Customer Reviews

Hispanic American Firsts (Hispanic Firsts)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

My father is in the habit of giving me books every time I visit, and this book by Nicolas Kanellos was one of them. It has proven handy when I need a quick fact to make a point or for confirmation. The book's excerpted entries are each listed with the reference source immediately following (author, title, page).

The book lists Hispanic firsts in the U.S. in 14 subject areas (Arts & Design, Business & Commerce, Education, and so on in alphabetical order). Especially important entries are in shadow boxes. BW photos and illus. draw your attention to other entries. A 4'7"-long events timeline folds out from inside the front cover. It can be carefully removed, laminated, and tacked onto a wall. A calendar of firsts flags birthdays of notables and anniversaries of significant events. In addition to the usual subject index, you'll find an index of firsts by year (1493-1997).

The theater section was of special interest to me. Several years ago I met Kanellos at a grassroots theater conference at Cornell. While there, I and a few others were drafted by him to present vaudeville sketches from early Hispanic theater. You can find an entry in HISPANIC FIRSTS (pp. 321-22) that points out the first history of Hispanic theater in the U.S. was written by Kanellos himself. He's done a lot of other awe-inspiring things, but you can consult the book for those.

While Kanellos excerpted material from many sources, five books stood out:

1) Kanellos's CHRONOLOGY OF HISPANIC AMERICAN HISTORY: FROM PRE-COLUMBIAN TIMES TO THE PRESENT;

2) Kanellos's THE HISPANIC AMERICAN ALMANAC;

3) Joseph Tardiff & L. Mpho Mabunda's DICTIONARY OF HISPANIC BIOGRAPHY;

4) Diane Telgen & Jim Kamp's LATINAS! WOMEN OF ACHIEVEMENT; and

5) Matt Meier & Feliciano Rivera's DICTIONARY OF MEXICAN AMERICAN HISTORY.

Did you know that Spanish Florida offered sanctuary to runaway slaves as early as 1693? That the first farmworkers union was created by Mexican and Japanese laborers in 1903? That a successful 1945 lawsuit against the segregation of Mexican children in Orange County, Calif., paved the way for the landmark "Brown v. Board of Education"? Just a few facts from this book.