Vista Language Arts Lessons

  Jane Castillo-Los Angeles based artist with parents who immigrated from Columbia. "Hairball" Sculptures added to Castillo's personal journey  for developing her current art form. Castillo uses the symbolism and metaphor of hair as a marker of identity and gender; hair places you in the cultural hierarchy based upon the preferred color and straightness: you have either high hair or low hair.  To comment upon the large role hair plays in the life of its owner, Castillo makes huge hairballs of densely curled hair, formed painstakingly by hand, and then hung on ropes from the ceiling.  The hair is as artificial as the semiotic meaning of hair types, and, depending on its color, one ball can  knock the others about.  "Ecliptic Eccentricity" is a series of five large hairballs, four black and one blonde, a redesigned pendulum. The blonde hairball is on the end--position of power.  It can knock the  black ones around. Hair is a statement of artifice, t...

  Sandra Cisneros -novelist, poet, short story writer, artist, Chicago, Illinois 1954. Notable works: The House on Mango Street, Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories Cisneros' early life experience provides themes for her writing.  She is the only daughter in a family  six brothers.  Her family's constant migration between Mexico and United States made her feel like she was "always straddling two countries...but not belonging to either culture." Much of  Cisneros' writing deals with the formation of Chicana identity and the challenges of being of  Mexican descent in an Anglo-American culture. HAIRS Everybody in our family has different hair.  My Papa's hair is like a broom, all up in the air.  And me,  my hair is lazy. It never obeys barrettes or bands.  Carlos' hair is thick and straight.  He doesn't need  to comb it.  Nenny's hair is slippery-slides out of you hand.  And Kiki, who is the youngest, has hair  ...

Too Much Peanuts-Muchos Cacahuates I used to look forward to having my grandmother's capirotada in the early spring.  I didn't understand the religious/historical significance until I was a full grown-long-ago- college- graduate.  I recall one of the last times I had capirotada at my grandmother's house.  I was probably fifteen almost sixteen at the time.  The image was a kitchen  all in Irish plaid with dark shadows of the fall. The future shined through the living room window over the Early American sofa. The capirotada was still kind of the same-too many peanuts for me.  Almost every spoonful seemed like it was 80% peanuts-cacahuates.  When writing creatively it is okay to play with the grammar and combine different languages.    

  Memoirs are memories by an author that are based on their own world view.  These ideas can be seeds for the story that will be told.  Alberto Rios- Is an American author born in Nogales, Arizona a border town right on the edge of the Mexican border.  His father, Alberto Rios, Sr., was born in Mexico near the Guatemala border and his mother Agnes Fogg Rios, was born in England.  His parents met while Alberto Sr. was in the army during World War II.  Capirotada- Is a memoir by Alberto that describes his upbringing in Nogales, Arizona in the l950's-1960's. Capirotada is a Mexican dessert -like a bread pudding that is made of a melange of ingredients which vary based on the family.  It is usually served during lent.  The Lemon Story When I was about four, or maybe five, my parents bought a new house in what would become a small suburb of Nogales, Arizona on the border of Mexico, some four miles outside of town.  My father was born in Mexico, on...

  Embellishments-a detail, especially one that is not true, added to a statement or story to make it more interesting or entertaining... Stripped of her embellishments, the essence of her story and actual facts were disappointing. She claimed to have run 4 marathons last year but actually only ran one marathon and 3 10K's. saga: a long story of heroic achievement,  a long, involved story, account, or series of incidents The saga of my mother and father's engagement began when my parents where three years old. They claimed that they fell in love when my father hit my mother with a rock at the age of three.  My father said the my mother's three brother's tried to beat him up after witnessing the incident. (saga's are especially related to medieval prose narrative in Old Norse or Old Icelandic stories-Vikings) "Humans are storytelling beings who personally and collectively, lead storied lives. The study of stories provides insight into how individuals and families...

  "Frida y Diego Rivera", l931 oil painting created by Frida 2 years after Frida and Diego were married.  It is considered a wedding portrait.  Rivera is portrayed as a painter with his palette and Frida tilts her head towards him. They hold hands in the center of the portrait. Rivera is considerably larger than Frida. The pigeon in the upper right corner carries a banner that reads: "Here you see us, me Frida Kahlo with my dearest husband Diego Rivera." It was painted in San Francisco, California as a commission for Albert M. Bender, an art collector. The painting was donated by the collector to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) in San Francisco, California. There are many interpretations of this painting-what can you add to the story? a) a wife being proud of her husband and his success as an artist... section of "Dream of a Sunday Afternoon in Alameda Central Park", 1947 (Sueno de una tarde dominical en la Alameda Central) Museo Diego Rive...

                                              Leonora Carrington 1917-2011                                                       Self Portrait 1937 - Sporting white jodhpurs and a wild mane of hair, Carrington is perched on the edge of a chair in this curious dreamlike scene. Her hand is outstretched to the prancing hyena and behind her is a child's rocking horse in flight. The daughter of an English industrialist, she spent her childhood on a country estate surrounded by animals and reading fairy tales and legends.  She used her childhood experiences in her paintings. The white horse indoors and scene in the window serve as a symbolic surrogate. (jodhpurs -jaad-prz) close-fitting horseback riding pants inspired by Indian trousers-named...