I Am America: The Miner's Lament
★★★★
“When people without power tried to use their voices, there was always a price to pay.”
I’m a huge fan of the Dear America series of my childhood; I learned so much from seeing historical events written in an easy-to-understand personal story. The format helped with the development of my empathy for others who may not look like me or have my similar background or experience.
This new series called “I Am America,” chooses to follow the same recipe but instead highlight Americans from marginalized backgrounds and underrepresented moments in American history. This new focus is much needed in classrooms today to understand history in context.
In this story, young Ana Maria Garcia tries to move on after the death of her mother in 1950s New Mexico amid the background of a miner’s strike against the Empire Zinc mine. Her father is part of the worker’s movement to demand better wages and safer working conditions for the Mexican-Americans working the mines. Young Ana sees the real harm of staying silent and wants to use her voice to advocate for herself, her family, and her community.
This story deals with so many big topics fully in context for children to understand: worker’s rights, parental death, financial insecurity, patriarchal family systems, women’s role in the home of 1950s, anti-communism, racism, and more. I highly recommend this book and the whole series for parents of young children and grade-school teachers who want to broaden children’s empathy skills and introduce them to new facets of American history.