the+last+of+the+menu+girls

Teaching //The Last of the Menu Girls// By [|Denise Chavez]
Synopsis as stated on the book jacket: "Rocio Esquibel is a girl growing up in a southern New Mexico town with her mother and sister. She defines her neighborhood by its trees - the Willow, the Apricot, and the one they call the Marking-Off Tree. Rocio knows she was born in the closet where she and her sister now take turns looking at the picture of Jesus whose eyes light up in the dark. But at night she enters a magical realm, and in her imaginary Blue Room, she can fly. At first she is a mesmerized observer of the lives of older girls and their boyfriends, but as she finds a job at the local hospital, and discovers a passion for drama and stories, Rocio begins to make her own choices in love and work."

//The// //Last of the Menu Girls// is labeled a "novel" but is not written in the traditional Euro-American novel style. Rather than emphasizing the individual, Chavez emphasizes the community. This fact may cause some initial confusion from your students as they attempt to connect the various short stories into the experiences of the protagonist, Rocio.
 * Challenge 1: Understanding issues of community/individualism and clock time/mythical time**

Another issue that may arise is that of time. Given a culturally different approach to time than the homogeneous clock time of Western culture, and due to the compilation of many short stories, there is not always the familiar chronological order in many Latino/a novels. In //The// //Last of the Menu Girls//, though strictly speaking chronological, may, nonetheless, present challenges for students to follow the sequence of events. Following are some suggested activities to address these issues:
 * Discuss the origin of the traditional Euro-American novel
 * Discuss possible reasons why many Latino/a novels are compilations of short stories (i.e. authors such as [|Sandra Cisneros], [|Tomas Rivera], [|Julia Alvarez], [|Judith Oritz Cofer])
 * Allow students to free write about childhood memories, ask students to interview a parent, grandparent, etc.; discuss issue of time (lack of chronological order, for example)
 * Section off the text into [|Literature Circles]
 * Create scenes to act out based on each short story in the text
 * Create a time-line of events in the novel

Despite the large population of Chicano/a students that may be in schools and communities across the United States, the Chicano/a experience is underrepresented in most curriculums and certainly in popular culture. To create authenticity for your students and help them understand Chicano/a experience it is valuable to interact openly with Chicano/a people.
 * Challenge 2: Authentically connecting your students to Chicano/a Culture**

Following are some suggested activities for creating an authentic connection to Chicano/a culture:
 * Invite a guest speaker into your classroom to interact with your students
 * When appropriate, set up opportunity for Chicano/a students to speak about their experience
 * Attend local Chicano/a events, restaurants, etc.
 * Familiarize your students with current Chicano/a issues
 * Teach this novel through an [|Academic Service Learning Project]

Teachers often discuss concern regarding connecting their male students to a book with a female protagonist. In the case of //The// //Last of the Menu Girls//, male students may have difficulty connecting to the pubescent Rocio, the Rocio who watches the older girls interact with their boyfriends. It is my belief that it is of the utmost importance for male students to empathize with the daily female struggle just as females have been and are still expected to empathize with the male experience. However, the fact is that male students may not have less competence to relate to a female protagonist and there may be some resistance.
 * Challenge 3: This book is about girls...**

Following are some suggestions for dealing with this issue:
 * Create activities and lead discussions during the reading that offers room for imaginatively entering into the life of characters.
 * Create culminating projects that allow creative input. Students may need to be able to interpret the text in various ways. For example, create a children's story, create a scene and/or speak/write from another character's point-of-view
 * Connect to outside readings with male protagonists and Chicano protagonists, such as Barrio Boy, [|...And The Earth Did Not Devour Him], or Always Running

Article titled [|"Working Race: Speech, Silence and Women's Work as Racial Politics in Denise Chavez and Ana Castillo"]
 * Additional Resources**

Biography on [|Denise Chavez]

This site offers a unit plan for grades 9-12 titled [|"A View of Three Cultures Through the Eyes of Three Contemporary Women Writers"]

Book: //[|Understanding Contemporary Chicana Literature]//

This links to the [|Inland Empire Community Newspaper] which covers four Chicano community newspapers in California

This page offers [|descriptions] of the various Latino/a groups in the US

[|Aztlan], a journal of Chicano studies

by Michelle Ringle-Barrett