“Pat, find the digital file of the five girls running for Homecoming Queen on that computer where you’re sitting,” their teacher said. “You and Javier will feed it into the broadcast this morning. You need to listen to cues so you can match the picture when Dylan and Omar announce each girl’s name. Don’t mess this up, gentlemen!”
As their teacher walked away, Pat said, “Ha ha! No pressure!”
“No pressure at all,” Javier replied, tapping his itchy foot.
FINALE
Pat:
Good morning, Guardians! Welcome to the last day of school! Oh, yeah! This is Patricio Berlanga.
Javier:
And this is Javier Ávila, and here are today’s announcements!
The votes are in! Congratulations to the new leadership in the Golden Guardian Marching Band. It’s no shock to anybody “in the know” that senior Robert Jones was selected as drum major. His assistant is a great surprise—drum roll, please! (Pause for finger drumming on the tables by everyone in the classroom.) The new assistant drum major is the one and only drummer boy, Andy Cardona. Congratulations and good luck!
Pat:
Hey, there’s more good news from the band. It appears new junior Ignacio Gómez had a successful audition last week and will play trumpet during the summer at Fiesta Noche del Río. Nobody plays a horn like my buddy Ignacio! Don’t miss the show!
Javier:
And a big salute to the graduating seniors in our media class who have big plans for next year. Dylan Romo and Omar Narsico are heading down Interstate Ten to play football for the UTSA Roadrunners! Ram Fierro is heading across town to play ball for the Cardinals of the University of the Incarnate Word.
Pat:
Hey, guys, stay away from those college keg parties! Brother Calvin prayed really hard to get your SAT scores up to speed.
And speaking of Brother Calvin, he wants me to announce that any students who failed a class must register for summer school in his office TODAY!
Don’t look for me standing in line behind Kenny García ‘cause I passed Ms. Maloney’s English class and all my other classes too. Not too shabby for the guy who used to sleep in class, right?
Javier:
That’s right! Now let’s give a bigger shout-out to my friend Pat Berlanga. He was selected as one of the student summer interns at Channel 12 news, and the other two juniors in our class, Landry Zúñiga and Steve Sifuentes, got summer jobs working cameras at Sea World.
So when you see that big image of Shamu on the jumbo screen, that’ll be one of our own Guardian students working the camera!
Pat:
Let’s not forget to give props to my buddy, Javier Ávila. His documentary film on the rebuilding of the Mendiola house earned him a spot at The Latino Filmmakers Workshop at the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center this summer.
Javier will spend two months learning about screenplay writing, film editing, and film design. He will make a lot more movies that we can show next year on Guardian TV. Ha ha! No pressure!
Javier:
Thanks a lot, friend! Hey, let’s give credit where credit is due.
I would never have made that documentary if it wasn’t for all of the Guardians who gave up their Saturdays to rebuild the house for Pat’s grandmother. You students and teachers who carried away trash, painted walls, and did all the sweaty work on her lawn and planted new trees and bushes really inspired me. Special thanks go to Mr. Seneca and his wheelchair basketball team members who painted all the inside baseboards and new fence posts.
I heard a rumor that next year the Monticello neighborhood Parade of Homes wants to include Mrs. Mendiola’s house on the tour. That’s pretty impressive!
Pat:
And that brings me to an announcement with a personal message. Don’t forget that everybody who worked on the project is invited to the Open House next Saturday at my abuelita’s house. Berlanga Motors is donating all the fajitas, sodas, and cake. Go, Dad! He was so surprised when the neighbors, the volunteer workers from Ávila construction, and our own Guardian families came together and rebuilt the house after the fire last September. On behalf of my grandmother, I tell you sincerely, muchas muchas gracias.
Javier:
Now we come to the last announcement of the day. Next month two of our Guardians faculty members are getting married. We are not allowed to tell you who they are, as we were threatened with Fs on our report cards if we spilled the frijoles, but let’s just say a happy congratulations and best wishes to two of our favorite teachers!
Pat:
This is Patricio Berlanga.
Javier:
And this is Javier Ávila, reminding all the Guardian students …
Pat:
… if you look at your new schedule on Orientation Day …
Javier:
… and you see the class called Media Broadcasting listed there …
Pat:
… we have only one word for you …
Together:
FANTASTIC!!
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Ideas for this novel developed slowly during the years my own children experienced high school. Originally, I wanted to write about my positive teaching experience at an all-boys high school in San Antonio. As a young English teacher, I helped coach the speech and debate teams at Holy Cross High School and saw public speaking give the Latino boys practical skills as well as great self-confidence. Going to speech tournaments and winning their events inspired the boys to choose college majors like journalism, public relations, and political science. More recently a Holy Cross education and experiences with speech activities helped my son Nick write and present his ideas at a contest in Washington DC that earned him a college scholarship. However, it was my daughter’s remarkable experience in the first Media Broadcasting class at Providence High School that inspired me to set this novel about speaking to an audience and building self-confidence into a more contemporary context.
My brothers, my sister, and I are the products of single-gender Catholic secondary education, as are my husband and my children. This novel is one way to honor the familial spirit and deeper sense of community that comes from sitting in a classroom with students of your own gender. Honest, open class discussions, developing closer bonds with teachers, and discovering new talents in a smaller school atmosphere has helped many San Antonio students who are educated in Catholic elementary and high schools to become strong scholars and exceptional leaders.
This novel wouldn’t have been finished if my daughter Suzanne didn’t remind me constantly to “trust the process,” the same advice I gave her when she struggled with a college essay. I am blessed by my writing friends, Carla, Kathy, Judy, Katy, and Lupe, valuable readers who offered honest criticism and encouragement. Friends like Mary Lynne, Kathleen, Melissa, Janie, and Marina let me vent when the writing stalled. Younger writers like Amanda King, Melissa Vela-Williamson, Suzanne Bertrand, and Nick Bertrand gave me ideas for revision that helped shape authentic characters. I also thank the student writers in my creative writing courses at St. Mary’s University who suspected the anonymous fiction scenes in the class workshop belonged to their professor but were still brave enough to write down honest feedback.
Finally, I want to give a shout out to Therese Fleming, an exceptional middle school teacher and a wonderful friend. She kept asking me to write another novel to share with “her kids.”
And as always, I am filled with deep love and gratitude when I think of all of my family, as well as the wonderful man who has been my husband, my best friend, and my source of laughter for thirty years. Nick calls me his star; he is my hero.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Diane Gonzales Bertrand began writing in fifth grade while she was a student at Little Flower School. She wrote plays and skits, poems to share with her family, and even composed her first novel inside a spiral notebook. She taught middle school and high school English for nine years before she stayed home with her young children and started graduate school at Our
Lady of the Lake University in 1989, after which she began to publish her poetry and essays in literary magazines. She desires to see more Latino families and their experiences represented in literature and writes the novels, picture books, and short story collections that she never found on bookshelves in the library when she was a child.
Diane was raised in an English-speaking home because bilingual books for children didn’t exist. She is proud that many of her books can be enjoyed by readers of both English and Spanish, encouraging children to retain both languages. A list of her books can be found at www.artepublicopress.com.
Diane is Writer-in-Residence at St. Mary’s University in San Antonio, Texas, where she teaches creative writing and English composition. She is married to Nick C. Bertrand, and they have two children, Nick and Suzanne, both recent college graduates. Diane is an author who visits schools and libraries across the country to share her books, to encourage more families to write their own stories, and to encourage everybody to turn off the television or computer and read a book instead.
* * *
Additional Piñata Books for Young Adults
* * *
Fitting In
Anilú Bernardo
2005, 208 pages, Trade Paperback
ISBN: 978-1-55885-437-6
$9.95, Ages 11 and up
Accelerated Reader Quiz #35022
Winner, 1997 Paterson Prize for
Books for Young People and the 1997 Skipping Stones
Honor Award
Available in Spanish as:
Quedando bien
Anilú Bernardo
Spanish translation by Rosario Sanmiguel
2006, 240 pages, Trade Paperback
ISBN: 978-1-55885-474-1, $9.95, Ages 11 and up
Trino’s Choice
Diane Gonzales Bertrand
1999, 128 pages, Trade Paperback
ISBN: 978-1-55885-268-6
$9.95, Ages 11 and up
Accelerated Reader Quiz #35007
Named to the 2001-2002 Texas Lone Star Reading List; “Best Book of the Year,” Young Adult category, ForeWord Magazine; and Recipient, Austin Writers’ League Teddy Award for Best Children’s Book
Available in Spanish as:
El dilema de Trino
Diane Gonzales Bertrand
Spanish translation by Julia Mercedes Castilla
2005, 144 pages, Trade Paperback
ISBN: 978-1-55885-458-1, $9.95, Ages 11 and up
Trino’s Time
Diane Gonzales Bertrand
2001, 176 pages, Trade Paperback
ISBN: 978-1-55885-317-1
$9.95, Ages 11 and up
Accelerated Reader Quiz #54653
Named to The New York Public Library’s Books
for the Teen Age 2002
Available in Spanish as:
El momento de Trino
Diane Gonzales Bertrand
Spanish translation by Rosario Sanmiguel
2006, 192 pages, Trade Paperback
ISBN: 978-1-55885-473-4, $9.95, Ages 11 and up
The Ruiz Street Kids
Los muchachos de la calle Ruiz
Diane Gonzales Bertrand
Spanish translation by
Gabriela Baeza Ventura
2006, 224 pages, Trade Paperback
ISBN: 978-1-55885-321-8
$9.95, Ages 8-12, Accelerated Reader Quiz
#113860
Recipient, 2007 Skipping Stones Honor Award; Winner, 2007 International Latino Book Award—Best Young Adult Fiction-Bilingual; and Finalist, 2007-2008 Tejas Star Book Award
Upside Down and Backwards
De cabeza y al revés
Diane Gonzales Bertrand
Spanish translation by Karina Hernández Line
drawings by Pauline Rodriguez
Howard
2004, 64 pages, Trade Paperback
ISBN: 978-1-55885-408-6
$9.95, Ages 8-12
Special Recognition, 2005 Paterson Prize for-Young People, and Finalist, 2005 Teddy Children’s Book Award
Desert Passage
P. S. Carrillo
2008, 192 pages, Trade Paperback
ISBN: 978-1-55885-517-5
$10.95, Ages 11 and up
Accelerated Reader Quiz #127758
El año de nuestra revolución Cuentos y poemas
Judith Ortiz Cofer
Spanish translation by Elena Olazagasti-
Segovia
2006, 128 pages, Trade Paperback
ISBN: 978-1-55885-472-7
$9.95, Ages 11 and up
Riding Low on the Streets of Gold
Latino Literature for Young Adults
Edited by Judith Ortiz Cofer
2003, 192 pages, Trade Paperback
ISBN: 978-1-55885-380-5
$14.95, Ages 11 and up
Windows into My World
Latino Youth Write Their Lives
Edited by Sarah Cortez
Introduction by Virgil Suárez
2007, 272 pages, Trade Paperback
ISBN: 978-1-55885-482-6
$14.95, Ages 16 and up
Recipient, 2008 Skipping Stones Honor Award
Chicken Foot Farm
Anne Estevis
2008, 160 pages, Trade Paperback
ISBN: 978-1-55885-505-2
$10.95, Ages 11 and up
Accelerated Reader Quiz #123847
Finalist, Texas Institute of Letters 2008 Literary Awards
Mi sueño de América
My American Dream
Yuliana Gallegos
English translation by Georgina Baeza
2007, 64 pages, Trade Paperback
ISBN: 978-1-55885-485-7
$9.95, Ages 8-12
Accelerated Reader Quiz #120117
Winner, International Latino Book Award—Best Young Adult Nonfiction–Bilingual
Rattling Chains and Other Stories for
Children
Ruido de cadenas y otros cuentos
para niños
Nasario García
2009, 160 pages, Trade Paperback
ISBN: 978-1-55885-544-1
$9.95, Ages 8-12
Creepy Creatures and Other Cucuys
Xavier Garza
2004, 144 pages, Trade Paperback
ISBN: 978-1-55885-410-9
$9.95, Ages 11 and up
A So-Called Vacation
Genaro González
2009, 192 pages, Trade Paperback
ISBN-13: 978-1-55885-545-8
$10.95, Ages 14 and up
The Throwaway Piece
Jo Ann Yolanda Hernández
2006, 192 pages, Trade Paperback
ISBN: 978-1-55885-353-9
$9.95, Ages 11 and up
Accelerated Reader Quiz #108531
Winner, 2007 Paterson Prize for Books for Young People, Finalist; ForeWord Magazine’s Best Book of the Year 2006; Named to The New York Public Library’s Books for the Teen Age 2007; and Winner, University of California, Irvine’s Chicano / Latino Literary Prize
The Truth about Las Mariposas
Ofelia Dumas Lachtman
2007, 144 pages, Trade Paperback
ISBN: 978-1-55885-494-9
$9.95, Ages 11 and up
Versos sencillos / Simple Verses
José Martí
English translation by Manuel A. Tellechea
1997, 128 pages, Trade Paperback
ISBN: 978-1-55885-204-4
$12.95, Ages 11 and up
Named to the 1999–2000 Houston Area Independent School Library Network Recommended Reading List
My Own True Name: New and
Selected Poems for Young Adults,
1984–1999
Pat Mora
Drawings by Anthony Accardo
2000, 96 pages, Trade Paperback
ISBN: 978-1-55885-292-1
$11.95, Ages 11 and up
Accelerated Reader Quiz #47265
Brujas, lechuzas y espantos
>
Witches, Owls and Spooks
Alonso M. Perales
English translation by John Pluecker
2008, 96 pages, Trade Paperback
ISBN: 978-1-55885-512-0
$9.95, Ages 8-12
The Case of the Pen Gone Missing
El caso de la pluma perdida
A Mickey Rangel Mystery
Colección Mickey Rangel, detective
privado
René Saldaña, Jr.
Spanish translation by Carolina Villarroel
2009, 96 pages, Trade Paperback
ISBN: 978-1-55885-555-7
$9.95, Ages 8-12
Teen Angel
A Roosevelt High School Series Book
Gloria Velásquez
2003, 160 pages, Trade Paperback
ISBN: 978-1-55885-391-1
$9.95, Ages 11 and up
Accelerated Reader Quiz #85593
Tyrone’s Betrayal
A Roosevelt High School Series Book
Gloria Velásquez
2006, 144 pages, Trade Paperback
ISBN: 978-1-55885-465-9
$9.95, Ages 11 and up
Accelerated Reader Quiz #110766
The Almost Murder and Other
Stories
Theresa Saldana
2008, 144 pages, Trade Paperback
ISBN: 978-1-55885-507-6
$10.95, Ages 11 and up
Alamo Wars
Ray Villareal
2008, 192 pages, Trade Paperback
ISBN: 978-1-55885-513-7
$10.95, Ages 11 and up
Accelerated Reader Quiz #123846
My Father, the Angel of Death
Ray Villareal
2006, 192 pages, Trade Paperback
ISBN: 978-1-55885-466-6
$9.95, Ages 11 and up
Accelerated Reader Quiz #110738
Named to The New York Public Library’s Books for the Teen Age 2007, and Nominated, 2008-2009 Texas Library Association’s Lone Star Reading List
The F Factor Page 21