Review by Frank Plowright
A subtitle of The Latino Heroes Who Changed the United States, indicates Sí, Se Puede (Yes, It’s Possible) fits the category of graphic novels offering brief biographies organised around a topic.
Julio Alta chooses to include as many people as possible via themed chapters. He frames the information by using an exhibition with a tour guide, supplying the maximum knowledge to the intended young adult audience. However, there’s a feeling that at times Alta isn’t seeing the wood for the trees. An example is the introduction of those taking the tour, bogged down as they explain their background and preferred terminology, covering every base at the cost of alienating an audience with dull content. Commitment to a form of storytelling permitting in-story questions leads to interruptions requiring frequent wordy explanations of terms and concepts. The use of briefer footnotes instead might have been advised.
What Alta can do is better shown by a concise sequence recognising the primary pre-conquest Latin American civilisations, Spanish conquest and US interference in Central and South America throughout the 20th century. When it comes to the actual chapters, the focus is on a few people with others covered over a single page montage or illustration with captions.
Due to the variety of subjects and their occupations or circumstances, Yasmín Flores Montañez needs to be an adaptable illustrator, and her pictures are evocative in defining locations and events. Rather than opting for exact likenesses, she supplies cartoon approximations of famous people, but they’re all recognisable in context and she’s taken care to ensure period details are accurate.
The American Civil War, social activism, sports, science and entertainment are covered before a chapter dealing with current trailblazers. Roberto Clemente’s achievements dominate the sports section in a way no other subject does, and gives Montañez a greater chance to shine via the use of movement, barely seen in the other chapters. It’s likely most readers will know the modern day entertainment figures, but perhaps without ever considering their family backgrounds, so their inclusion may open a few eyes.
With reservations about the overall presentation, Sí, Se Puede is a needed compilation in times of increasing aggressive ignorance about what anyone other than white Americans contribute to the USA. One hopes it reaches younger readers who’ll feel empowered by recognition of the heights to which people from their background have soared, and as such it’s very welcome.
