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The Tomás Rivera Mexican American Book Award was developed by the Texas State University’s College of Education to honor authors and illustrators who create literature that depicts the Mexican American experience. Tomás Rivera, a native of Crystal City, Texas, is the first Mexican American to have been selected Distinguished Alumnus at Texas State University–San Marcos. He is known as the Dean of Mexican American Literature.

The award is given each year to the authors and illustrators of outstanding children’s and young adult literature that most authentically reflects Mexican Americans in the United States.

Past winners include Guadalupe Garcia McCall’s Under the Mesquite, Sylvia and Aki by  Winifred Conkling, Diego Rivera His World and Ours by Duncan Tonatiuh and What Can You Do with a Paleta by Carmen Tafolla. The first winners of the award in 1996 were Chatos Kitchen by Gary Soto and Farolito’s Christmas by Rudolfo Anaya.

Nominations must be submitted by 1 November and winners are announced on 15 February.

Criteria for the award are

• The book will be written for children and young adults (0-16 years).
• The text and illustrations will be of highest quality.
• The portrayal/representations of Mexican Americans will be accurate and engaging, avoid stereotypes, and reflect rich characterization.
• The book may be fiction or non- fiction.

Just a little change up today to celebrate Cinco de Mayo! Instead of book trailers, five extra-ordinary Mexican American authors!

Gary Soto most recent book: Facts of Life

Francisco Stork most recent book: Irises

Alex Sanchez most recent book: Boyfriends with Girlfriends

Pam Munoz Ryan most recent book: The Dreamer

Benjamin Alire Saenz most recent book: Aristotle and Dante Discover the Universe

Enrique R. Lamadrid and Juan Estevan Arellano, illustrated by Amy Córdova,
Juan the Bear and the Water of Life / La Acequia de Juan del Oso
University of New Mexico Press, 2008.

Ages: 7+

The 19th century waterways that irrigate the Upper Mora Valley in New Mexico’s Sangre de Cristo Mountains are a marvel of engineering to this day. In places, the water seems to defy gravity, and no one is quite sure how the people who built them—lacking tools as basic as a metal-bladed shovel—accomplished it. Though the history of their construction is lost, stories about the dedicated pioneers who built them have evolved, through oral tradition, into regional legends presented here in picture-book form.

La Acequia de Juan del Oso comes from the story of “The Three Juanes”: the remarkably strong Juan del Oso, son of a local woman and a bear; Juan Mudacerros, who moves mountains; and Juan Mudarríos, who can change the course of rivers. Folklorists Enrique R. Lamadrid and Juan Estevan Arellano recognize similar characters in Spanish tradition, from which the acequia technology of the American Southwest is also derived. The super-human young men, all of them exiled from their communities as a result of unintentionally misusing their special strengths and powers, work together as only they can to bring the water up and over the mountain. Amy Córdova’s rich and colorful illustrations bring the landscape and characters to life in this story that is not only about the reward of hard work but also the pain of exclusion and the value of community.

The authors skillfully incorporate what is known about the building of the canals (such as rudimentary tools, including a half-empty brandy bottle used as a level) with the legend of the boy whose mother married a bear but is forced to return home. When an innocent swipe seriously injures another child, the half-bear Juan flees to the woods where he finds his welcoming father and the other legendary Juanes. Together they accomplish the work that enables the expanding village population to inhabit a valley on the other side of the mountain. This book brings both the folktale and the limited known history of the acequia together in a way that celebrates not only the past and the legends but also the people who live in the Mora Valley today who continue to make a beautiful life in this stark, arid, and high-altitude environment.

Abigail Sawyer
May 2012

To kick off the Merced County Arts Council’s Demand the Arts campaign author Francisco X. Alarcón will host a book reading on Saturday, July 30th from 11am – noon. The event will take place at the Merced Multicultural Arts Center 645 W. Main Street, Merced, CA, USA. Mr. Alarcón will read from his bilingual book for children Laughing Tomatoes and Other Spring Poems / Jitomates risueños y otros poemas de primavera. Publisher Children’s Book Press’ overview of Laughing Tomatoes and Other Spring Poems reads:

From the imagination of poet Francisco X. Alarcón comes this playful and moving collection of twenty poems about spring in English and Spanish. Tomatoes laugh, chiles explode, and tortillas applaud the sun! With joy and tenderness, delight and sadness, Francisco’s poems honor the wonders of life and nature: welcoming the morning sun, remembering his grandmother’s songs, paying tribute to children working in the fields, and sharing his dream of a world filled with gardens. Artist Maya Christina Gonzalez invites us to experience the poems with her lively cast of characters—including a spirited grandmother, four vivacious children, and playful pets who tease and delight. Follow them from page to page as they bring the spring season to colorful life.

Alarcón is an award-winning poet, educator and author of 12 volumes of poetry.  Raised in Mexico and California, he refers to himself  as a “bi-national, bicultural, bilingual poet” and writes for children and adults in English and Spanish. His children’s books vividly paint pictures of Latino culture, family, fun, and flavor and have won such prestigious awards as the American Library Association’s Pura Belpré Honor Award and the Américas Award Commended Title. Alarcón was a featured speaker at Talleres de Poesia’s inaugural  Children’s Poetry Festival held last November in El Salvador

Merced Arts Council Executive Director Staci Santa encourages children and their families to come down and enjoy the event. She says “Francisco seamlessly weaves language, art and diversity in an accessible and joyful way that makes everyone who meets him happier. The arts council is excited to bring Mr. Alarcón to Merced to share the beautiful languages and images in his children’s books to kids young and young at heart.”

To download the event poster click here.

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This week’s Poetry Friday is hosted at Book Aunt  – head on over.

“We celebrate our ancestors on the Day of the Dead / with offerings of flowers, sugar skulls, and bread”, begins El dia de los muertos/ The Day of the Dead, a bilingual picture book written and illustrated by Bob Barner and translated by Teresa Mlawer (Holiday House, 2010).

This book, with its illustrations of smiley and spirited skeletons, makes for a great introduction to the holiday for young children as a day of happy remembrance in honor of loved ones who have passed away. Its simple and well-crafted rhymes will peak kids’ interest and curiosity about the special foods, music, commemorative altars and parade that the celebration encompasses.

For more stories featuring endearing, not-scary-at-all skeletons, check out Yuyi Morales‘ Just a Minute Señor Calavera, a counting book and trickster tale about Señor Calavera’s (Mr. Skull) failed attempts to “take” Grandma Beetle with him.

In Malathi Michelle Iyengar’s picture book Romina’s Rangoli, Romina, a half-Indian and half-Mexican girl born in the United States, is struggling with a school assignment that requires students to “create something that represents your ancestors, your family, and where you come from. Something that represents your heritage.” She can’t seem to come up with a project that will blend her two cultures – that is, until Mr. Gonzalez, her Mexican neighbor, compares her rangoli patterns, drawn with colorful chalk on the sidewalk, and traditionally used in India to decorate houses, the entrance of temples and courtyards, to the symmetrical patterns of papel picado (cut-paper art), a Mexican folk art tradition.

To the teacher and students’ surprise, since they were expecting to see something hanging on the wall, Romina displays her project on the classroom floor, rangoli-style. She explains: “You, see, in India this design would be made of different colored flower petals, or dyed rice-flour, or colored chalk. But mine is made of cut paper, papel picado. My project is both Indian and Mexican, combined. Just like me!” (read the complete review here).

In her personal view article for PaperTigers, titled Hybridity in Literature and Life, the author writes:

When writing Romina’s Rangoli, I struggled with wanting to make the story simple enough to engage and entertain very small children, while at the same time trying NOT to promote the kind of simplistic thinking that reduces “culture” to food and holidays – i.e., Romina is Indian and Mexican, so that means she makes rangoli designs and papel picado. I have often wondered whether Romina’s craft project isn’t too pat, too simple of an ending. But in a society that still tells us, most of the time, to “Check only one box,” the very fact that we multi-ethnic folks actually exist is news to many children. Hopefully, as children get older, they will begin to explore with intellectual rigor the subtle complexities of what culture means in people’s lives, and how various cultural influences converge in family life.

Preparations for the Los Angeles Latino Book & Family Festival are underway. An outstanding lineup of authors and panels is being put together, as well as performers, and special appearances by celebrities and representatives of the Latino community. To be held at California State University Los Angeles (CSULA), the festival will feature a main stage, a children’s area and stage, and three lecture halls/classrooms for author presentations. More information, including a list of confirmed authors, is available here and to make sure you receive regular updates, sign up for their newsletter here.