"Rushing Waters, Rising Dreams  brings to light the story and struggles of Latino communities through various forms of art such as graffiti, paintings, poems, and many other ways. Reading "Rushing Waters, Rising Dreams,  was an enlightening experience and I have a better understanding of the Latino community and what they have been through and see how strong the people are. To be honest, throughout the stories and poems I read from this book there was not anything particular that I did not understand. For the most part I was able to understand most of the things that this book had to offer. I wouldn't say "Rushing Waters, Rising Dreams  is an easy read, but it was not hard to understand the stories and poems that were brought together in this book. The only thing that I did not quite understand was the poem "Scarred Sisters  because parts of it are in Spanish which is a language I do not speak, unfortunately. If I could understand the parts in Spanish than I think I would have a better understanding of the poem. One thing that I read intrigued me was "La Paleta.  It's a poem that talks about the perseverance of a man and how he just overcomes every obstacle that he encounters. I can relate to this poem because I'm at a point in my life where I'm facing huge obstacles on a daily basis that will affect the rest of my life. The man in this poem just keeps moving forward, it doesn't matter what the situation is, he will always find a way to make things work and for me that is very encouraging and motivates me to push through my personal trials and tribulations. I wouldn't go as far and say that I found this story the least interesting amongst the stories that I read but "I am Rene, the Boy  did not hit home with me like other stories and poems in the book. The fact that a boy or a girl can have the name Rene isn't that important to me. I feel like there are a lot of names that can be used for both boys and girls. So for that rea