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Indian Youth Reach Deep
Writing program helps boost student confidence By Rhonda Bodfield Bloom Fourth-grader Cruz Yucupicio tells a marvelous story about a handsome little boy named . . . well, Cruz . . . who finds a magic gill and goes to live under the water. He writes of an ocean that tastes like saladitos, the mouth-puckering salted plums of Latino tradition. Ultimately, the boy misses his mother and comes back to find that his teacher, of all things, has been arrested. In the end, the boy can speak to fish. And sometimes, he can still hear the ocean. There's a good chance these images would have remained locked in the 10-year-old's brain had it not been for ArtsReach, a nonprofit program dedicated to increasing the positive self-image of American Indian students through creative writing. Local writers hold workshops at four local schools with a population of at least 45 percent American Indian students. Although the program has been around since 1987 - when it began at schools in the Old Pascua Yaqui community and the Tohono O'odham reservation - it's kept a fairly low profile, run largely with the aid of volunteers and small grant funding. Every year, student work is published. This is the first year that ArtsReach abandoned its tradition of writing in magazine form, and instead, opted for a book format, aided with grants by Desert Diamond Casino and the Tucson Pima Arts Council. The new book, "Dancing with the Wind," was released in September with contributions by more than 200 students. Proceeds from the sale of the $7 book will be used to publish next year's book. Cruz attends Richey Elementary School in a Downtown-area neighborhood called Old Pascua, populated predominantly by Yaqui Indians. He is the third in his family to participate in the program. An older brother and sister - now in high school and college - both took part in it. He said he used to think writing was boring, but then he changed his mind. "There's no one telling you what to do when you write," Cruz said, adding he hopes to be a baseball player some day, but figures he might be a writer if he injures himself and can no longer play. Cruz, who said he was inspired to write his story while looking at the family pool, said he was pretty excited to be published in a book and to read his work out loud to an audience at the book-launch party in October. "I was nervous because I thought I was going to mess up," he said. Instead, he made people laugh, and he liked that. ArtsReach Director Nancy Young Wright said the program is predicated on the idea that American Indian and minority children should be encouraged to write about things that matter to them. Writing often doesn't come naturally in the culture, one that had traditionally been oral. "We're trying to help them find their own voice so they can tell their own stories without having to censor what they have to say," Young Wright said. Laura Tohe, a Navajo poet and and professor at Arizona State University, served as editor of the book this year, calling some of the pieces "simultaneously beautiful and brutal." The work by Maria Escalante, 10, a fourth-grader at Mission View Elementary School, might fit that bill. In her piece, "Where I Come From," she wrote about a place called Tucson where dogs lick her face in the morning, where she hears gun shots, where she eats eggs and calavasas, and where roadrunners are considered bad luck. Maria learned to like writing because of the program, she said, and her writing has in turn helped her with spelling and other schoolwork. "I had to think and I got to look at pictures in my head," she said. It helped, she said, when the instructor told her she didn't have to rhyme. She's decided that it's harder to write stories than poems. She has to be much more precise with her punctuation. For one recent story, she sat down to work with an instructor on a childhood memory of a swimming pool. The rough outline focused on the fact she was scared when her family took her to the pool at Kennedy Park for the first time when she was 6. "I'd never seen that much water all in one place before," she said. Prompted to think about what the water looked like to her and what it felt like to her, she was soon burning up the paper. And who knows? With a little encouragement, we may someday hear more stories about pools, beyond fear and magic gills. Excerpts from "Dancing With the Wind," written by students from ArtsReach participating schools: Baboquivari High School,Baboquivari Middle School, Indian Oasis Intermediate, Mission View Elementary, Richey Elementary and Ha:San Preparatory and Leadership School. Richard Looks at Girls I was hiding on the roof. I saw the girls playing toka. You hold the stick hit it with a rock. I was eating a peanut butter sandwich and I was happy. Richard Puffer, grade 4 Mad I feel mad like the Hulk strong and green like someone came and vacuumed all the happiness out of me. I feel so mad I feel like tearing a building in half and eating the whole thing. Teresa Lopez, grade 4 Brown Brown as the desert people dancing in a circle. Brown as the dry ground we stand on. Brown as wood brown as a tree trunk in the desert. Brown as the desert sand. Brown as an adobe house where desert people live. Tianna Aguilla, grade 3 Sad I feel sad like a piece of paper lying on the desk, I want someone to write on me but they throw me away. Anna Stacia Savage, grade 4 About the Desert What does it mean to be Tohono O'odham? It means to be a dancer to be a ha:san standing high in the sky, standing brave and tall like a coyote. Being a singer to sing out loud being the desert with my strong, wonderful plants and cold mountains. Come to the desert. It is exciting. Sara Ventura, grade 4 When my Nana Makes Tortillas When my nana makes tortillas they smell like fresh bread. I see her making the dough, rolling the dough, putting the dough on the stove. She flips them over. They start to get bubbly and they start to get black spots on them and when one is done she gets another one. When I taste one they are soft and buttery. Heriberto Gastellum, grade 4 ● Contact reporter Rhonda Bodfield Bloom at 807-8031 or rbloom@azstarnet.com. |