Voices
Voces

Book Descrip­tion

This book includes the biogra­phies of three very dif­fer­ent indi­vid­u­als, each a remark­able con­trib­u­tor to her/her society.

Play­wright, screen­writer, and direc­tor Luis Valdez began his life as a farm worker but he held onto his dreams. Hold­ing onto our dreams is one of the keys to suc­cess. Hop aboard as we accom­pany mural­ist Judith Fran­cisca Baca, and the per­son who dis­cov­ered the cause of yel­low fever, and Doc­tor Car­los Juan Fin­lay, from their hum­ble begin­nings to their incred­i­ble accomplishments.

Author’s Note

José Martí, extra­or­di­nary writer and excep­tional human being, liked to say “Hon­rar, honra” imply­ing that when we honor those who deserve it, we some­how par­take of the honor. His mes­sage that it is impor­tant to honor those who have open roads that we now travel has inspired this biog­ra­phy series.

Alma Flor and I would like chil­dren to real­ize that the peo­ple we admire earned that admi­ra­tion as they faced life with courage and dig­nity, deter­mined not to be stopped by dif­fi­cul­ties, but con­sis­tently fol­low­ing their dreams.

It is our great hope that chil­dren will rec­og­nize that hum­ble begin­nings or phys­i­cal lim­i­ta­tions, while cre­at­ing unques­tion­able chal­lenges, should not be seen as impos­si­ble bar­ri­ers, and that these biogra­phies will be for them an inspiration.