Award Mission

• To recognize and honor authors and illustrators that create quality children’s literature depicting the Mexican American experience.
• To enhance awareness among librarians, teachers, parents and children of this literature so it will take its place in libraries, classrooms and homes to educate, inspire, and entertain all children.

2010 Award Winner Information

Tafolla, Morales honored with Tomás Rivera Children’s Book Award

SAN MARCOS – How many uses are there for a traditional Mexican popsicle treat on a hot summer day? Turns out there are quite a few, and for that the book What Can You Do with a Paleta?, written by Carmen Tafolla and illustrated by Magaly Morales, has been named the Tomás Rivera Mexican American Children’s Book Award recipient for works published in 2008-09.

Tafolla is a repeat honoree, having previously won for her book The Holy Tortilla and a Pot of Beans. The award, established at Texas State University-San Marcos in 1995, is designed to encourage authors, illustrators and publishers to produce books that authentically reflect the lives of Mexican American children and young adults in the United States.

The award will be presented this fall on the Texas State campus with additional events scheduled in cooperation with the Texas Book Festival to be announced. The Tomás Rivera considers works in two categories: “Works for Older Children/Young Adult” and “Works for Younger Children,”with each category under consideration in alternate years. This year’s winner was nominated as “Works for Younger Children.” More than 40 books published in 2008 and 2009 in this category were considered for this year’s Tomás Rivera Award.

What Can You Do with a Paleta? takes readers on a joyous stroll through the barrio while considering all the different things that may be done with a paleta–an icy, fresh-fruit treat. Tafolla’s inventive and poetic writing, coupled with Morales’ vibrant illustrations, work to portray the beauty of the barrio and the importance of community.

Living and writing in her hometown of San Antonio, Tafolla has cultivated a reputation as a folklorist of the Chicano-Mexicano community. Her work has been recognized at the Texas Book Festival, UCI National Literary competition and Wellington International Poetry Festival. Her children’s books include That’s Not Fair!: Emma Tenayuca’s Struggle for Justice/ No es Justo!: La Lucha de Emma Tenayuca por la Justicia, What Can You Do with a Rebozo? and Baby Coyote and the Old Woman.

Morales is a native of Xalapa, Veracruz, Mexico, where she showed interest in painting and design from an early age. Her other illustrative works include A Latino Twelve Days of Christmas by Pat Mora and Chavela and the Magic Bubble by Monica Brown. Morales lives in Mexico with her husband and children where she works as a freelance designer and physical education teacher.
The 2010 Rivera Award Committee also named one honor book: Just in Case: A Trickster Tale and Spanish Alphabet Book, written and illustrated by Yuyi Morales and published by Roaring Brook Press.

After determining the winner of the award, the National Committee may choose to name honor books. Honor books are books that are deemed by the committee to be distinguished and truly representative of the spirit of the award. There is no set number of books to be named in this category. In the event that more than one book is named, they are announced in alphabetical order, by author, to accord equal honor to all of the books.

2009 Award Co-Winner Information

The Holy Tortilla and a Pot of Beans
by Carmen Tafolla
In this wonderfully creative collection of sixteen short stories, Tafolla brings to life the bilingual/bicultural world of the Texas-Mexico border. As in her previous works, Tafolla celebrates the resilient human spirit of her characters amidst the prejudice and hypocrisy, the faith and magic, and the family, and community that are part of this world. The stories are poignant, even tragic, and they are funny, filled with humor. Tafolla’s energy is felt throughout. As Carmen herself says, “ It’s about those things that are really holy and miraculous, but it’s also about those very common, underappreciated blessings, like a homemade pot of beans.”

Carmen Tafolla Biography Information
Dr. Carmen Tafolla, a native of San Antonio, is an internationally acclaimed writer, poet, performer, and educational consultant. She has developed a reputation as a folklorist of the Chicano-Mexicano community. Described by Alex Haley as a ‘world class writer,’ she has published poetry, screenplays, children’s books, short stories and articles. Her work has appeared in over 200 anthologies, and she has performed her one-woman show, “My Heart Speaks a Different Language.” In addition to the Rivera Award winning book, The Holy Tortilla and a Pot of Beans, she has also published other recent children’s books, What Can You Do with a Rebozo? , and What Can You Do with a Paleta?. Another recent children’s book features the activist who stood up for the pecan shellers of San Antonio in the 1930s, That’s Not Fair!: Emma Tenayuca’s Struggle for Justice/¡No es Justo!: La Lucha de Emma Tenayuca por la Justicia (2008). Tafolla earned her Ph.D. at the University of Texas at Austin. In 1999, she was awarded the Art of Peace Award for writing which furthered peace, justice, and human understanding. Her work has been recognized at the Texas Book Festival, UCI National Literary Competition, and the Wellington International Poetry Festival.

He Forgot to Say Goodbye

by Benjamin Alire Sáenz
In this carefully crafted novel, two high school boys develop an unlikely friendship despite their different upbringings. Ramiro Lopez has been raised in the Mexican American working class barrio of El Paso where his brother is lured into the world of drugs, while White Jake Upthegrove has lived in the rich West Side and has a problem managing his anger. Both boys have not known their fathers who abandoned their families early. Ramiro and Jake both come to enjoy and respect the loyal friendship of Alejandra a third strong teenager in this contemporary setting.

Benjamin Alire Sáenz Biographical Information
Benjamin Alire Sáenz was born in Old Picacho just outside of Las Cruces, New Mexico. He studied at St. Thomas Seminary in Denver, Colorado and at the University of Louvain in Belgium where he was ordained as a Catholic priest. He also studied at the University of Texas at El Paso, and at Stanford University where he was a Wallace E. Stegner fellow in poetry and also pursued his doctoral studies in American Literature. Sáenz is an American Book Award-winning author of poetry and prose for both adults and teens and is currently a professor in the creative writing department at the University of Texas, El Paso. His first young adult novel, Sammy and Juliana in Hollywood, was published in 2004 and won the Américas Book Award, the Patterson Book Prize, the J. Hunt Award, and was even named one of the top ten books of the year by the American Library Association.

Debt creeps up on you

Create a Financial Budget – If you wan to reduce, eliminate, or prevent a debt problem, then budgets are a definite must. After all, they’re a practical way of regaining control over your spending.

Creating a simple budget is as simple as 1,2,3. You must determine how you’re spending money today, set long term financial goals, and track your spending to make sure you are on track.

You can use personal-finance programs such as Quicken or Microsoft Money to help you create a budget for you.

Open a Savings Account – Parents often teach their children that if they wanted a toy, they had to save up for it. Furthermore, of they could not afford the toy, then the child simply could not buy it. Sounds like common sense, doesn’t it?

Unfortunately, now more than ever credit card companies are preying on young adults, pushing the idea of ‘If you want it, get it!’ mentality. No need to save up for that thing you want when you can have it today, right?

We all know that having savings is important, but its not until you really get it going that you FEEL the value.

A savings account enables you to set aside money on a regular basis from every paycheck. But to save, you must spend less than you earn. Reducing your spending, as opposed to earning more money, is the real key to gaining control of your finances.

Leave the Credit Cards at Home – While many people think living without credit cards is unrealistic, others will argue that the overwhelming feeling of control and freedom from avoiding them is worth the sacrifice.

Can you live and survive without a credit card? Of course you can! If you simply follow the financial budget you set for yourself and set up a savings plan for big ticket items and emergencies, all you really need in your wallet is your debit card.

Credit cards encourage you to shop on impulse, which can worsen your debt problems. Sure, a big screen plasma tv is a fun thing to buy, but how fun is it 24 months from now when you are still paying it off?

If you absolutely can’t wait to make that big purchase and don’t use credit cards anymore there are always payday loans online as an option to get quick money up front – just make sure you pay it back as fast as possible to reduce the amount of interest you have to pay on those kinds of loans.

1. Pay balances off in full each month
2. Pay no annual fees
3. Keep cards with long histories to boost credit scores
4. Maintain at least one joint card with my spouse
5. Maintain one card in my own name only and make sure my spouse does the same
6. Maximize rewards, prioritizing cashback over miles or other points systems

Our household has the following cards:
United Mileage Plus Visa, no annual fee, gives 1 mile for every $2. I barely use this card, but I keep it because it’s my longest standing card and helps my credit score. This is a joint account.
Citi Dividend Platinum Select, no annual fee, gives 5% cashback on grocery, drug, and gas purchases and 1% on everything else. $300 annual reward limit. This is my primary card. This is my account only.
MBNA Wachovia Worldpoints Visa, no annual fee, gives Worldpoints which can be redeemed for low cash rewards, miles, or merchandise. I got it originally to provide overdraft protection for my checking account. My spouse uses this card more than any other. This is a joint account.
Discover card, no annual fee, gives 1% cash back. This is M’s account only. He’s had it forever and so it’s very valuable to his credit score.

I checked my credit before applying for more cards

Last year, I transferred my Chase Mileage Plus card to one with a smaller reward but no annual fee. And early this year, I improved my cashback rewards on my primary card when I got rid of my Citi Upromise card in favor of the Citi Dividend Platinum Select. Both Chase and Citi allowed me to keep essentially the same account with the same account history, but change the rewards program I was part of. Chase gave me a new CC number, but Citi did not.

Today, I called MBNA to see if I could get a Fidelity College 529 card, which puts 2% cashback in a college savings account with a $1500 annual maximum. I wanted to retain my credit history with MBNA, but get rid of my Worldpoints card. Unlike Chase and Citi, MBNA required me to submit a new credit application for the new card so I checked my free credit score first. I decided it was worth it, because a 2% cash reward is much better than the Worldpoints system. I opted to keep my Worldpoints card so my credit won’t be dinged. I’ll keep one small bill on autopay on that card so I’ll have a balance to pay every month, which will be good for my credit history.

I plan to use the MBNA/Fidelity for all day-to-day purchases except gas, groceries and drugstore purchases. Those will go on the Citi card for a 5% cashback reward.

I’m looking forward to getting the new cards, even though I’m annoyed with MBNA for making me apply all over again and submit to a hard credit pull. I understand that it’s because their contracts with Wachovia and Fidelity require it, but I’m still disappointed.

Mesothelioma as it appears in the lungs

Unfortunately for us, asbestos has the unwanted side effect of sticking around in the lungs of people who have worked with it for many years.  Over time the small particles build up in the lungs and cause all sorts of problems – one of which is mesothelioma.  Although the most common sufferers are those who have been exposed on a constant basis, mesothelioma has been a problem for the family members and close relatives as well.  The particulate from the exposed person’s clothes can be inhaled by family members on just as regular a basis as the person who actually worked hands-on with the asbestos.

 
It has been demonstrated that the reason that asbestos causes mesothelioma is by actually damaging the inner workings of the cells in the lungs and creating cancerous cells by triggering rapid cell mutation.  Because of this physical cause, the best way to prevent mesothelioma is simply to avoid situations where you are at risk of exposure.  In this case prevention truly is worth a pound of cure because once you have that buildup in your lungs you are already at risk and there isn’t much a doctor can do to reduce the chances that you will come down with the cancer.  Of course, there are laws now prohibiting the use of asbestos in certain circumstances as well as protecting employees who work in conditions that require them to be around the substance, so if this sounds like your situation you may want to contact an attorney to make sure that all your rights have been protected and see if you are entitled to any kind of compensation for your medical expenses or preventative treatments.

Besides just consuming massive amounts of food, everyone is much busier around the holidays.  Work always seems to be much more stressful and demanding than usual because it is heading into the fourth quarter; not to mention making sure you get gifts for everyone on your list requires more than one trip to the shops at the mall.  In addition, the holidays means endless trips from old friends, family and neighbors.   Having to constantly entertain while getting ready for Christmas ultimately means that personal fitness and exercise land right at the bottom of the priority list and quickly fall to the wayside to be forgotten.
Of course come January everyone is back on track with their daily routines, trying to finally accomplish one of their many New Year’s resolutions of losing ten pounds or reading two books a month.  If you have ever been in a gym during the first week of the new year then you know how impossible it is to get a full twenty minutes on the elliptical, or to be able to run five miles on the treadmill.  The gyms are just packed…
This year, things could be quite different just by making a few small changes to the way you approach eating and exercising.  Instead of being one of the hundreds of adults who neglect their healthy lifestyle and eating habits during the holidays only to rush off to the gym first thing on January first, keep track of your health and weight this season with a weight loss calculator and food journal.  Mark down your progress and write down everything you eat; you’ll find that it is much easier to lose weight and stay on track if you don’t want to remember the twenty different things you tried at the office holiday party.  If you just stick to proteins and vegetables and mark down everything along the way, losing weight (or at least not gaining any) this holiday season will be remarkably easy.
Another tip for tackling the holiday buffets and fanciful feasts is to start with a plate of just vegetables and salad.  You will fill up on the healthy stuff that is good for you, too, and then be less full when it comes time for the pumpkin and apple pies, the fruitcake, and the Christmas cookies.  While everyone else is taking naps from their food comas after stuffing plate after plate of food down their throats, you will feel energized and healthy all season long.  Just because it is Christmastime does not mean that you give up on your figure and gain five kilos, and following these tips will help.

Arnold definitely got his protein macros correct…

That part is your diet. If I was to say to you, “If you want to get rich, this 1 activity will create 80% of the results for your path to riches,” you’d do that activity, wouldn’t you? Well, diet is that one activity for building muscle and getting in shape. It’s been estimated to be responsible for as much as 80% of the end result of a major plan to get into shape. Why is that though? Isn’t it better to hit the gym hard and let the diet sort itself out? It can’t be THAT important, right? Well, that’s wrong too. Think about the food you put into your body as the building blocks of literally everything else your body and mind can produce. When you put bad quality fuel into a car, it’s going to run poorly and overall be a suboptimal car. You are a machine, whether you like it or not. Food is your fuel, and there is literally no excuse for not putting the highest quality fuel (such as Isoflex) into your body that you possibly can.

One of the core components of good fuel for your body is an adequate amount of protein, as well as from the right sources. Whey protein has been touted as one of the best types of protein out there for is relatively longer release into the body and low cost. Hydrowhey is one of my preferred brands that is known for their commitment to ultimate quality assurance. You can be very confident that you’re getting the best of the best by picking up one of these brands…I simply haven’t heard even one complaint.

Anyways, back to the protein. You need to be absolutely sure you get around 30 grams of protein within 30 minutes of waking up, or you’re basically shooting yourself in the foot for the day. It’s like starting the day off by getting slapped in the face – you’ll just feel a little “off” for the rest of the day and that doesn’t just apply to your body, it applies to your mind. Mental strength is just as important as physical when you’re trying to make any kind of huge life change. You should not discount the power of the mind when it comes to pushing you through every single challenge, plateau and obstacle that will inevitably come your way when you decide you want to change your body composition and finally become someone who is fit, healthy and happy.

There are a swath of Western Unions are car dealerships that have popped up in this town, simply because of the massive amount of scamming going on.  Almost every person around 30 or younger is a scam artist online.  This is far different from the scam artists that you might have seen in a movie.  Those guys are more focused on the long con, or gaining trust with the person they’re going to scam, and then taking advantage of it in an elaborate, well thought out ploy.

The frustration of getting scammed by someone on the other side of the globe.

The scammers that rule the internet are much less subtle.  One of the most popular scams of the past few years has been the fake antivirus scam.  This is something I’m sure you’re intimately familiar with as you probably browse around the internet quite a bit and run into it very often.  It goes like this: you’re browsing around for music or reading news and all of a sudden you get a popup of a window that looks like it’s scanning your computer.  It shows a bunch of different viruses and infections popping up as “recognized” on the window in bold red colors, signifying that they are a serious threat to your computer.  Next, it says “Your computer is infected!  Download our FREE antivirus program to completely clean your computer!”

Pretty soon, you are so alarmed that you’ve clicked on this and are breathing a heavy sigh of relief as you install what you think is an extremely helpful piece of software.  But wait!  Why would this pop up randomly on the internet?  As with everything in life, you must be very considerate of motive before you accept anything on blind faith.  What is the incentive for a program like this to pop up and let you know, out of the kindness of its creator’s own heart, that you have viruses on your computer?  Perhaps they want you to buy the program?  Perhaps it’s a fake program, designed to give you the feeling of security when in fact it may be more malicious than any of the common viruses that computers are actually infected by.  There are just a few things to think about when you’re considering this particular type of online scam.  It’s known as the fake antivirus ploy, and now that you have a bit more information about it hopefully you will be savvy enough to avoid it in the future.