Little Giants: 10 Hispanic Women Who Made History

By Raynelda A. Calderon and Wiscombe Donna

Winner of the prestigious Premio Campoy-Ada Award in the Biografía Juvenil, Latino-Céntrico category.

Recipient of the Silver Medal at the 2021 Moonbeam Children's Book Awards.

2021 Royal Dragonfly Book Awards, 2nd place.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Cayena Press, Inc.
• Release date: Mar 2, 2020
• ISBN: 9781733139250

Raynelda A. Calderon

Dominican native Raynelda Calderón is an award-winning children's book writer, public librarian and a passionate advocate of her Hispanic heritage. She lives in New York with a much untamed Shih Tzu and a too attached Chihuahua. As a librarian, her work with children inspired her to write books that highlight the accomplishments of Hispanic women in history.

Book preview

Copyright @ 2020 by Raynelda A. Calderon

Illustrations and book design by Donna Wiscombe

@ 2020 Cayena Press, Inc.

www.cayenapress.org

The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book without permission is a theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like permission to use material from the book (other than constitute fair use and for review purposes), please contact Cayena Press, Inc.

Library of Congress Control Number: 2019951212

Lexile: 1060L

ISBN 978-1-7331392-29 (Hardcopy)

ISBN 978-1-7331392-50 (ebook)

@ 2020 Cayena Press, Inc.

Reservados los derechos para la lengua española

Content

INTRODUCTION

ALICIA ALONSO

An International Ballet Legend

CONCHITA CITRON

The Most Famous Female Bullfighter in History

DOLORES CACUANGO

Founder of the First Bilingual School in Ecuador

ELOISA DIAZ

First Female Doctor in Latin America

ELVIA CARRILLO PUERTO

Secured Women’s Right to Vote in Mexico

JUANA AZURDUY

First Woman with a Military Rank

MARIA ANTONIA SANTOS PLATA

Colombian Icon of Strength and Freedom

MARIA TERESA FERRARI

First Female University Professor in Latin America

SALOME URENA DE HENRIQUEZ

Founder of Higher Education for Women in the Dominican Republic

TERESA CARRENO

One of the Greatest Pianists in Latin America

Introduction

Little Giants highlights the accomplishments of ten Hispanic women who contributed to and helped shape the history of Latin America. These women may not be world famous, but without them Latin America wouldn’t be the free and rich continent it is today.

Since the explosion of tehnology and the Internet, children seem to live immersed in a world of music videos, video games, and TV, but do they know about the people who came before them, who have impacted their lives so much more than they even realize? With this book, I would like to highlight a little bit of our Hispanic history to inspire young readers who will be the leaders of tomorrow.

Why women? you may well ask. Throughout history, women have been undermined, oppressed, and underrepresented. At different points in history, women have not been able to go out in public, to drive cars, to study, to work, to vote, or even to take credit for their accomplishments. Finally, we can now do all those things and more. Don’t get me wrong. There are still more things we need to achieve, but I am positive we will get there.

Little Giants aims to motivate and inspire our children today to accomplish great things tomorrow based on the example of role models from the past and present. They need to learn about and remember the contributions of women in history to be encouraged and inspired to lead the future.

Kids in schools and at home need a book like this one to encourage them to continue to study, to start businesses, to run for president, to keep dreaming, and to go on living meaningful and successful lives.

When the idea for this book came to me, the first thing I did was search Amazon to look for children’s books about the contributions of women in Latin America’s history, but I couldn’t find what I was looking for: an anthology for children that highlighted and honored the accomplishments of Hispanic women in history and society. Well,