On the Home Front with Valentina: A Diary from 1940 to 1943

Created in collaboration with the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of the American Latino, Nuestras Voces shares inspiring Latino stories. In 1940, eleven-year-old Valentina lives in El Paso, Texas, with her Mami, Papi, and two older brothers, Hugo and Kiki. Valentina loves reading and learning, and she hopes to go to college and become a teacher and writer someday. Her brother Hugo was in college, but with World War II looming—and Kiki eager to join the military—Hugo decides to join the National Guard with Kiki. Trying to help her family navigate wartime changes, Valentina takes on a lot more at home. She writes to her brothers, keeps her parents updated on news about the war, and helps with the war effort on the home front—all for a country she’s not so sure accepts Mexican American families like her own. In diary format, the Nuestras Voces series profiles inspiring characters and honors the joys, challenges, and outcomes of Latino experiences.