Drum Dream Girl: How One Girl’s Courage Changed Music by Margarita Engle was published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in 2015. This book-length poem, illustrated by Rafael López, is Engle’s third children’s picture book, and was released in both English and Spanish. Dream Drum Girl was adapted into an animated children’s video by Dreamscapes Media in 2017. It won a Pura Belpré Award, a Charlotte Zolotow Award, and an International Latino Book Award. It was also featured on a number of lists, including the National Geographic Around the World in 20 Books for Kids, the NYPL 125 Books We Love For Kids, and the San Francisco Chronicle Best Books of 2015.

Drum Dream Girl is inspired by the life of Millo Castro Zaldarriaga—a Chinese-African-Cuban drummer. The book focuses on her childhood in the late 1920s and early 1930s. It is a free-verse poem with 105 lines in 21 stanzas. The main theme of the poem is how Millo transformed gender roles in Cuban music. Specifically, Millo paved the way for female drummers in a society that previously only accepted male drummers. Engle explores how this transformative process moves between private spaces and public spaces, as well as on an island.

Poet Biography

Margarita Engle was born in Pasadena, California in 1951. Her Ukrainian-Jewish father, fleeing soviet pogroms during the early days of the USSR, met her mother in Cuba. They fell in love there, and eventually moved to the United States. During her childhood, Engle grew up in Los Angeles with her father’s family and spent summers in Cuba with her mother’s family. However, these visits ended in the 1960s, when US Embargos of Cuba restricted sales of arms and all other commercial activities—including air travel into Cuba.

In 1974, Engle earned her B.A. at California State Polytechnic University. In 1977, she earned her M.S. at Iowa State University, studying agronomy and botany. This academic journey led to her marrying Curtis Engle—an agricultural entomologist (the study of insects in agriculture). At the University of California, Riverside, Engle almost completed her Ph.D. in biology. However, she decided to pursue writing after attending a lecture by Chicano author and Chancellor of UC Riverside Tomás Rivera. She ended her university career in 1983, leaving her position as associate professor of agronomy at California State Polytechnic University.

Engle remained in California, and became a prolific author of books for children, young adult, and adult audiences. Her first major publication was in 1993, when Singing to Cuba was published. She has published over 30 books, served as the Poetry Foundation’s Young People’s Poet Laureate (2017-2019), was a CINTAS fellow, and won several awards, including the NSK Neustadt Prize for Children’s Literature, the Pura Belpre Honor, the Newbery Honor, and a San Diego Book Award.

Poem Text

Engle, Margarita. "Drum Dream Girl: How One Girl’s Courage Changed Music."  2015. Poetry Foundation.

Summary

Drum Dream Girl is a free-verse poem containing 105 lines, and many lines are only one or two words long. The poem is divided into 21 stanzas which are spread out in the illustrated version of the poem into a book; most stanzas are given two pages for text and accompanying illustration. The purpose of Engle’s poem is to look at the historical figure Millo Castro Zaldarriaga—a Chinese-African-Cuban drummer.

The first stanza describes a girl and her home. She lives on an island where there is a lot of drumming; she dreams of drumming.

The second stanza describes the instruments she wants to play: conga drums, bongó drums, and timbales.

The third stanza explains that only boys are allowed to be drummers on the island where she lives—Cuba.

In the fourth stanza, the girl realizes she has to keep her desire to be a drummer a secret because of this social rule.

The fifth stanza contrasts two kinds of drumming: the drums that the girl hears played in cafés, and the drums that she hears in her mind.

The sixth stanza expands on music she hears. She listens to the sounds of trees, birds, her own footsteps, and her own heartbeat.

In the seventh stanza, other sounds are added. During carnivals, she hears the beat of dancers on stilts.

The eighth stanza develops the seventh, describing the masked male drummers at carnivals.

In the ninth stanza, the speaker focuses on the girl’s private drumming. She mimics sounds with her hands on furniture.

The tenth stanza is a reminder that her society does not accept female drummers.

In the eleventh stanza, the speaker asserts that the girl dared to play the kinds of drums she dreamed of playing: conga drums, bongó drums, and timbales.

The twelfth stanza develops this idea with descriptions of the girl’s drumming.

In the thirteenth stanza, the girl’s sisters are impressed with her playing and ask her to join their band.

In the fourteenth stanza, the girl’s father asserts that only boys can be drummers.

The fifteenth stanza describes how the girl keeps drumming by herself.

In the sixteenth stanza, the girl’s father relents. He finds a music teacher to judge the girl’s musical ability.

In the seventeenth stanza, the teacher is impressed with the girl’s drumming and expands her knowledge of music.

The eighteenth stanza shows how the girl continues to practice drumming.

In the nineteenth stanza, the teacher decides the girl is ready to play bongó drums in the café.

In the twentieth stanza, the speaker describes the audience’s positive reaction to the girl’s drumming. Her talent convinces them that girls should be allowed to drum.

The final stanza continues to develop the idea of equality between boys and girls. They should both be allowed to follow their dreams.