Archive for April, 2018

Sliding Into Home by Nina Vincent

Saturday, April 28th, 2018

My dear friend and fellow Guatmama, Nina Vincent, has published her first book! Sliding Into Home features protagonist Felipe “Flip” Simpson, born in Guatemala and adopted to a white family in California. From the Amazon listing:

“Thirteen-year-old Flip Simpson’s ideal life just began to crumble. His adoptive parents are splitting up. He’s moving from the only home he’s ever known. He has to leave before his baseball team finishes the playoffs. And his little sister is his only companion. Flip folds under the weight of so much loss until he meets Ricki, an indigenous classmate who loves baseball and gives Flip a sense of pride in his Mayan roots and Zorba, an eccentric houseboat dweller who is a cross between The Cat in the Hat and Willy Wonka.”

The novel is suitable for middle-grade readers; I’ve bought a copy for my high-school daughter, as well. Sliding Into Home is cause for celebration: Kids love to see themselves reflected in books. Congratulations, Nina!

ShareThis

Certificate of Citizenship, again

Tuesday, April 24th, 2018

RE: Camp Hill district judge calls immigration on two couples getting married

Friends have posted this elsewhere, but I’m also posting because it’s so very important. A young man, Alexander Curtis Parker, was born in Guatemala and adopted by an American family at 8 months old. Now 21, Parker showed up at a Pennsylvania courthouse with his fiancé, to go before a judge to get married. The judge asked Parker for proof of citizenship. (Presumably because Parker’s skin is brown and he looks like someone born in Guatemala.) Parker explained he’s a Permanent Resident with a green card that’s in process of being renewed. Technically, though, at that moment, Parker was “undocumented” with his green-card status in process.

ICE was called. Parker was fingerprinted. On his wedding day. The miracle of the story is that ICE backed-off. Read the article for details.

Friends: Don’t let this happen to your Guatemalan-born child or children! If you do nothing else today, make sure you possess a Certificate of Citizenship for your kids. A Certificate of Citizenship never expires and is the only absolute proof of citizenship.

Thank you. The end.

ShareThis

Road trip to Arizona

Friday, April 13th, 2018

Over Spring Break, we drove 1,000+ miles through the state of Arizona: Phoenix, Sedona, Slide Rock, Grand Canyon, Four Corners, Riverbend, the Navajo sacred lands of Monument Valley and Canyon de Chelly, Painted Desert, Petrified Forest, and the Big Crater somewhere outside Flagstaff. It was the first time we’d been to most of those places, and let me tell you, the landscapes are breathtaking. Arizona is gorgeous!

Every day was magnificent, but the kids especially loved our Jeep tour through Canyon de Chelly with our Navajo guide, Oscar Bia. Olivia said she liked visiting Arizona because it’s so different from California. “It’s like going to another country,” she said. “Except everyone speaks English.”

 

 

 

ShareThis