Las Cruces, NM - On this edition of PUENTES, bridges to the community, host Emily Guerra meets with Storydancer and retired educator for the Las Cruces Public Schools for 20 years, Terry Alvarez, who knows many ways to tell a story. She enjoys telling stories through dance and music to communicate a sense of fun while stressing family and educational values. She does this with her first novel, “Down Riverside Road: Growing Up in the Borderland,” and also hopes to influence young adults to write.
Alvarez says, “Hopefully it helps it gets that little seed in the brains of say high school or middle school kids to say, ‘oh we’ve had experiences like this we could write down a story,’ and hopefully they do, or even elaborate on the stories in the book if they want.”
She is listed in Who’s Who Among America’s Teachers, is a recipient of the Doña Ana Arts Council “Arts in Education Award,” and was selected as an official entertainer for New Mexico Libraries’ summer reading program. Alvarez is already working on her new books, and also plans to continue helping students, and says she “hopes to work this summer with Girl Scouts on storytelling and possibly story writing, but definitely I want to do a story telling series with say middle school girl scouts or high school girl scouts.”
There will be two opportunities to meet Alvarez and get a signed copy of her book. She will be at the Branigan Library on Tuesday, April 12th from 2 to 4 p.m.; and at Barnes & Noble on the NMSU Campus, on Saturday, April 30th from 1 to 3 p.m. For more information you can also call her at (575)526-5940 or email at storydancerta@gmail.com.