Why a Booktrail?
2000s: A young boy’s search for the truth in Puerto Rico
Marcus Vega Doesn’t Speak Spanish
What you need to know before your trail
Marcus Vega is six feet tall, 180 pounds, and the owner of a premature mustache. When you look like this and you’re only in the eighth grade, you’re both a threat and a target.
After a fight at school leaves Marcus facing suspension, Marcus’s mom decides it’s time for a change of environment. She takes Marcus and his younger brother to Puerto Rico to spend a week with relatives they don’t remember or have never met. But Marcus can’t focus knowing that his father–who walked out of their lives ten years ago–is somewhere on the island.
So begins Marcus’s incredible journey, a series of misadventures that take him all over Puerto Rico in search of his elusive namesake. Marcus doesn’t know if he’ll ever find his father, but what he ultimately discovers changes his life. And he even learns a bit of Spanish along the way.
Travel Guide
Puerto Rico
Marcus Vega travels more than 1,500 miles from his Pennsylvania home to find his father on the island of Puerto Rico
It’s an island and territory of the USA and has been since the USA took the island from Spain in 1898, just after the Spanish-American War.
People here speak Spanish, English and sometimes a mix of both. Despite the island being part of the USA, the people of Puerto Rico can’t vote for the President of the USA. Instead there is a commissioner who represents them in Washington.
Much of the island was destroyed and homes ruined when Hurricane Maria smashed into the island and more than 3000 people died.
San Juan
This book takes the reader from San Juan where Marcus travels through the narrow cobblestone streets of Viejo San Juan to a finca in the countryside. He then goes to a more touristy coastal part of the island.
“The buildings are old looking. Some are painted white or really bright shades of pink, blue, and even lime green. It looks nothing like my neighborhood back home,”
Going back home, to a country and culture he knows little of, helps him learn about himself.
Booktrail Boarding Pass: Marcus Vega Doesn’t Speak Spanish
Destination : Puerto Rico Author/Guide: Pablo Cartaya Departure Time: 2000s
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