My wife, Ruth, is a third grade teacher in a public school where the students mostly come from families where Spanish is spoken first at home. Hector is a composite character of several of my wife's former and current students.
In Ruth's elementary school the students wear uniforms of tan pants and white polo shirts, and because of this, the hair is one of the few ways the kids can express themselves. This self expression will be covered at a later date.
One of the things I noticed right off , during my visits, was the strange hair style the little boys have taken up of putting lots of mousse in the hair to bring their hair to a point on top of their head. I do not understand this pointy hair thing but I guess they do.
Hector will always be nine years old and in the third grade no matter how well he does on his tests.
Hector Hernandez lives with his grandparents and 12 other cousins, aunts and uncles, 12 kids all under the age of 21 years of age and because of everyone one else demanding attention, he does not get any personal attention from his grand parents. The answer to his problems is to become the class clown and this usually ends up with him sitting outside the principal's office instead of in class learning stuff. Hector is really a smart little guy but since he has been lost in the shuffle we call life, he has way to live up to his full potential.
Anyway for the time being, each Sunday I will be posting a new Hector cartoon on this blog so you can follow the adventures of this 9 year old dealing silently with the stress of living in a very extended family.
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