El barrio se levanta: La protesta que construyó el Parque Chicano

K-Gr 3–A little girl and her neighborhood stand up for their culture in this historical fiction book. Told with beautiful imagery and similes, this is the story of a group of neighbors demonstrating for 12 days in 1970 to demand that the city of San Diego use an empty space as a park and not turn it into a police station. The local government has been disrupting this Mexican American neighborhood since World War II, and residents have had to put up with more and more infrastructure and less access to the ocean and green spaces. Voicing their concerns over time, and with the help of committed government workers, Parque Chicano came to life. The author has a special note at the end of the book detailing her own experience living in the Barrio Logan, which adds to the lasting impact of this project. Told with lyricism, this picture book presents kids with a real-life community experience of advocacy. Readers will come to understand how the trials and tribulations of a group of vecinos uniting created something beautiful.