>> From the Library of Congress in Washington, DC. >> Georgette Dorn: Good afternoon. It's wonderful to welcome this really great gathering through our Americas Award, which we've been giving here since 1992. So the Hispanic division and the Center for the Book have been collaborated with the Consortium of Latin American Studies to give this really wonderful award for children. It is my great pleasure to also announce that this begins Hispanic Heritage month at the Library of Congress. And the Hispanic Heritage calendar's outside, so please pick it up on your way out. Because we have many wonderful events for Hispanic Heritage. And now it is my pleasure to introduce Guy Lamolinara from the Center for the Book, who is our cosponsor. [ Applause ] >> Guy Lamolinara: Thanks, Georgette, and thanks to everybody here. I'm really so pleased to be representing the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress, which is cosponsoring this wonderful event with the Library's Hispanic division. And we've done that, as Georgette said, for many years. For those of you who don't know about the Center for the Book, we're a small public-private partnership organization within the Library of Congress and our mission is to promote books reading, libraries and literacy. And we do it here at the National Center in Washington, but we also have 52 affiliated state centers for the Book. We have one in DC and we also have one in the US Virgin Islands. So if you are interested in what your local Center for the Book is doing, you can just Google Center for the Book and type in the name of your state and you'll see where your Center for the Book is and the programs that they do. These programs promote your state's literary heritage, so they're really great organizations. Another thing the Center for the Book does is we play a major role in the National Book Festival. We oversee the Library of Congress literacy awards and also the Poetry and Literature Center, which is the home of the US poet laureate. And I also want to thank Georgette Dorn and the staff of the Hispanic division for including us in this great event, as well as the Consortium of Latin American Studies. On the half of the Center for the Book, I congratulate the authors and illustrators for their extraordinary achievements. And thanks to Denis Woltering who is the strategic program manager of Tulane University Center for Latin American Studies who organized this event. Please welcome Denis Woltering. [ Applause ] >> Denis Woltering: Thank you, Guy, and thank you, Georgette and the Hispanic Division and thank you, Catalina, and everyone that's helped to sponsor this program over the many years. I'm very excited to be here, 2017 Americas Award Winners. This year we had over 75 submissions. And I'm very pleased over the years, the submissions of books titles has grown, that's a really great thing. We like to keep seeing that number grow. The committee this year had a really wonderful time discussing the books. It's been really interesting, really fun being able to connect with the committee this year over Skype calls on three to four different Sundays during the springtime. It takes up a lot of time but a lot of fun time. So I'd like to thank the committee that's here and will be helping to present at the program. And you'll see their names here. So I'd also like to explain a little bit. In your program here, you'll see we've developed the program over the many years. And it talks a little bit about class, the Consortium of Latin American Studies Programs, which this program is a product of. It's one of our proudest -- our projects that we are most proud of. It's a project that CLASP has sponsored since the early '90s. And Julie Klein, the founder of the award, is here. We're very thankful that she was able to join us here today. And the Consortium of Latin American Studies Program consists of over 50 different centers for Latin American studies at different universities across the country. We all do different types of outreach programming, academic programs on Latin America, the study of Latin America. And this program has really been a great way for us to reach out into the community using children's and young adult literature. This program especially would like to thank the universities of Florida International University, Stanford University, Tulane, the University of Florida, University of New Mexico, University of Utah, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and Vanderbilt. I'd like to mention that my colleague Colleen McCoy here at Vanderbilt and myself both coordinate this award. I know it's a lot of different people involved in this, but we're very excited and we're all very happy for this year's award winners. So I would like to introduce our chair of the committee, Ms. Denise Croker. [ Applause ] >> Denise Croker: Thank you, Denis. I have the privilege of speaking about the commended titles and letting you know how special and wonderful they are. This year we have a number of books that explore the hidden histories of Latin America and their influence here in the United States. Once again, Margarita Engle brings to life the little-known historical events from Cuba in her poetic novel, Lion Island, about Chinese indentured servants and others who escape persecution to find refuge in Cuba in the late 19th century. They become warriors of words, proving that violence is not the only way to gain liberty. The Princess and the Warrior is another great work by previous Americas Award Winner and author and illustrator, Duncan Tonatiuh. The author draws from vibrant cultural history and symbolism from the Azteca, to retell a romantic legend of two volcanoes, evoking storytellers from times long past. Lowriders to the Center of the Earth, written by Kathy Camper and illustrated by Raul, III, features Lupe, Elirio, and El Chavo, who take a rollicking ride to the underworld as they search for their lost cat. With puns, mariachi lyrics, and lingo of the lowriders, this is an unforgettable journey to the realm of the Aztec past. Another hidden history is found in the School That the Aztec Eagles Built, written by Dorinda Makanaonalani Nicholson. It's the inspirational World War II story of Angel Bocanegra, a dedicated teacher from Mexico who volunteers for the fighting pilots, the Aztec Eagles. His promise to return to his community and build a school are as inspirational as the military missions. Shame the Stars, by Guadalupe Garcia McCall is a Romeo and Juliet story set against the backdrop of the border troubles of 1915 between native Tejanos and the white Texas Rangers. With authentic newspaper clippings and original poetry, this is another book that shows the power of speech to right injustice. Juana and Lucas, written by Juana Medina, is a more whimsical book. An illustrated journey through Bogota, Colombia, through the eyes of quirky Juana and her furry amigo, her dog Lucas. Juana, too, learns the power of words and how languages open doorways to other cultures. Another common theme running through these books is the power of art and how it can represent the history of people, which is found in Rainbow Weaver, written by Linda Elovitz Marshall and illustrated by Elisa Chavarri. With her Mayan weavings that are made from repurposed plastic bags, young Ixchel is able to pay for her own books and her schooling, which emphasizes Ixchel's agency and her ingenuity. In Radiant Child, author Javaka Steptoe reveals the biography of street artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, while showcasing his developing work from childhood on, making it accessible to even the youngest reader. Margarito's Forest, written by Andy Carter and illustrated by Allison Havens, tells us the story of Don Margarito and his lifelong commitment to plant trees in his native Guatemala. This trilingual book, with English, Spanish, and captions in the indigenous local Mayan language, combines artwork of a professional illustrator and the children of Don Margarito's village. Another thing we see in our committed titles is the power of emotion and standing up for yourself. In the Memory of Light, written by Francisco Stork, main character Vicki learns to trust in others, trust in herself, and stand up for herself to her family, who seem to only care about career, success, and the monetary side of the American dream. Inspired by the author's own experiences, this young adult novel provides a powerful message of acceptance and empowerment for anyone struggling with depression. In Meg Medina's Burn Baby Burn, Nora Lopez also faces problems at home and violence in the streets of summertime 1977 New York City, when disco was king, temperatures were hot, and frighteningly, son of Sam was on the loose. This novel confronts problems of first and second generation Cuban immigrants, families members who love each other but who do not see the world from the same lens. And finally, the theme of immigration is the last theme of these commended titles, next seen in the children's book, Somos como las nubes, We are Like the Clouds, written by Jorge Argueta and illustrated by Alphonso Verano. The dreamy poetry and images in this book contrasts beautifully with the harsh realities of migration from Central America to the north. The migrants become a family of stars and move miraculously across the miles like the clouds, como las nubes. And finally, we have Mama the Alien, written by Rene Colato Lainez and illustrated by Laura Lacamara. When Sophia looks at her mother's old drivers license, she discovers that her mother is an alien. And she first imagines that her mother must come from another planet and that she's got alien friends who will soon visit her in a flying saucer. This clever book compares or clarifies the important topic of immigration and the process of becoming a US citizen. In the author's note she remarks, I want readers to know that immigrants may be referred to as aliens, but this only means that they come from other countries. We are all citizens of the planet Earth. And so we celebrate these titles and we congratulate their authors and illustrators. Thank you. [ Applause ] >> Maria Sheldon: Good afternoon. The cultural richness in our country is based on everyone's participation. It's such an honor to invite a woman that represents not only the culture of the Caribbean but the elegant way asking how she helps us understand what it means to be a global citizen. Canada, the US, Middle East, Trinidad, and Tobago. She invite us all to reflect in the richness of the Caribbean language and implore us to open our hearts as we create empathy with a global citizenry where we're all impacted. Nadia Hohn, author of Malaika's Costume, it is such an honor to have you right here. Thank you. [ Applause ] >> Nadia Hohn: [foreign language] My hope is one day that this book will be in Spanish as well. I close my eyes and dance. I am a beautiful peacock. Each feather shimmers green, gold, turquoise, and brown. Grandma say, girl, it is definitely [inaudible]. I think I messed that up. Trying to do it from memory. It's like grandma say, girl, I think you is definitely my granddaughter for true. So I want to start first by thanking the grandmothers, the mothers, the fathers, the grandfathers in my family, the ancestors who made the biggest migration of all. Of course, there's the trans-Atlantic slave trade centuries ago and over the centuries. And recently in the past century, having gone from Jamaica to Panama to help construct the canal, from Jamaica to Cuba to work in sugarcane, to go to UK, to go to the United States, like my grandfathers did, and my great uncle and my grandmothers, and also to Canada where I was born. So I want to thank all of them because that I found was part of the inspiration for this story. So the story takes place in the Caribbean. Malaika is living with her grandma, and mom has left to go to Canada to work and send money back home to support the family. So it's also carnival time and the first carnival since mom has gone. So now Malaika's left with waiting for this money that's supposed to come for the costume, and it doesn't come. So what is she going to do? And that's what this story is about. But it's also about a lot of other things too. And as I mentioned, migration is a theme that runs through it. I also want to say thank you but make mention of the inspiration which is Trinidad's carnival. The carnival in Trinidad is quite well known. And there are Caribbean carnivals all over the actual Caribbean but also the diaspora. So there is one here. There's one in Toronto. And this is the kind of festive atmosphere that I grew up with knowing going to the carnival each year. So actually there's a woman at the back I have to mention, because she's actually from Trinidad. And I saw her on the plane. And then I saw her here. So I said, you need to come. So she's the representative from Trinidad. So thank you to Trinidad and to the beautiful culture that's been given to us. And just understand that when people leave their countries behind, they don't leave everything behind, the bring their cultures with them. So I also want to thank and dedicate this book as I did in the story to the students I taught at the Afrocentric Alternative School. It's the first publicly-funded school, Afrocentric school, in Canada. So I wrote the story thinking of ways that I can make sure that books look like the kids that I teach. And I actually wrote this for a class assignment. So it took about six years for it to actually become a physical book. So it gives me great pleasure to have it here in my hands. And I also want to thank the Consortium for Latin American Studies Programs. Thank you for thinking of the Caribbean as well. And also our stories are very similar. We have a common thread of having similar histories of colonization and slavery and imperialism and that sort of thing. And how those have played out in different ways in the global economy, as the economies of these regions and how they actually come down to people making very personal and heartbreaking decisions. So I just want to close with this. I close my eyes and I am in front of you at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC, presenting and also accepting an honor for this book. And at the start of this year -- I like to do visioning boards. I don't know if you do that. But I just like to visualize and put a picture to the things I want. And two of the things that stand out to me, I wanted to come to Washington, DC, Baltimore, Philly. I put them all together. So I'm going to Philly tomorrow -- or sorry, Baltimore tomorrow and Philly in October. So that's coming up. But I also wanted to win an award. And I'm so glad it's this award because the theme of migration is so important. We've all migrated if not ourselves, our parents or people before us. And you think about the things we brought to this country. I have some cousins here who also they live here, the US is their home. So I want to just thank you for taking the time to acknowledge this. And thank you so much for being here. And thank you for this honor. [ Applause ] >> Paula Mason: Thank you. Hello, my name is Paula Mason, and I'm a public librarian in the Milwaukee area. And I'm on the selection committee. It is with great honor that I introduce author Reyna Grande and her outstanding title, The Distance Between Us, adapted for young readers and based off of her 2012 award-winning memoir. Reyna provides readers with an intimate look at the multifaceted effect that modern-day immigration has on young people. We first step into her shoes as a child left behind with her grandparents in her hometown in Mexico. We feel the emotional impact that this has on Reyna and her siblings, who dream of reuniting with her parents, and in particular, with the father that she knows only as the man behind the glass of a picture frame. Later, she undergoes the fraught experience of crossing the border without documents into a land that offers promise of dreams to be realized but not without substantial strife and struggles. Throughout all of this, Reyna provides young readers with a compelling and bracingly honest narrative as she forges her own identity and strives towards her academic and personal goals. While for some her book provides an important look into an experience distinct from their own, for so many other readers, aspects of this timely memoir will resonate deeply with their own first-hand experience of immigration and their families. Thank you so much, Reyna, for your wonderful gift you've given us. Thank you. [ Applause ] >> Reyna Grande: Hello, everyone. It's great to be here with you today. Thank you so much for this honor. And I would like to dedicate this recognition to the Dreamers. Because these are child immigrants who came to America the way I did. And my story is so similar to theirs. With the difference that I was very fortunate to be given the opportunity to legalize my status. And that is something that I'm really fighting for them to also have that same opportunity. So I want to dedicate this recognition to them. Because they, like me, have also had a lot of trauma. They've had a lot of heartbreak . And they took so many risks and made so many sacrifices to be here in this country. And they continue to give their best to make this country a great place to live. As you heard, my book is about the often not acknowledged effect of immigration, which is the disintegration of a family. And that is the book that I wanted to write about how immigration impacts not just the parents, not just the children, but the entire family. And everything that happens affects the families. But also there's an inheritance of trauma that gets passed down to the next generation. And that is something that I myself am struggling with as a parent is, how do I not pass on my trauma to my children? And I am very grateful actually for everything that I went through, even though I'm still suffering from all of those things. Because now as a parent, when I look back on my life, I'm very grateful that, you know, I was the one who went through family separation. I was the one who had to watch my father walk away, my mother walk away. I was the one who risked my life to cross the border so that my own children never have to do that. And now I'm able to give my children something that I didn't have, which is a parent that stays with them. And to me, that is what makes it all worth it. And that's why when I look back on my life, I am very grateful. Because I feel that, you know, it's worth what I went through, so that my children get a shot at the American dream without the pain that I went through to have that same opportunity. So I want to thank everyone for recognizing these stories of immigrants who contribute so much to this country. And it's important for us to acknowledge everything that we have done to make this country what it is, which is a really wonderful country where opportunities exist. And I want to make sure that we all continue to fight to make this a country where everyone is made to feel that they belong. And where everyone is made to feel that they are enough. Because we are enough. Thank you so much. [ Applause ] >> David Campos: Hello, my name is David Campos, and I am the newest member on the award committee. When I was first asked to participate, I was pretty excited, because I was a former second-grade teacher. And so I love children's books, as you can imagine. And so from September up till about December, I was so excited because I would see the mail truck, and it's like, oh, I know I'm getting something. Or I'd come home and there would be a package on my front door. Ada's Violin, which is the award winner today, came in a big box, and I'm not sure why, but it was in a big box with lots of stuffing in it. And as I opened it, I was immediately drawn to the absolutely beautiful colors. They just pulled me in. And I did what every good second-grade teacher would do, they do a book walk. So I did a book walk through it. And I just couldn't wait to start reading the story. And it was very meaningful to me. I just absolutely fell in love with the story . So without further ado, I'm going to present two awards. One is to the author, Susan Hood. And if you'll please come on up. [ Applause ] Thank you so much. And I'd like to go ahead and present the illustrated award as well, Susan -- excuse me. Sally Wern Comport. [ Applause ] >> I do want to take a moment actually and present to you something that's been a tradition through the Americas Award that Julie Klein started. And we give a weaving that's been woven and it represents your weaving of stories. So this is direct from our kachacha [phonetic] language scholar from Guatemala. >> Susan Hood: Thank you so much. Okay, [foreign language] to the awards committee, CLASP, and the Library of Congress for recognizing Ada's Violin, for this wonderful award, along with Alexandra Diaz's The Only Road. And congratulations to all the other honorees. I know much of your work and it's a joy to be with you here today. I'd love to tell you that I discovered the recycled orchestra of Paraguay, but that would be fake news. All the credit goes to my Simon & Schuster editor, Christian Tremor, who caught the 60 Minutes news report about the orchestra and thought it might make a good picture book. He asked if it held any interest. Did it. I never followed the old adage, to write what you know. I write about what surprises me, what I want to know more about. Well, this story didn't surprise me, it dazzled me, knocked me for a loop. I was all in. I'm so grateful to Christian, my agent, Brenda Bowen, and Simon & Schuster for the opportunity to share Ada's story with young readers and for pairing me up with my spectacular illustrator, Sally. Library, school, journal, culture, artwork for the book's transcendence and nothing short of brilliant, and I heartily agree. When I thought about how to tell this story, I decided there were two ways to do it: the easy way and the hard way. Guess which way I chose? The easy way would've been to read the many, many press reports about the orchestra for background information, make up a kid, and write a fictional book based on a true story. But for me, that approach would diminish the story's power. If written as fiction, readers would likely dismiss it as unbelievable. Would you believe that anyone could make a violin from a baking pan, a stick of lumber, and a fork? Or -- well, there was a picture of a clarinet that was made out of drainpipes, buttons, and house keys. I think we've all improvised kitchen sink bands, but you can't play Beethoven on them. The orchestra plays Beethoven, Bach, Mozart, and the Beatles so beautifully, they're in demand all over the globe and play for world leaders, including the Pope. You just can't make this stuff up. So the orchestra's story is astounding because it's all true. So for me, it had to be nonfiction. I had to find a way to reach kids in Paraguay and get them to tell their story in their own words. Well, what's so hard about that? I couldn't afford to travel to Paraguay. I'm an author. And remember, these kids live on the landfill. So there's no postal service, almost no electricity. I had no idea if anyone had a telephone or access to email or Skype. The biggest problem for me was that I don't speak Spanish and no one in the orchestra speaks English. After selling my editor on a nonfiction approach, I thought, oh, boy, Susan, what have you gotten yourself into? As I tell kids on school visits, don't be afraid to ask for help. My first step was to hire a translator. And I'd like to give a shout out to Shelley McConnell who's a Connecticut teacher from Mexico. I could not have written this book without her. My second step was to reach out to the producers of 60 Minutes, who were delighted with the idea of a possible picture book. They put me in touch with Favio Chavez, the conductor of the orchestra. And it turned out that he did have access to email and Skype. So I did several rounds of interviews with him and later with Ada online. It was quite a process. Writing the questions. Translating them. Waiting for a window when the orchestra wasn't on tour in Mexico or Germany or Colombia or Japan. It was often weeks and sometimes months before I would hear back. And then of course, their answers had to be translated back into English for me, and then that generated new questions. So we'd have to start the whole long process all over again. But it was worth the wait. Ada told me that she thinks of each garbage truck as a box of surprises. That statement and the optimism behind it knocked me out. Digging into this story was like unearthing my own box of surprises. It was truly life-changing. I try not to take things for granted, but let's face it, I have clean running water and electricity at the flick of a wrist. There's green grass outside my door. My family and I don't think twice about phone service, air-condition, transportation, police, firefighters, public schools, or garbage collection. Or something as simple and life-changing as shoes. Ada's world is far from an isolated case. People live in garbage dumps all over the world: Mexico, India, Philippines, and on and on. Last May, more than 100 people were killed on a landfill in Ethiopia when their homes were buried by an avalanche of trash. In the middle of my interviews with Ada, disaster struck there too. The river that runs through the town flooded causing hundreds of families to evacuate their tin shacks. What had been a mountain of trash became a sea of toxic garbage. And yet despite all of this, Ada and her friends remain hopeful, resilient, and dedicated to making music for the world. At a time when the national endowment for the arts is under siege in our country, Ada's story sings of the lifesaving power of the arts. Degas once said, art is not what you see but what you make others see. And it's clear that music made these aimless forsaken kids something to focus on, something to strive towards, and something to hope for. For many it was the only beauty in their lives. They learned how to play their instruments. And they learned a few other things as well: focus, discipline, dedication, respect for themselves and for each other. And music is literally helping them rebuild their lives and their community. Profits from their concerts and proceeds from this book go back to Paraguay where the families use the money to build brick houses out of the flood zone. Ada was right, there was indeed a box of surprises waiting in the landfill. Buried in the trash was music. And buried in these kids was something to be proud of. Gracias. [ Applause ] >> Sally Wern Comport: I'm going to have to ask for assistance here to. I am not a wordsmith, I'm an artist. I'm the illustrator for Ada's Violin. And so I don't have a lovely written talk for you, because, like I said, I'm about pictures. So I need to show you slides. I can tell you this. Simon & Schuster called me and said, are you interested in illustrating a book? And we want to send you a trailer about this book that will be written, is yet to be complete. I didn't have a manuscript but I had about a three-minute trailer that had me weeping from the start. The music was so beautiful. The story, while limited and abbreviated, was so moving and so positive in terms of the impact of what music and a teacher brought to these students that were living on a dump. So what you do when you're illustrating is you try to bring yourself to that space. Well, I waited for the story after I said yes immediately, and I waited for the manuscript. And then I got Susan's manuscript. And what can I say? To be introduced through the lens of Ada was the most amazing way to take this story and feel as though you could try in the best way possible to be sitting there with them, to be with them. So I'm going to take you just plainly to the studio. So there's a studio space, and this is where it begins. In Annapolis, just shy of here, which means I was not familiar with South America either. So it's how do you feel? What these people feel, it is important to immerse yourself in. There's more studio. So you can see, it's kind of a mess. So I had a little bit of a dump site in my studio. But it also is where the creative comes from. So the inspiration comes from thinking about the materials that might be around, thinking about the color, the temperature, the smell, all of that, and immersing yourself in it. I went to the Spanish grocery store in my community, took photographs of all the things, to try to create a garbage dump that we could just slightly think was beautiful. Because there was nothing beautiful about the photographs that came from this. And try to find the art, the color, the things that represent what this culture might have seen, whether it be labels or color or -- and then to see the instruments themselves, amazing pieces, works of art. And the inspiration for the images is completely because of the story, because of the sculptures that were made, crafted by one craftsman, a carpenter in the village. And when you see where he lives and how inspiring his story alone was, it helps you to see the ripples in the pond that happen from an idea. And hopefully it translates to the world that way. That was what was apparent in the film. When I do a book, I will choreograph it throughout in the palette, so that when you look at the thumbnails of the first sketches that were done for this book, you want to walk through it as if you're walking through the story and come out with the inspirational feeling that I had when I read Susan's incredible manuscript. And it starts with more of the paper, more of the collaging. It inspired all of the images, was the story itself. Every book that's done is done hopefully from my studio inspired by what I'm looking at. So I would not draw the same book that I was drawing for this if it was another author or another story. But I wanted you to feel heat when you looked at these kids practicing outside. And I wanted you to feel their emotion when they thought about getting on stage. So I grabbed the nearest studio assistant I had and said, Lindsay, you're very, very afraid. And here my two Arian and Lindsay, you're really thrilled to be performing in a world stage with this amazing band. So hopefully that is coming from the story in the images. I can barely do the inspirational story any justice. But I'm very grateful for this honor and for this organization and what you bring to the world. So thank you for the honor and the invitation. [ Applause ] >> Emily Chavez: Good afternoon. Very afraid of dropping -- okay, now it's safe. It is an honor to present this Americas Award to Alexandra Diaz for The Only Road, this book right here. I'm Emily Chavez, a member of the review committee, and I am the outreach coordinator for the UNC Duke Consortium and Latin American and Caribbean Studies. Thank you. And I'm a former English teacher, high school English teacher. So this book was just a book that I had the pleasure of reading. After I read it, I really couldn't stop talking about it or telling everyone I knew about it. It is a powerful portrayal of why young people, so many young people, have traveled to this country alone from their countries of origin to this one, and how they do so. I see this as an empathy-building novel. Jaime and Hella are the main characters and they leave Guatemala to travel to Mexico, meeting friends and others along the way. They are teenagers and they are cousins who wrestle with exhaustion, grief, hunger, and longing throughout their journey. Jaime and Hella are also playful, hopeful, curious. And the novel does not shy away from the many threats and injustices of the migration journey from Guatemala, through Mexico, to the United States. Yet, Alexandra Diaz has written it in such a way that makes it appropriate for middle school and high school readers. Many communities and schools across the US have seen and experienced the change in recent years, more kids coming from Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras. Many arriving as unaccompanied minors who may or may not be reuniting with families here that they know. At the peak of this migration pattern, 27,000 unaccompanied minors arrived from Central America to the US in June 2014. This book is timely. It's needed. And an awesome resource for so many students, both those who want to learn more about Latin American youth migrating to the US, as well as young Latin American immigrants who want to see themselves in the pages of the books that they read. This is a book about choices and the lack thereof. This is a book about survival. This is a book about connection. So I'm very happy to introduce Alexandra Diaz, the author of The Only Road. [ Applause ] >> I also want to give you a weaving from Guatemala. So thank you so much. >> Fantastic. >> Alexandra Diaz: [inaudible] I just forgot to print it, so I needed my notes from my computer. I'm going to put this on now. I don't know how to wear it, but I'm like feeling very loved. Thank you. So I want to say thank you so much for the opportunity to be here. I'm Alexandra Diaz, the author of The Only Road. People have asked me if I've been to Washington, DC before and if I've been to the Library of Congress. And I always feel like saying, yes, I have. But I actually do not remember being in the Library of Congress. So I feel it was one of those things that happened as a teenager that, you know, this is this, this is that, and I didn't pay attention enough. Which is a shame. But, you know, at the same time, it means that my opportunity to be here is that much more memorable. I took the tour and I could just see and feel all the books that were here. And to be a part of that, it's this feeling like, can life even got any better? Because it's a huge honor. And I have read the works of, you know, my fellow award winners, and I keep thinking, they must've made a mistake because their books are so fabulous and so wonderful, why am I here. So I thank CLASP for thinking of me. I thank Simon & Schuster for sending the book, for encouraging me to write it, everyone who is involved. I'm sure I'm going to forget somebody and so I'll stop there and just say, everyone is thanked. This book, The Only Road, is a very timely book with a personal connection. I am the daughter of Cuban refugees. And I grew up hearing stories about Cuba and what it was like not to -- not only to live there but also to leave there. Leaving your family, your friends, your home, and not knowing if you could ever go back. So both of my parents left as teenagers. They left with nothing but $5 and two changes of clothes. They were not allowed to take anything else. Those who were caught smuggling additional items were imprisoned. And people who spoke against the government were executed, sometimes even publicly. So I grew up with these stories, hearing about what it's like to leave your family, leave your home, and leave your country, because it's the only way that you have a chance of surviving. When the opportunity came to write this modern-day immigration novel, I immediately jumped at the chance. I'm like [foreign language] I have to write this. Because it's what my parents went through. It's what so many children are going through right now. And you ask yourself, well, why are they doing this? You know, why are you putting yourself in such a danger? And the thing is that there is no other choice. People are doing this because there is no other option. I did take the easy route and made a fictional story with this book. But still wanted to base it on real events, real people, and real things that are going on. I wrote this book two years ago. And at the time, immigration was a very hot topic. I had no idea that it would become so much more controversial and so much more of a hot topic given the political situation today. But I also wanted to bring -- so not only did I want to have a novel that shared what was realistically happening, but I also wanted to bring a novel of hope. So spoiler alert. They live. And you know, there are a lot of opportunities. A lot of bad things can happen, but there are still a lot of opportunities and a lot of reasons to help them to strive and want to continue. And I truly believe that if you don't have hope, you don't really have a life. So even when things get really bad and you're struggling and you don't know how you're going to survive, it's holding on to that hope and holding on to that feeling that maybe things will change, maybe things will be better. Maybe you have to make decisions that you may not have wanted to make. But you know, it is for the better. I mean, like Reyna was saying, that she was so glad she made that journey because now she has that hope for her children. Her children don't have to go through that. So I did want to make sure my novel was realistic but still kept that light of a promise. So even when you have no choice, there is always a different path. So again, thank you so much for allowing me to be here. I am just so honored. And my mom is not here. I love my mommy. And she was the one who always encouraged me to write and keep writing. She is my biggest fan and I love her to bits because of it. So I certainly wouldn't have been able to be here if it hadn't been for her and her strength and her unconditional love of what I wanted to do, and never once telling me I had to get a real job. So thank you very much. [ Applause ] >> Colleen McCoy: Thank you so much, Alexandra. Well said. Thank you all for coming. Thank you to the Library of Congress once again and all of our supporters, our review committee members, and of course, our authors and illustrators. At this time we'd like to invite you to join us for a reception and also to meet and greet and maybe get a book signed with our authors and illustrator here today. Reyna, Nadia, and Alexandra will be at the table right here to the back. And then just through this doorway, will be Sally and Susan. Susan will be ducking out shortly to catch a train. So if you have to go chat with her, I recommend you visit her first. Thank you all again and hope to see you next year. >> This has been a presentation of the Library of Congress. Visit us at LOC.GOV.