Elegy on the Death of Cesar Chavez by Rudolfo Anaya and Gaspar Enriquez, ill. El Paso, TX: Cinco Puntos Press, 2000.   0-9383-17521-2

Annotation: A poem eulogizing the Mexican American labor activist Cesar Chavez.

Media: Computer generated

Rating: 6th-9th 5Q/5P

Curriculum Connection: Upper elementary; Connecting the stories of people with the History they lived and made.

Significant Aspects of Art:

      This book is organized with its postcard style pictures on all the odd pages (right side) and the text on all the even pages (left side). The text pages are divided into two parts: the poem in the center and one line from it, repeated in larger print, on a sidebar. The pictures describe the focus line with a montage of superimposed drawings derived from photos, some in black and white, others in color. Characters step ‘out’ of the picture for a sense that they are approaching the viewer. Chavez is in about half of them, always looking directly at the viewer. The illustrator uses a number of Bang’s techniques to emote feelings from his audience. He imports “pictorial weight” by placing characters high on the page. He makes Chavez a larger object in most of the collages because, as Bang states, “the larger an object is in a picture, the stronger it feels.” Most striking is the use of contrast between the black & white, colors, object sizes, and superimpositions to, again as Bang claims, “enable us to see both patterns and elements.” The elements of these illustrations are the perception by the author of the man.

lvanburen/6-09