Last week in class we were asked to look at both a picture book and a chapter book that represented the Latino/Latina culture in one way or another. My partner and I chose to look at Chato's Kitchen by Gary Soto. After reading this book I was completely speechless. I could not even believe what I had just seen. The pictures in that book seemed very stereotypical to the culture. The cats were wearing bandannas and wife beaters under flannel shirts, while some also had gold teeth and crosses on long chains. Even to me these images were offensive so I wonder how people from the Latino culture responded to this book. The fact that it got an award for the illustrations just boggles my mind and makes me question whether the pictures are actually a valid representation that the culture wants people to have of them.
The positive aspects to this book is that is contains Spanish words that don't seem to be too out of place within the text. The story also talks about specific foods that are eaten within the culture. But, I am still unsure of whether I would even put this book in my classroom library. I don't even think I would want to use it as a learning tool because I see it as being very offensive to the culture as a whole.
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Annie, I'm right there with you as far as Chato's Kitchen goes. I was BLOWN AWAY that it had actually won an award, and it was written by a really prestigious author. I think that, while some of those things represented in the illustrations were typical and indicative of a culture, I think they were overused to the point of stereotyping. It is really troubling that it won an award, and it really makes me question how much I think I know about stereotypes and quality literature/illustrations.
-Kate
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