the almost exclusive use of mainstream, non diverse literature- Barrera (1992) cautions, "... there is a marked cultural homogeneity to it all that renders the children's lives and experiences invisible" (p. 230). Therefore, as literature based programs in schools continue to grow there will be a larger need for culturally and linguistically relevant literature for Hispanic and other minority children to ensure equity for them in those programs. The author's ethnic background is closely linked to the issue of relevance, that is, a situation in which the child as reader can identify culturally with a story, setting or character in a piece of literature. Children from different cultures living the U.S. deserve stories written about them or their culture. Research regarding the effect of the author's ethnicity on the reading achievement of children, and the effectiveness of literature where the author's ethnicity and that of the characters match, is inconclusive (Harris, 1992; Yokota, 1993). Many researchers and educators believe that in many instances, literature written by an author whose ethnicity or cultural background does indeed match the children's ethnicity makes a significant impact on reading achievement. How does the literature in Spanish today rate in this regard? Close scrutiny of the seemingly abundant materials reveals how few actually reflect the Hispanic experiences of children in the United States. Referring to Mexican-American children's literature as a part of the total children's literature picture, Barrera (1992) characterizes it as "an absence". Most of the books published in the U.S. are Spanish translations of English works or Spanish originals from foreign countries. There are only a handful of Hispanic authors publishing in Spanish in this country (Mata-Palacio, 1993). Little has been done to report on the status of this Hispanic literary collection. This article will shed some light on this situation by answering the following questions. What genres of fictional books are being published? How many children's books in Spanish are being written by Hispanics? What topics are being addressed? And, what are the specific Hispanic roots of the authors? The Study In order to facilitate the review of books, this study was largely located at the Center for the Study of Books in Spanish for Children and Adolescents (the Center), located at California State University, San Marcos. This site was chosen since it has one of the largest and most comprehensive collections of Spanish books for children in the United States. For this study, only fictional books published between 1991 and 1995 in the United States and written originally in Spanish by Hispanic authors were reviewed. Also, only books appropriate for elementary school age children were reviewed. Using the Center's computer cataloging system, it was possible to access bibliographic information and to review the books for content and literary traits. Articles specifically written to recognize noteworthy children's books written in Spanish which appear at times in publications such as The Horn Book and Booklist were also perused in an effort to find additional titles. To determine which authors would be considered, it was necessary to define the term Hispanic. In this study, Hispanic refers to any individual who would identity himself/herself as such not only (Hispanic, Latino, etc.) but further as representative of a particular country of origin (Cuba, Mexico, etc.). It was also important for the authors to reside in the United States since familiarity with the country, language and culture was an essential criterion. Bilingual Books A certain number of books today are written in a bilingual format with the English and Spanish text appearing side by side. However, the only bilingual books that were included in this study, were those which were written bilingually by a Hispanic author or written originally in Spanish and later translated into English. Additionally, this study excluded non-fiction books, and books for non-school age children. Another source of Spanish books for school children comes from publishers that prepare literature-based or literacy programs for the educational market. The Center has some of these books in its collection, but it concentrates its acquisition efforts on trade books. This study is limited in scope by the above criteria and the almost exclusive use of holdings at the Center although several books were found in other libraries. Therefore, the books reviewed do not represent a complete list of trade books written in Spanish by Hispanic authors and published in the US, but the list comprises a large percentage of the books in this category. Genres and Book Levels Fictional stories can encompass a great diversity of topics presenting ideas in an interesting variety of formats. Most children's literature experts agree on several identifiable genres or types of literature categories. Norton (1983) lists approximately fourteen different literary genres that are available for children of all ages. They include fairytales, picture books, poetry, theater, fantasy, fiction, biography, animal stories, science fiction, mystery, and folk tales which can be further divided into legends, fables, and myths. Ideally, the literature available to children would include a careful balance of genres to appeal to the different age levels, and interests of the children. A computer generated catalog list of all books published in Spanish through U.S. publishers between 1991 and 1995 for elementary grades came to a total of 262 titles. After reviewing books limited by the criteria of this study, I found only 78 books appropriate for the study. My categorization of these books is provided in Table 1. Ninety-three percent (93%) of the books within this five-year period fell into three broad categories: picture books, realistic fiction and folk tales. The remaining books represented a minimal number of animal stories, and several books that contained combinations of poetry, riddles, songs, and rhymes. There were no books representing the genres of biography, fairy tales, science fiction, or mystery (see Table 1). Upon further examination, it was noted that the literature was almost exclusively written for the lower grades; topics and genres appropriate for elementary-age readers beyond thefourth grade were nearly non-existent. Table 1.Total of Genres represented
*Included books of songs and riddles
Books and Authors The number of books published in Spanish in the United States by Hispanic authors between 1991 and 1995 has remained relatively stable and small. During 1991 and 1992, a small number of writers authored approximately one book each. The only exception for almost every year is Alma Flor Ada who is a highly productive writer of children's literature in Spanish. A difference was noted during 1993 when there was a dramatic increase in both the number of both books and authors published in the U.S. A doubling in the number of books and authors from the previous two years occurred with 39 titles and 21 different authors. Unfortunately, this increase was only for that year and the subsequent years produced a number of books that was even smaller than in the earlier years (see Table 2). Table 2. Number of Books Published Originally in Spanish by Hispanic Authors Through U.S. Publishers
Ethnicity and Gender During the years represented by this study, it appears that women are writing the majority of children's literature in Spanish in the U.S. According to the list of authors (see Appendix) generated, 9 writers are males and 27 are females. Having noted the importance of making a cultural and linguistic match between the reader and the text, the different ethnic or cultural backgrounds of the authors were of particular interest in this research. Identifying the specific backgrounds of the authors was somewhat difficult. In some cases, the author's ethnicity was known to me, was given in the bookjacket information, or was obtained from the publishers; information on some was unavailable. Nevertheless, most of the authors' ethnicities were identified and they mirror the nation's larger Hispanic minority groups, with most of the books written by individuals of either Mexican, Cuban, or Puerto Rican descent. Twenty-one authors are of Mexican descent, three are of Cuban descent, and three are of Puerto Rican descent. The other authors whose ethnicity could be traced included one each of Peruvian, Panamanian, Uruguayan, Spanish and Colombian backgrounds. Discussion Book Genres A significant finding in this study was the high degree of imbalance among the genres of books available. Although picture books, realistic fiction and folktales are important genres in most elementary classrooms, the smaller number of books representing the other genres is frustrating for teachers wanting to use a literature-based program. Even if teachers used translations or books published in other countries, it still does not meet the criteria discussed earlier for these types of books in bilingual or other classrooms. As we look more and more to literature to help our bilingual children develop critical reading and thinking skills, we do not have the variety of literature in their native language that can help them achieve this end. Although exact readability measures were not performed on the books reviewed here, the largest percentage of books were appropriate for use in the lower grades. This paucity of higher readability level books is of particular concern since matching a child's reading level with a book's level, generally, results in more and deeper reading comprehension. Based on my findings, bilingual teachers working in schools with late exit or maintenance bilingual programs that place a strong emphasis on native language literacy will find few if any books appropriate for their students written by Hispanics living in the U.S. Books and Authors As has been noted previously, the number of Spanish language books is small in spite of a growing population of possible readers in the schools. However, upon close study, it should be recognized that the numbers are not "author balanced"; that is, some authors are writing many more books than others. For instance, one author wrote more than half of the titles for 1991. This imbalance is also the case for subsequent years as well with several other authors publishing multiple titles the same year (See Appendix). In an effort to see if the trend in publication numbers for the later part of the 90's decade is changing, a cursory review of books with the publication date of 1996 was done. The results were indeed discouraging. The Center lists 42 titles of Spanish books published in the U.S. for elementary school children. Of this total only one book was an original title written by an Hispanic. The bilingually formatted book is a counting book appropriate only for the lower primary grades. Therefore, it seems that the trends continue to predominate. Ethnicity and Gender Central to this investigation was the question of cultural and linguistic match between authors and their readership. It is evident that many more Hispanics from different ethnic backgrounds need to become involved in writing children's literature. Although the largest Spanish-speaking minority is of Mexican ancestry (Fleischman & Hopstock, 1993), relatively few of the children's books were written by members of this group. Further, the voices of other Spanish-speaking groups should be promoted through publications. Although translations are improving, nothing compares with an original story told by a person who shares the language, experiences, and feelings of the minority child. In addition to the issue of ethnicity, the low representation of male authors is also of concern. More minority males writing for children would help provide a different and balanced perspective in story telling. Although authors often write about characters of the opposite sex and children of both sexes are represented in the books, it nevertheless remains crucial for more males to talk to children through their books. For any child, but particularly for the Hispanic child doing author studies, more male authors would present a further example of role modeling possibilities. Implications Clearly there is a tremendous need for more Spanish children's literature written by Hispanics living in the United States. The findings of this study, which represent the first half of the 1990s, suggest that several critical issues be addressed. For the most part the teachers who use the literature in bilingual classrooms need to be aware of the situation and then strongly request their various needs to publishers and writers alike. Children in bilingual classrooms should have a balance of genres written in Spanish represented in the school libraries or their classroom library centers. Teachers should request more fairytales, fantasy, and poetry to help stimulate both the imagination and language of the bilingual students. Biographies, science fiction, and mystery stories suggest to children the possibilities of the human spirit, problem solving, enthusiasm and emotions and should also be petitioned. In this fashion, the wonderful variety that is literature could be presented to the children from writers who share their cultural and linguistic backgrounds. In addition, publishers and writers should be considering stories for the older readers. A definite need among bilingual teaching materials in all areas of the curriculum is evident at the upper elementary grades, but the lack of appropriate Spanish literature other than non-fiction is extensive. Bilingual teachers have noted this "hole" for years, yet little has been done to help remedy the situation. This need will only grow as our younger population continues to progress in the elementary schools. A final implication based on the findings of this study is the need to somehow attract more and different writers from the minority populations. While it is wonderful to have certain writers share their creativity through their stories, others should be encouraged to tell their stories too. More Hispanics of Mexican descent need to step forward and write for the many children who have the same language, culture and experiences that they had growing up. Perhaps publishers should be willing to take some risks and allow new authors to develop and grow in their writing skills, rather than simply promoting previously published authors. Finally, we should look to ourselves and encourage those among us who want to write to pursue this worthy purpose. It is important for individuals from minority groups who have stories to tell to put them down on paper and begin the process. Minorities should not sit back and let others speak to their children through story, but rather take on the challenge and do it themselves. It is time to call forth from our own ranks those potential authors and change the trends in Spanish children's literature for the twenty-first century. References Barrera, R. B. (1992). The cultural gap in literature-based literacy instruction. Education and Urban Society, 24, 227-243. Fleischman, H. L. & Hopstock, P. J. (1993). Descriptive study of services to limited English proficient students. Arlington, VA: Development Associates. González-Jensen, M. & Sadler, N. (1997). The status quo bias in multicultural literature used as read alouds. Equity in Education, 30, 27-31. Harris, V. J. (Ed.). (1992). Teaching multicultural literature in grades K-8. Norwood, MA: Christopher-Gorden Publishers. Mata-Palacio, M. (1993). Emergence of an Hispanic oasis in children's literature in the United States. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of San Francisco, San Francisco, California. National Center for Educational Statistics (1993). The condition of education. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education, Office of Educational Research and Improvement. Norton, D. E. (1983). Through the eyes of a child. Columbus, OH: Charles. Merrill Publishing Co. Norton, D. E. (1990, September). Teaching multicultural literature in the reading curriculum. The Reading Teacher, 44, 28-40. Perez, B. & Torres-Guzmán, M. (1992). Learning in two worlds. New York: Longman. Schon, I. (1992, January 1). Books in Spanish published in the US. Booklist, 836-837. Schon, I. (1993). Libros en español en Estados Unidos, Cuadernos de literatura infantil y juvenil. Barcelona, Spain, 69, 21-26. Yokota, J. (1993, March). Issues in selecting multicultural children's literature. Language Arts. 70, 156-167. Appendix Ethnic Background of Hispanic Children's Authors Writing in Spanish in The U.S. and Total of Titles
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