Family Pictures - Cuadros de familia

Many of our fondest memories of growing up have been captured in photographs. Birthday parties, holidays, family gatherings, excursions to new places, and simple, every-day moments can be relived by looking at old photos. These pictures often evoke great emotion; more importantly, these pictures are the stories of our lives.

Family Pictures/Cuadros de familia, by Carmen Lomas Garza, is a memoir-style book of family moments. An extraordinary book, Family Pictures is set up like a photo album of sorts, with an accompanying narrative in English and Spanish on each page. At first glance, the book cover is inviting with its painting of a typical family, gathered in the kitchen to make tamales. The painting alone is beautiful, in its detail and color; on the stove sits a huge black pot covered by a red and white dishcloth, around the table are different family members spreading cornmeal dough on cornhusks, another spreads the meat, and the grandmother rolls up and arranges the ready-to-cook tamales in a pan.

Inside the book are 14 special events and simple moments portrayed in "pictures", painted by the author herself. Each picture is described in both English and Spanish. Its as if the author has invited us to sit and look at a photo album with her - she lovingly flips the pages slowly, pausing to describe in detail the relatives in the picture, the place, the day.

One of my favorites of Garza's "family pictures" is Watermelon/Sandia. The picture is of a summer evening, the family on the porch, enjoying chilled watermelon slices. The grandmother sits barefoot on the porch swing, the father cuts the fruit and hands it to everyone, and the children lean forward, the juicy fruit dripping, spitting seeds into the yard.

I use this book in my classroom as a mentor text for memoir writing. I invite my students to select several favorite snapshots of family and special events which are then used as prompts for writing. This book can also be used to discuss family traditions.