Inspired by her bilingual family, informed by her nearly 20 years’ experience teaching multilingual learners, and driven by a childhood dream to be a writer and illustrator, Wilshire Park Elementary teacher Minda Gomez introduced her second book to the world this past summer.
She labels “The Arctic Quest” as a story filled with “magical realism.” The book is rooted in the Martinez family’s Christmas holiday drive between their home in Minnesota and their grandparents’ house in Mexico. En route, the three children take imaginative detours to the Arctic Circle, where they are transformed into lemmings and seals, snowy owls and polar bears. In their animal forms, they learn lessons about responsibility and cooperation, perseverance and encouragement.
Rico, Diego, and Araceli access their Arctic adventures through a gift of three pairs of special glasses from their Minnesota neighbor, Don Toño, whose experiments with an enhanced virtual reality were the basis for the stories in Gomez’s first book, “The Secret Door.” In “The Secret Door,” the children find themselves scampering through the trees as squirrels, swimming in the ocean as sea creatures, and swinging through the rainforest as spider monkeys. Don Toño transforms into a walrus, a squirrel, a seahorse, and a macaw and watches over the kids in evey setting.
“I have always loved books with fantasy,” Gomez said. “I just tried to write books that I would have loved to read as a kid. I’m someone who loves to imagine and someone who loves to explore possibilities.” She shied away from the word “magic” in the books, because, for some people, the word has negative connotations. She used the term “virtual reality,” but it’s much more than that. “A true virtual reality would not access all the five senses that these do.”
The books, which are aimed at independent readers ages 7-12 and are suitable for reading aloud to younger kids, were written in English, but they are full of Spanish words and Mexican culture. Each includes a table of the Spanish words used, their pronunciation and English translation. The Martinez dad uses the Spanish word for children, “hijos,” and Don Toño calls the kids “mis amiguitos” (my little friends). Mexican foods are incorporated throughout, such as caldo de pollo (chicken soup), rajas con queso (pepper strips with cheese) and ponche de frutas (a hot fruit punch with chunks of apple and guava). There’s even a recipe at the end of each book, one for spicy turkey quesadillas – a blend, Gomez, says, of American and Mexican – and the other for atole de avena, a hot, sweet oatmeal drink made with evaporated milk and cinnamon sticks.
“You probably noticed there’s a lot of foods that we talk about in the books because I love food, and I love Mexican culture,” Gomez said. “A lot of the parts of this book, they’re just a complete reflection of me. Writing these books has just been, basically, a window into me.”
The stories are also a window into her bicultural family. Her husband, Moisés Gomez, grew up in Acapulco, Mexico, she in Shoreview, Minn. They met virtually through a mutual friend. Long emails and Skype sessions led to her taking a leave of absence to join him in Monterrey, Mexico, where she taught English to second graders. He eventually proposed to her, in front of her students.
They are raising their three children – who are the same ages as the three Martinez children, 9, 6, and 3 years old – to speak Spanish and English.
The books celebrate multiculturalism and multilingualism, Gomez said, which she encourages in her family and in her classroom. Talking about the family in the books as well as her family, she said, “Their dad is from Mexico. Their mom is from Minnesota, and they are fully both.” She said she isn’t a fan of the phrases “half Mexican,” or “half American.” “That just doesn’t seem correct. They’re fully American, but they’re also fully Mexican.” At Wilshire Park Elementary, she teaches English to nonnative speakers, who come from 25 different countries and whose native languages include Arabic, Tibetan, Spanish, Oromo, and Somali. Gomez calls her students “bilingual superheroes,” and has posters in her room that read, “My languages are my superpower.”
Gomez said having young children makes it both the “worst time and the best time” for her to write books. “The best time because they’re my inspiration. But also the worst time, because they need me. But at the same time, I think if I waited until they were out of the house, it wouldn’t be as easy to write about these characters. I feel like I know what they’re going to say before they say it. I don’t worry about it being age appropriate because I know exactly what they would do.”
As a teacher and a mother, time is tight, Gomez said, but she managed to squeeze out writing hours late at night during the summers. During the school year, she’ll use lunch breaks to write, and her husband takes over all childcare and household duties for one night a week, giving her time to work.
Moisés, who is a journalist by trade and does graphic design and video production, has been her partner with her books,too. She illustrated them; he designed them. He also helped her translate “The Secret Door” into Spanish; they are currently working on translating “The Arctic Quest.” (Both Spanish translations incorporate English words into the reading with plenty of context clues for their meaning, and, just as in the English versions, there are lists of words and their translations.)
Gomez said she doesn’t aspire to become a full-time writer. “I just do this because it brings me joy.” She has enjoyed giving author talks and readings at bookstores, local schools, a daycare, and an ECFE program. Her enthusiasm for the books and experience as a teacher have made such opportunities feel very natural to her. “It just kind of seems to flow out of me, which has been really fun. I feel like I’ve discovered a side of myself that I had not known existed.”
Gomez’ books are available on Amazon.com, Barnesandnoble.com and MindaGomez.com.
Below: Wilshire Park teacher Minda Gomez has published kids’ books in English and Spanish. (Photo by Karen Kraco) “The Arctic Quest” book cover. (Provided graphic)
