Happy Days, Uncle Sergio (Secret Weavers Series) Paperback – May 1, 1995

Bought this item for my son who is doing spanish. He has the Spanish version but was advised to get the English version to help him understand. It certainly was a good idea.

why is the book $120? it's a paperback! I want to buy it but it seems to be a ridiculous price... Is there some kind of bug on amazon or something?

MUST READ FOR ANYONE OF PUERTO RICAN HERITAGE (TODOS!!!) OR THOSE INTERESTED IN THE INDIVIDUAL AND CULTURAL EFFECTS OF IMPERIALISM AND DOMINATION AND, OF COURSE, TO UNDERSTAND LATIN AMERICA BETTER IN GENERAL.Read in Spanish if possible. The vocabulary is accessible to an intermediate-advanced student. (It's a novel; you don't need to understand EVERY word. The first 20 pages may be slightly difficult in vocab, but keep reading.) This Bildungroman (novel of how a person is formed) upon publication was the most popular contemporary novel in Puerto Rico -not without reason. The main protagonist, Lidia, grows up in PR in a family that identifies and reaffirms their Spanish heritage, while recognizing their Latin and Puerto Rican roots only occasionally through food and at Christmas, music. All the members of Lidia's family idealize foreign cultures: England, Italy, Spain (the old ruler/colonizer), Germany and the US (the new ruler/colonizer). The principle theme of this book is about affirm of identity in a dominated culture, but other central themes are racism, sexism, heterosexism (to a small'ito' degree), imperialism, religion, politics and how they intertwine. Garcia Ramis uses the voice and view of a child -a young girl, which allows Ramis to explore problems without judging or analyzing them. It is the job of the reader to judge and analyze the child's problems and their significance. In the ending, we hear the voice of the child grown and judging some of the problems she faced as a child with the articulation of an adult. Her frustrations are direct and clear. We learn who she became and how. Garcia Ramis herself grew up in a even more Spanish family and is now an 'independista,' despite growing up in a pro-US control family. In an interview, she discussed that the protagonist's famiy was not her own, but a amalgamation of Puerto Rican families, including her own, as well as friends, classmates and students.

In this book we get a good glimpse of family life in Puerto Rico, where young children learn to deal with the realities of life and still manage to have dreams and fantasies. Uncle Sergio is a very special adult that shows her niece that not all grown ups need to be the same. Uncle Sergio is a fun book that explores the growing up of children and their attempts to make sense of the world around them.