Adult English Class Writing Project: Our Cultural Traditions and Family Memories
In the introduction to the bilingual children’s book, Family Pictures, writer Sandra Cisneros says, “They say every picture tells a story. But the pictures of Carmen Lomas Garza tell many, many stories.” When the Level 2 adult English students in our Aprendamos Juntos (We Learn Together) family education program opened their copies of Lomas Garza’s book and were asked, “Which picture reminds you of home and why?,” they had stories to tell. Her evocative paintings sparked memories of visiting the local fair in Oaxaca, spending a lazy Sunday afternoon on a beach south of Acapulco, or picking oranges at a grandparents’ house in rural Honduras.
The class used the vignettes in Family Pictures as a jumping off point for telling and writing their own stories. Read their stories in the class booklet, “Our Cultural Traditions and Family Memories, ” HERE
In response to the question, “What cultural tradition or family memory do you want to share with your children?” some adult learners wrote about traditions spread wide across Latin America, like Dia de los Muertos or Las Posadas, while others described cultural celebrations specific to a region, like the beautiful La Rama celebration of Veracruz, in which children find and decorate a branch, then travel from home to home playing music and singing in exchange for small gifts of cash. Still others wrote about personal family traditions, such as the grandparents’ birthdays which fell only a day apart each December, giving the student’s family a reason to throw an annual party lasting two whole days!
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