Unleashing Readers

“The Global Hunger and Migration Project”

When we began the Global Hunger and Migration Project, we wanted to understand why some 850,000 children and families were leaving their homes in Central America and coming to the United States to request asylum.  The journey to the U.S. is incredibly long: between 1200 and 2500 miles from the most common border crossing in Mexico to most destinations at the U.S. border. It is also incredibly dangerous, and the refugees know the dangers long before they set out on the journey.  They know all about the horrors of La Bestia (the train they will hop aboard for some of the way) and the people waiting to rob them and take advantage of them along the way.  They all know people who’ve made the journey – they’ve heard the stories.  Yet they come anyway.  Why?

We’re still learning a lot about that.  We’re learning about violence in their home countries and terrible choices their families are making in attempt to keep them safe.  We’re learning about food insecurity and despair (and about drought and climate change that is causing some of it).

We’re also learning how hard it is to know something well.  And how important it is to do the hard work of knowing something well.  My students learned early on just how complex the crisis is and that in order to make a difference on one aspect of it, we needed to understand how that one thing fits into the bigger picture.  We’ve also learned that failure is part of the process and we’ve had great ideas that we just couldn’t quite  figure out how to get off the ground.  But you can’t let fear of failure stop you from trying.

We’ve learned that we can make a difference.  All of us. When we work hard and bring out talents and creativity and passions to a project, and work together, we can do more than we ever thought possible.  We’re convinced – even more convinced now than when we started – that we can help make things just a little bit better. And that’s enough.

Mostly we’ve learned that it begins with empathy.  With meeting people who’ve made the journey. Most often this comes from reading stories and interviews and accounts of the journey.  But a spring break service-learning trip let some of my students meet and interact with refugees who had already made it to the United States.  My students have learned that though these refugees come from other countries and have different experiences and may speak a different language and share a different culture, they’re not all that different from you and me.  And when you meet these children and families, well, you want to do the hard work of knowing the situation well and making a difference.

We wanted you to meet some of the amazing children we met. Nando and Alessandra and Rodrigo and Laura are a lot like the children we met in our studies.  We hope when you meet them you will find where you want to make a difference.  Most of my students, like most of you, will not spend their lives working with refugees. I hope they’ve learned to love learning, and to love using what they know in the service of others. What do you want to learn to do well? How will you help others?

Published July 7th, 2020 by Six Foot Press

About the Book: Every year, roughly 50,000 unaccompanied minors arrive at the US/Mexico border to present themselves for asylum or related visas. The majority of these children are non-Mexicans fleeing the systemic violence of Central America’s “Northern Triangle”: Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala.

A Journey Toward Hope tells the story of Rodrigo, a 14-year-old escaping Honduran violence; Alessandra, a 10-year-old Guatemalan whose first language is Q’eqchi’; and the Salvadoran siblings Laura and Nando. Though their reasons for making the journey are different and the journey northward is perilous, the four children band together, finding strength in one another as they share the dreams of their past and the hopes for their future. Written in collaboration with Baylor University’s’ Social Innovation Collaborative, A Journey Toward Hope is a celebration of their humanity and an ode to the power of hope and connection even in the face of uncertainty and fear.

About the Authors: 

Victor Hinojosa, Ph.D., is Associate Professor of Political Science in the Honors Program at Baylor University where his primary research is in Latin American Politics and U.S.-Latin American relations. His articles have appeared in scholarly books and journals including Terrorism and Political Violence, Political Science Quarterly, the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, and the Mennonite Quarterly Review. Dr. Hinojosa currently directs the Global Hunger and Migration Project, a social innovation laboratory at Baylor University that is bringing together an interdisciplinary team of faculty and students to address the challenges of child migration from Mexico and the Northern Triangle of Central America (Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador).

Coert Voorhees is the author the novels On the Free, In Too Deep (2013 Junior Library Guild Selection), Lucky Fools (2012 Junior Library Guild Selection), and The Brothers Torres (2009 ALA Top Ten Best Books for Young Adults), as well as the picture book Storm Wrangler. He has been a Fulbright scholar in Chile and Visiting Writer in Residence at Rice University, and he now lives with his family in Houston, Texas.

Thank you for showing us how we can make a difference and what you are doing to do so also!

“The Truth Will Set You Free”

I’ve always had an affinity for Aesop’s Fables and Disney animated films. I suppose, in part, that’s why my debut Latinx middle grade novel Toro features talking animals as principal characters in a story suffused with moral lessons, conceived to entertain, inspire, and educate.

From age-old fables and fairy tales to Carlo Collodi’s Pinocchio to present-day fiction, lies and liars have always been present in children’s literature.

Lies are a part of the human condition, told, in the simplest terms, to seek pleasure or avoid pain. They can be used as both a sword and a shield, to prey upon or protect. The duality of lies never ceases to fascinate me. There are forgivable lies and unforgivable lies, harmless lies and harmful lies, selfless lies and selfish lies, big lies and little lies. To further confuse the matter, there are varying degrees of lies, gray areas, and subsets. There are survival lies, protective lies, cover-up lies, persuasive lies, lies by omission, and so on. Interestingly, the truth is singular in form—there’s only one truth—the truth. While some tales teach lessons by dealing liars their deserved punishments, others reward liars for using their cunning as a survival stratagem to outwit dangerous enemies.

Stories can help children understand the complex nature of lies and guide them to navigate those they will inevitably encounter, discern the good ones from the bad ones, and learn the value of honesty and the truth.

In my book Toro, Alicía Catalina Cortés is a Spanish cow who wants to run with the bulls in Pamplona to prove herself noble y bravo, which is noble and brave. Because she’s a cow, tradition and her overprotective father, Don Murciélago Cortés, forbid Alicía from the running of the bulls.

Diego Del Toro is a Spanish bull who’s always dreamed of becoming a star of the Texas rodeo. Because he’s a toro bravo, which is a fighting bull, tradition and his overbearing mother, Condesa Maria Del Toro, force Diego to run with the bulls.

When their paths cross, Alicía sees Diego as a means to an end. She tells him that four cowboys from Fort Worth, Texas are in Spain to recruit bulls for the rodeo (a lie). She promises to arrange a rodeo audition for him (another lie, as the cowboys are simply thrill-seeking tourists visiting Spain for the running of the bulls). In return, Diego allows Alicía to go to Pamplona in his place, disguised as him.

Alicía deceives Diego to achieve her goal of running with the bulls. At this point in the story, Diego is little more than a stranger to Alicía, and it’s easy for her to lie to him. Without understanding the consequences of her deception, her lies can initially be seen as cunning or resourceful, creative, and inventive. She’s not lying to hurt Diego. She’s lying to help herself, blinded by desire and fueled by imagination.

As the story progresses, Alicía grows closer to Diego, and her deception weighs upon her conscience. Her best friend and confidant, an Iberian lynx named Doña Madonna de Doñana, forces Alicía to face the grave repercussions of her lies. By misleading Diego, Alicía risks permanently ruining his life, robbing him of his dream of becoming a star of the rodeo and condemning him to a life in exile from his family for disgracing them by breaking their tradition of running with the bulls.

Alicía ultimately feels Diego is more important to her than her desire to run with the bulls. When her goal changes, her lies become a double-edged sword. The same lies that brought Alicía closer to what she thought she wanted, now drive Alicía further away from what she truly wants. Despite the terrible consequences she fears will befall her, Alicía chooses to embrace honesty and the all-conquering truth.

One of the underlying themes of Toro is that it’s best to be honest.

When a villain lies, we associate the behavior with villainy. But when a hero lies, we understand that even good people can make mistakes and be dishonest. Alicía is a flawed character who makes mistakes. However, she becomes an exemplary character when she takes responsibility for her mistakes, learns from them, and proactively makes amends.

Alicía’s lies teach children that actions and words should not always be taken at face value. Sometimes we must question another’s intentions, even if they’re as likable or central to our lives as a story’s protagonist.

Toro may be used as a starting point for conversations with children about honesty and how to handle situations regarding lies. The following are some additional thoughts to ponder or discuss after reading the book:

Try to identify all the lies in the story and determine which are told to seek pleasure versus avoid pain; e.g., though Alicía lies to Diego to seek pleasure by pursuing her goal, the first lie she tells in the story is intended to avoid pain by escaping a prearranged marriage to a character who will become the book’s central antagonist, Don Julián Hernández. Because of her lie, Alicía unknowingly sets the antagonistic force in motion.

Sometimes we lie to ourselves, as Don Julián lies to himself until story’s end. No good comes of this. Only when Don Julián accepts the truth can he find peace, happiness, and contentment.

Don Murciélago tells a protective lie to Alicía, but eventually he tells her the difficult truth. Could his lie be considered forgivable?

By masquerading as Diego, Alicía exhibits another form of lying, impersonation.

Doña Madonna—the embodiment of honesty and integrity—serves as Alicía’s moral compass and voice of reason. Notice her contrasting counterpart, Jesús de los Jabalíes. These are two of my favorite characters. They can look at the same situation and draw entirely different and opposed conclusions.

Lying and cunning are both deceptive, yet the former is considered a vice, the latter a virtue.

The truth always surfaces in Toro, often echoing the biblical adage “the truth will set you free.”

September 17th, 2020 from Black Rose Writing

About the Book: Alicía Catalina Cortés is a fast and fiery Spanish cow who desperately wants to run with the bulls in Pamplona—but since she’s a cow, tradition forbids her to partake in the fiesta of San Fermín. Through her journey, Alicía learns that to be noble and brave, she must follow her dream and her heart, even if it means defying tradition.

Andrew Avner’s debut Latinx middle grade novel Toro is a pocket testimonial to the female protagonist’s fight for equality and empowerment. It also represents and celebrates diverse experiences and identities.

Toro is set in the colorful backdrop of Pamplona, Spain during the fiesta of San Fermín and the running of the bulls, famed as one of the most exhilarating, dangerous, and spectacular events around the world. Ultimately, it’s a heartfelt, coming-of-age fable told from the cattle’s point of view. Like Charlotte’s Web, The Jungle Book, and Fantastic Mr. Fox, anthropomorphic talking animals drive the narrative.

About the Author: Andrew Avner graduated with honors from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Film and Television. After working in Manhattan with Academy Award-winning producer David Brown, Avner relocated to Los Angeles to develop his own original material. He’s currently writing and producing short films for The Walt Disney Company while penning his next novel. To learn more about the author and his work, please visit: www.andrewavner.com.

Thank you, Andrew, for this post on honesty and inspiration!