Growing up in Nogales, borderland culture surrounded Roni Capin Rivera-Ashford. She immersed herself in the duality of language, food, history and traditions, all rooted in daily border rhythms.
There was no escaping the all-encompassing way of life, not that she wanted to, anyway. The daughter of Jewish parents with Nogales roots embedded in several generations and spread from Mexico to Manhattan, Rivera-Ashford embraced the richness of growing up bilingual and bicultural.
"I embrace it all," said Rivera-Ashford during a break from her busy schedule at an East Speedway coffee shop.
Today the 55-year-old Rivera-Ashford is sharing her borderland experiences and remembrances with children through bilingual, bicultural literature.
The teacher/translator/author has published two children's books through the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum. Her second book has been nominated for statewide recognition.
People are also reading…
"Hip Hip Hooray, It's Monsoon Day! ¡Ya llegó el chubasco!" is a finalist for ONEBOOKAZ for Kids, a literacy promotion sponsored by the Arizona State Library, Archives and Public Records. Rivera- Ashford's book is the only bilingual book nominated.
Her first book was 2002's "My Nana's Remedies/Los Remedios De Mi Nana," illustrated by Tucsonan Edna San Miguel. Richard Johnsen, a former Tucson and Nogales teacher living in Sahuarita, illustrated "Hip Hip Hooray," selected as one of the best Southwest children's books in 2007 by Pima Public Library's Southwest Literature Project, and a recommended title for the 2008 Américas Award for Children and Young Adult's Literature sponsored by the Consortium of Latin American Studies Programs.
The Nogales native — who actually was born in New York City while her parents were visiting there — traces her books' beginnings to her nana, Lillian Capin, and her mother-in-law, Teresa Rivera Ashford.
The two elder women guided Rivera-Ashford's exploration and understanding of her bicultural history — the two grounded by her families' stories and values, which are universal to people regardless of where they grew up.
"There are no borders to our stories," said Rivera-Ashford, who in addition to writing children's books, is an educational consultant.
She began her public school teaching career when she was 21 after graduating from a Colorado college. Her first job returned her and her new husband, Danny Ashford, to Nogales.
Several years passed and the couple, parents of three, moved to Tucson to teach bilingual classes at Mission View and Drachman elementary schools.
It was about 20 years ago, while she taught at Drachman in Barrio Santa Rosa south of Downtown, when she began writing her stories. Her stories about her Jewish grandmother, creepy-crawly desert creatures, monsoons and sunsets, and border life, were written for her students.
It was her way to bridge language and cultural divides. Her stories, which at their core are about inclusiveness, served to further communication among her diverse students. That her stories are in English and Spanish simply reflects the reality of our region, but her outlook transcends borders, she said.
Rivera-Ashford said she began writing when she was 15, a difficult time for most teenage girls and their parents. But for her, the circumstances were more difficult.
She fell in love with a teenage boy. Her father forbade the teen romance, but she refused to stop seeing him. He sent her to boarding school in Los Angeles.
She ended up marrying her childhood sweetheart. She and Ashford, now retired, have been married for nearly 36 years.
Rivera-Ashford didn't relinquish her emotional independence in Los Angeles. Rivera-Ashford put her teen angst and pain to words.
"I still get up in the middle of the night to write when I'm in pain," she said.
Over time, however, her writing was less pain-inspired and infused more with the joy of living in the Sonoran Desert and the memories of the women who raised her. Those memories include the Mexican women who helped run the household of the Capins, a pioneering mercantile family who had stores in Arizona and Texas.
Like nearly all other published authors, Rivera-Ashford has a drawer full of rejection letters for her unpublished stories. And like most published writers, her books haven't brought her much money.
"I've made a little bit, maybe enough to buy a little kitchen table," she chuckled.
Then again her stories and books have a more personal purpose.
"I feel I write for kids of all colors," said Rivera-Ashford.
Neto's Tucson
Ernesto
Portillo jr.
other nominees
Three other books with Southern Arizona ties were nominated in the adult category for ONEBOOKAZ.
"Zero at the Bone: Rewriting Life After a Snakebite" by Tucsonan Erec Toso; "Veil of Roses" by Tucsonan Laura Fitzgerald; and "Capirotada: A Nogales Memoir" by Alberto Rios of Nogales.
Beginning Monday, month-long, online voting will begin to select one children's book and one adult book for ONEBOOKAZ 2009 at www.onebookaz.org
Faculty concerned about changes to U of A admissions policy
