René Colato Laínez
Hola, Joe. / Hi, José.
I have my uniform. /Tengo mi uniforme.
I am ready. / Estoy listo.
Two boys, an English speaker and a Spanish speaker, are on the same soccer team. They have their uniforms and their cleats. They can both juggle the ball. At first, the boys...
Young René's teacher is calling role one morning, and René is dismayed to hear someone else answer to his name. It's not only that he thought he was the only person with that name, but also that the new student who answers is a girl. That afternoon his classmates tease, "René has a girl's name."
After discussing it with Mamá and Papá, René decides, "My name is so beautiful that a girl copied it from me," not the other way around. But the
...Carlos is not sure that his favorite sport can be played with an oval-shaped ball. Chris is not sure that it can be played with a round ball. It may not be a good idea to play with a kid who is so different! He doesn't even know how to play this game! Wait-it looks kind of fun! Let's give it a try!
On the first day at my new school, my teacher, Miss Soria, gave me a sticker that said René Colato. The sticker was missing my second last name. Maybe Miss Soria's pen ran out of ink. I took my pencil and added it. Now it looked right: René Colato Laínez."
Young René is from El Salvador, and he doesn't understand why his name has to be different in the United States. When he writes Colato, he sees his paternal grandparents, René and Amelia.
...