WEBVTT 1 00:00:04.160 --> 00:00:06.180 Hi, my name is Jenny Torres Sanchez 2 00:00:06.180 --> 00:00:09.570 and I am the author of "We Are Not from Here". 3 00:00:09.570 --> 00:00:12.310 This is a book about three teens from Guatemala 4 00:00:12.310 --> 00:00:15.020 who find themselves in a very dangerous situation 5 00:00:15.020 --> 00:00:18.450 in their home country and feel that their only hope 6 00:00:18.450 --> 00:00:20.750 to survive is to flee. 7 00:00:20.750 --> 00:00:23.770 They do this by traveling on La Bestia 8 00:00:23.770 --> 00:00:26.800 which is a series of trains that runs through Mexico 9 00:00:26.800 --> 00:00:28.730 up to the U.S. southern border. 10 00:00:28.730 --> 00:00:32.980 It's an incredibly dangerous journey 11 00:00:32.980 --> 00:00:37.083 but it is the only option that these three teens have. 12 00:00:38.820 --> 00:00:41.760 I feel like "We Are Not from Here" is a book 13 00:00:41.760 --> 00:00:45.360 that would really connect with students today. 14 00:00:45.360 --> 00:00:50.350 It makes literature something that is current. 15 00:00:51.520 --> 00:00:54.620 It is talking about the world they live in, 16 00:00:54.620 --> 00:00:56.380 it is talking about the world 17 00:00:56.380 --> 00:00:59.260 as seen through the eyes of a teenager, 18 00:00:59.260 --> 00:01:03.060 it's talking about what is happening now. 19 00:01:03.060 --> 00:01:05.190 So I really feel like this is a book that takes 20 00:01:05.190 --> 00:01:08.670 the humanitarian crisis that students are hearing 21 00:01:08.670 --> 00:01:11.710 about in the news and it puts it in their hands, 22 00:01:11.710 --> 00:01:15.570 and it makes it a very personal story that 23 00:01:15.570 --> 00:01:19.203 I feel like has the potential to really touch their hearts. 24 00:01:23.310 --> 00:01:27.070 My experience in the classroom definitely impacts 25 00:01:27.070 --> 00:01:29.440 how I approach writing. 26 00:01:29.440 --> 00:01:33.620 When I taught in my classroom, I saw my students really get 27 00:01:33.620 --> 00:01:37.160 excited about literature when they could connect to it. 28 00:01:37.160 --> 00:01:40.040 I saw them really get excited about literature 29 00:01:40.040 --> 00:01:44.530 when it dared to speak to truth, right? 30 00:01:44.530 --> 00:01:49.530 When we could talk about topics like racism, and classism, 31 00:01:50.510 --> 00:01:55.510 and privilege, and sexual assault, and all those struggles, 32 00:01:55.900 --> 00:01:59.050 when we could get into those heavy topics, 33 00:01:59.050 --> 00:02:02.010 they really participated in that. 34 00:02:02.010 --> 00:02:04.120 I think they appreciated that there was a place 35 00:02:04.120 --> 00:02:06.740 where we could discuss those things. 36 00:02:06.740 --> 00:02:10.920 So in my books I always feel a need to be honest 37 00:02:10.920 --> 00:02:14.010 with my reader, I always feel a need to tackle 38 00:02:14.010 --> 00:02:17.560 those hard truths that may be not a lot of people 39 00:02:17.560 --> 00:02:21.587 wanna talk about, or maybe a lot of people 40 00:02:21.587 --> 00:02:24.763 that young adults encounter, 41 00:02:27.130 --> 00:02:30.350 don't wanna delve deeply into. 42 00:02:30.350 --> 00:02:32.750 So in my books I do. 43 00:02:32.750 --> 00:02:34.660 I talk about all those things 44 00:02:34.660 --> 00:02:38.234 and "We Are Not from Here" was definitely no different. 45 00:02:38.234 --> 00:02:42.780 There's a lot of heaviness in that book. 46 00:02:42.780 --> 00:02:46.240 And teaching really showed me that teenagers 47 00:02:46.240 --> 00:02:49.733 could handle that and that they really appreciated that. 48 00:02:53.340 --> 00:02:56.167 If I were back in the classroom and I were teaching 49 00:02:56.167 --> 00:02:58.740 "We Are Not from Here", there are so many ways 50 00:02:58.740 --> 00:03:00.890 that I'd love to use it. 51 00:03:00.890 --> 00:03:04.480 I'd love to have students do character studies 52 00:03:04.480 --> 00:03:09.280 and really delve into how all of these characters are going 53 00:03:09.280 --> 00:03:13.090 through something so similar and very same journey even, 54 00:03:13.090 --> 00:03:16.930 but they are experiencing it in such different ways 55 00:03:16.930 --> 00:03:19.550 and how does that come across in the book. 56 00:03:19.550 --> 00:03:23.810 And what characters they relate to the most and why, 57 00:03:23.810 --> 00:03:26.980 and have them write essays about that. 58 00:03:26.980 --> 00:03:31.980 I'd love to discuss symbolism and imagery in the book. 59 00:03:32.250 --> 00:03:35.850 I'd love to bring music and art into it. 60 00:03:35.850 --> 00:03:39.710 What would this soundtrack to this book sound like? 61 00:03:39.710 --> 00:03:43.550 What would be the soundtrack of characters' life 62 00:03:43.550 --> 00:03:46.283 and what, what songs would speak to their heart? 63 00:03:47.840 --> 00:03:51.440 How does color play into the book? 64 00:03:51.440 --> 00:03:56.120 And Pulga always looking for color and beauty in the world. 65 00:03:56.120 --> 00:04:01.091 I love to do, love, love, love to do a unit with poetry. 66 00:04:01.091 --> 00:04:05.970 Poems about, you know, resistance. 67 00:04:05.970 --> 00:04:10.970 I'd love to have poetry by poets like Langston Hughes 68 00:04:11.110 --> 00:04:13.380 and Juan Felipe Herrera, 69 00:04:13.380 --> 00:04:16.093 his poem is at the very beginning of the book, 70 00:04:17.440 --> 00:04:22.360 Javier Zamora, and Emmy Pérez, and Maya Angelou. 71 00:04:22.360 --> 00:04:25.780 And I just think it would be a really, really great way 72 00:04:25.780 --> 00:04:29.530 for students to discuss this book hand in hand 73 00:04:29.530 --> 00:04:33.033 with poetry and try writing their own poems as well. 74 00:04:34.420 --> 00:04:36.480 So those are some ways I would use it in the classroom. 75 00:04:36.480 --> 00:04:39.550 I think that there's a lot of opportunity 76 00:04:39.550 --> 00:04:44.070 to, a lot there to discuss. 77 00:04:44.070 --> 00:04:47.020 And of course, I love the the teaching guide 78 00:04:47.020 --> 00:04:50.360 that Julia Torres did for this book, it's amazing. 79 00:04:50.360 --> 00:04:55.360 It delves into so many things that students can look into. 80 00:04:55.500 --> 00:04:57.183 So definitely check that out.