Armando Rendon

The Adventures of Noldo and His Magical Scooter - Noldo Faces the Hard Times Armando Rendon

The Adventures of Noldo and His Magical Scooter / Noldo faces the Hard Times is the story of a Mexican American boy who, thanks to the scooter he builds with his own hands, is magically transported from 1950's San Antonio, Texas, to 1937 at the height of the Great Depression. On his adventure, he lives through the hard times his elders endured when jobs were scarce, food was barely enough to survive on, and most people were poor and lived day to day. We learn first-hand how workers in the barrio united to protest low wages and bad working conditions, creating a strong sense of community and making stronger the Mexican American families which struggled against poverty and discrimination. We see verified the family and social values of a community which had been deprived of many opportunities by the mid-1900s. Finally, the story forges a link for today's Chicanos to their historical roots in the Southwest, revealing a history that has been otherwise excluded from school textbooks and the mass media.