A moving bilingual ode to the unshakeable bond between a parent and child in the tradition of Runaway Bunny and The Wonderful Things You Will Be, from a New York Times bestselling creator. If I were a sheep, you would be a lamb. If I were a bear, you would be a cub. As a mother holds her toddler, they muse over the way their love would translate if they were different animals. But no matter how they change, they will always be “us.” This bilingual story is a timeless ode to the unshakable bond between parent and child. Si yo fuera una oveja, tú serías un cordero. Si yo fuera una osa, tú serías un osenzo. Con su niño en brazos, una madre contempla cómo sería elamorentre ellos si fueran diferentes animales. Pero por mucho que cambien,no importa. Siempre serán“nosotros”. Este cuento bilingüe es una oda eterna al lazo irrompibleentre madre e hijo.
In this inspirational and unflinchingly honest memoir, acclaimed author Reyna Grande describes her childhood torn between the United States and Mexico, and shines a light on the experiences, fears, and hopes of those who choose to make the harrowing journey across the border. Reyna Grande vividly brings to life her tumultuous early years in this “compelling...unvarnished, resonant” (BookPage) story of a childhood spent torn between two parents and two countries. As her parents make the dangerous trek across the Mexican border to “El Otro Lado” (The Other Side) in pursuit of the American dream, Reyna and her siblings are forced into the already overburdened household of their stern grandmother. When their mother at last returns, Reyna prepares for her own journey to “El Otro Lado” to live with the man who has haunted her imagination for years, her long-absent father. Funny, heartbreaking, and lyrical, The Distance Between Us poignantly captures the confusion and contradictions of childhood, reminding us that the joys and sorrows we experience are imprinted on the heart forever, calling out to us of those places we first called home. Also available in Spanish as La distancia entre nosotros.
Developments in the analysis of linguistic variation show the need for a theoretical model whereby variants are viewed as cognitively-based communicative choices. In this book, the analysis of the first and second grammatical persons in Spanish media discourse illustrates an approach to linguistic structure and usage as motivated by the need to create meaning at all semiotic levels. Rather than mere sets of deictic forms, persons constitute arrays of functional strategies used by speakers to develop certain representations of themselves and others. The degree of salience attributed to some participant through grammatical configuration – including features like person, way of formulation and syntactic function – strongly conditions the discursive role of that participant, as well as the communicative situation at large. Methodologically, the demonstration conjugates the analysis of quantitative usage patterns with that of specific instances of choice, in order to elucidate the stylistic potential of syntactic forms in media contexts. Understanding variation as the construction of meaning is essential to the scientific advancement of linguistics as an inherently social and cognitive discipline.
This glossary has been prepared in order to leave a record of the Quechua spoken by the people of Huarás and surrounding areas in the mid-20th century. Huarás, capital of the Region (Department) of Ancash, Peru, has a distinct form of Quechua. That dialect was endangered due to a massive earthquake on May 31, 1970. Tens of thousands of people died, and the city was destroyed. Many of the survivors left the area. Once rebuilt, Huarás was repopulated with people new to the area who use Spanish or a different dialect to communicate. Since then, technological influences such as the Internet also reinforce the use of Spanish, to the detriment of the local Quechua. Born in Huarás, I was raised in a bilingual environment, Spanish and Quechua. Although I left the area to attend the university, I could always feel at home upon returning, until that earthquake. Since then it seems strange to return to an unfamiliar city, due to people, language and environment. I hope this glossary will help the newer generations better understand, not only their grandparents and ancestors, but the culture from which they come. Language and culture are intimately tied, and much more than words is lost when a language dies. The Inca Empire (Tahuantinsuyo) was invaded by Spain in 1532. At that time Quechua was spoken, never written, throughout the Inca civilization, with many dialects. Since then, the Spanish language has been imposed, but in Huarás never did it replace Quechua to the extent that it did in 1970. This glossary contains words, several verb forms, and phrases. It is written with the expectation that it may help to preserve the inherited Quechua, so that Huarás may remain bilingual. It is written for huarasinos, the people of Huarás. If others find it useful, better yet. The glossary is in Quechua. To facilitate access to the Quechua, indices in Spanish and in English are included. M. Mosquera
