It was like revisiting my own childhood.”īowles believes that tackling an important issue like cultural identity is essential in today’s climate. “Once you get to a certain age, you lose people, and writing about a young boy helps me remember them and hear their voices more clearly. “Bringing all these elements from my own family into tighter focus helped me to appreciate my love for my family,” Bowles said.
Each poem is a vignette into the culture and acts as homage to the uniqueness of the Rio Grande Valley, especially the importance of family and friends. The focus was not in teaching a moral lesson, but to paint a picture of everyday life in the Valley. The result blends the English and Spanish languages with a blend of regional traditions and modern ideals. In preparation for writing Güero’s voice, Bowles pulled from his family experiences growing up in the Valley and molded it with his son’s life. There’s nothing wrong with admiring strong women and seeing them as role models.” His girlfriend does the fighting for him, and that’s OK, too. Güero is more of a soft boy – he’s not a fighter. “I want to give boys permission to be as complex as they want to be. “I tell students it’s OK to be travieso (mischievous), it doesn’t make you a bad person,” he said.
His book tackles the issue of single-faceted archetypes, especially machismo (exaggerated masculinity) forced onto Latino boys, and comes up often during his visits to schools across the Valley. We need to look in the mirror and see we are beautiful.”Ĭhildren should be able to read a different perspective in lives like their own, he says. “We are worthy of being written about and our lives contain poetry. “Young kids have to realize that we have wonderful things to celebrate and we should feel pride in it,” Bowles said. Now, he bestows it on the protagonist of his newest book, “They Call Me Güero,” a novel in verse filled with slice-of-life poems that illustrate life as a border kid – something for which 430,000 children in the Valley can relate. David Bowles, an associate professor in the UTRGV Department of Literatures and Cultural Studies, grew up “half-and-half” in the Rio Grande Valley with the nickname granted from his father’s Mexican-American heritage. Spanish-speakers often refer to a person with light hair, eyes and complexion as “ güero” – a term of endearment free of cultural or racial overtones.ĭr. David Bowles novel celebrates Mexican-American culture and youth David Bowles, an associate professor in the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley Department of Literatures and Cultural Studies, with his book, “They Call Me Güero”, a novel in verse filled with slice-of-life poems illustrating life as a border kid – something for which 430,000 children in the Valley can relate.
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