​Becoming Beloved Community invites you to consider these activities for Hispanic Heritage Month

Beloved Community works to create opportunities where we can build beloved community through relationships with our neighbors, hearing their stories and lived experiences in Sonoma County. Our goal is to build relationships and pursue wholeness and kindness individually and collectively. We strive to understand for the sake of the flourishing of the greater whole and for the end of all forms of domination and oppression that diminish the children of God through books, field trips and building relationships

Book suggestions

Solito by Javier Zamora

ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The New York Times Book Review, NPR, The Washington Post, San Francisco Chronicle, Vulture, She Reads, Kirkus Reviews

Trip. My parents started using that word about a year ago—“one day, you’ll take a trip to be with us. Like an adventure.”

Javier Zamora’s adventure is a three-thousand-mile journey from his small town in El Salvador, through Guatemala and Mexico, and across the U.S. border. He will leave behind his beloved aunt and grandparents to reunite with a mother who left four years ago and a father he barely remembers. Traveling alone amid a group of strangers and a “coyote” hired to lead them to safety, Javier expects his trip to last two short weeks.

At nine years old, all Javier can imagine is rushing into his parents’ arms, snuggling in bed between them, and living under the same roof again. He cannot foresee the perilous boat trips, relentless desert treks, pointed guns, arrests and deceptions that await him; nor can he know that those two weeks will expand into two life-altering months alongside fellow migrants who will come to encircle him like an unexpected family.

A memoir as gripping as it is moving, Solito provides an immediate and intimate account not only of a treacherous and near-impossible journey, but also of the miraculous kindness and love delivered at the most unexpected moments. Solito is Javier Zamora’s story, but it’s also the story of millions of others who had no choice but to leave home. Book discussion with the author in November https://libraryc.org/sonomalibrary/60163/register

Bird of Four Hundred Voices by Eugene Rodriguez

Joyously challenge cultural borders with Eugene Rodriguez, author of Bird of Four Hundred Voices: A Mexican American Memoir of Music and Belonging

From the founder of Los Cenzontles Cultural Arts Academy, a profoundly personal exploration of music's power to build cultural bridges that last.

"I wish I had studied with Eugene Rodrigeuz when I was growing up. Read this beautifully written book about culture, identity and resilience, and you will know why." —Linda Ronstadt

From an early age Eugene Rodriguez knew he was captivated by music. But he found himself encountering the same two problems again and again: the chilly rigidity of so much formal music education, and the underrepresentation of Mexican culture in American media. In 1989 he founded Los Cenzontles (The Mockingbirds), a group that offered music education to Bay Area youth, and that gave pride of place to Mexican musical traditions.

Bird of Four Hundred Voices follows Rodriguez as he leads his young students from a California barrio to uncover their ancestral roots. From their home community in San Pablo, Los Cenzontles journey to fandangos in Veracruz, resurrect a lost mariachi tradition, and collaborate with luminaries like Linda Ronstadt, Lalo Guerrero, Taj Mahal, Jackson Browne, Flaco Jiménez, and Los Lobos. Rodriguez's story offers an honest, deeply personal look at the cultural work that confronts historical oppression and joyously challenges cultural borders. And it is a profound celebration of the powerful influence of Mexico's musical heritage on American culture.