>> Maria Thurber:
Hello, everybody,
and welcome to the
Hispanic Reading Room.
My name is Dani Thurber, and I
am a reference librarian here
in the Hispanic Division.
We are here to celebrate a
National Hispanic Heritage Month
staple in the Library
of Congress,
the 26th Annual Americas Award.
This year, we added additional
events, including earlier today,
an author reading
with Francie Latour,
who read from this
year's honored book,
"Auntie Luce's Talking
Paintings."
Following the ceremony, join us
for a hands-on workshop inspired
by Duncan Donatiuh's
award-winning work,
"Undocumented, A
Worker's Fight,"
and the treasured Mesoamerican
codices that are part
of the Library's collection.
We will create a collective
work to be on display
in the Hispanic Reading Room
through Hispanic Heritage Month.
A reception and book sale
for this year's commented
titles will follow the ceremony
as well.
And now, I will pass the
mike to Dr. Suzanne Schadl,
chief of the Hispanic Division.
[ Applause ]
>> Suzanne Schadl: Welcome.
I hope that that clapping
was for Dani Thurber.
So if you would just
clap again for Dani --
[ Applause ]
-- and if all of you would
help me tip the hat to her
for organizing all of our
events today in collaboration
with colleagues in the
Hispanic Cultural Society,
the Young Readers' Center, the
Learning and Innovation Office,
and also, if you would recognize
our special events crew,
who makes sure that you
can hear us, and see us,
and that you have seats.
And I appreciate
all of you bearing
with us in an intimate space.
We think it's important to be
in this intimate space together.
So I hope that it doesn't get
too warm here for everyone,
and if it does, just
enjoy it [laughter].
How's that?
Okay. We are also happy to
be here with the Consortium
of Latin American
Studies Programs, CLASP,
and I'll talk a little bit
about them in a second.
So Dani told you my name.
I'm Suzanne Schadl.
It is a real privilege
for me to be a chief
in the Hispanic division.
Not only do I get to host
authors, today we had the honor
of hearing Francie
Latour read from her work,
and discuss that work
with the audience.
We'll also have the privilege
this evening of working
with Duncan Tonatiuh, with
the format of the codex.
We get to -- Duncan's
also an illustrator.
We'd love to bring other
illustrators here next year,
too, and educators, and to
work to provide inspiration
for learning and creating.
And I hope everybody
will stay with us
after the awards ceremony
this evening in order
to use the inspiration of
books, and the material that go
into creating those books
to create our own work.
And I would be happy to show
you other things around the room
that we like to do the
same kind of work with.
I also have the pleasure
of working with a team
of excellent librarians and
editors to engage people
with materials on and from the
Caribbean, Latin America, Spain,
Portugal, the indigenous
peoples in all of those regions,
and also people with Spanish and
Portuguese heritage that are all
over the world, pretty
much every continent.
We get to collect
materials from those places,
and help people find them here
in the Library of Congress.
I want to thank everyone
for attending this ceremony,
and for staying on
this evening also.
I'd like to give a special
thanks to all of our authors,
and recognize those who are
able to be here with us tonight.
Francie and Duncan, thank you
so much for sharing your work
with us, and we're here tonight
because of the Americas Award.
And you're going to hear a lot
more about the Americas Award,
and all of the works
that are recognized.
And the Americas Award is
organized through the Consortium
of Latin American
Studies Programs,
and this is something
sort of dear to my heart.
So I'd like to say a
few words about that.
CLASP is an organization
of educators,
college educators
working with high school
and middle school educators,
and public educators,
and libraries all
over the country
to foster global competency.
To help promote language
proficiency,
to make less-commonly-known
languages more knowable
in our communities, and to
create more cultural awareness
of Latin America
and the Caribbean.
A lot of people look at
children's books and forget
that those are materials that
are shared between adults,
and children, and communities.
And the information that
is shared in that kind
of a communal setting is really
a wonderful opportunity for us
to address difficult topics
with one another in ways
that are accessible, and in ways
that really do embrace diversity
by welcoming different ages
to come together
around those topics.
So I am really appreciative of
the work that our reviewers do
in working at universities,
and thinking
about these children's
texts as texts that are --
that are doing an important job
in educating beyond
the university.
Beyond that, I guess I'm
just going to turn the mike
over to our partners at CLASP.
Denise Woltering-Vargas
from Tulane University,
please take the microphone
away from me.
[ Applause ]
>> Denise Woltering-Vargas:
Good evening.
My name is Denise
Woltering-Vargas.
I am one of the coordinators
of the Americas Award.
Thanks to Dani, and to Suzanne.
On behalf of the Consortium of
Latin American Studies Programs,
Tulane University,
Vanderbilt University,
the Centers for Latin
American Studies
at Florida International
University, Stanford University,
the Ohio State University,
University of Florida,
University of New Mexico,
University of Utah,
UNC Duke Consortium in Latin
American and Caribbean Studies,
and the University of
Wisconsin, Milwaukee.
All of our centers helped
to put together the support,
the funds to be able to
provide this book award,
so we appreciate their
support and their sponsorship.
This year, as you heard
from Dani, is our 26th year
of celebrating the Americas
Award, which is pretty special.
We're really very excited.
The award was founded --
like to do a little history.
I know it's in your program,
but it was founded in 1993
by Associate Director Julie
Kline, who's here with us.
So thank you so much, Julie,
for continuing to come
and support the work
that you began in '93.
She was at the University
of Wisconsin Milwaukee,
and since 2012, both Tulane
and Vanderbilt have
coordinated this award.
We would come every fall to
do a Hispanic Heritage event
with the Library of Congress.
We would work with Georgette and
Catalina [assumed spellings],
and put together
an awards ceremony.
This year, we are so excited
to be working this year
with both Suzanne and Dani, who
brought a very new perspective,
and a really great approach to
engaging with our community,
and engaging here at
the Library of Congress.
We're very appreciative
of the continued support
and partnership of
the Hispanic Division
and the Library of Congress.
Awards are given to two of
-- up to two books a year,
and are selected for their
distinctive literary quality,
cultural contextualization,
exceptional integration of text,
illustration, and design, and
potential for classroom use.
The goal of this award
is to link the Americas
to reach beyond geographic
borders, focusing instead
on cultural heritages
within the hemisphere.
This year, we're very
lucky to have three
of our committee members here.
This year, we have a committee
comprised of teachers, faculty,
and community across
the country.
We're very unique in
having this collection
of folks look and review books.
We have Dr. David
Campos at the University
of Incarnate Word
here with us today.
He is the chair of the
2019 Americas Award.
Other committee members with
us today are Connie Sharp
from Nashville, Christi
Moraga from Connecticut,
who was one of our original
committee members back in '93.
So thank you for being with us.
We are missing a couple
of her colleagues --
Luciano Marzulli in Utah,
and Dr. Patricia
Austin in Louisiana.
In the fall, the books were
submitted, and beginning
in March, the committee gathers
online via conference calls
in a series of meetings
to determine the winners,
the honorable mentions,
and the commended titles.
These conversations are
enlightening, insightful,
and at times, very spirited,
and shows the passion
that the committee members
felt about the diverse cultures
of Latin America
that they represent.
Both Colleen and I are extremely
grateful for the hard work
of the committee, and
they care they put
into choosing this
year's award winners,
honorable mentions,
and commended titles.
I will now hand it over to the
2019 Americas Award committee
chair, David.
[ Applause ]
>> David Campos: Thank
you so very much.
I just want to say that,
for the last three years,
I've had the honor and privilege
of working with the committee.
That's been a lot of fun, and
the joy that the conversations
that we've had -- and
I have to say that,
for the last three years, I
think my mailman has gotten used
to me being so excited.
Because he was delivering
me a package of books,
and I was always eager
to jump right into it.
I will be recognizing the
commended titles, and I'm going
to be reading those to you.
The first one is "Alma and How
She Got Her Name," "Carmela Full
of Wishes," "Dreamers," "La
Frontera, My Journey With Papa,"
"A Gift from Abuela,"
"Jazz Owls,"
""Marcus Vega Doesn't
Speak Spanish,"
"Merci Suarez Changes
Gears," "Photographic,
the Life of Graciela
Iturbide," "Puerto Rico Strong,
a Comics Anthology Supporting
Puerto Rico Disaster,"
"They Call Me Guero, A Border
Kid's Poems, "When Angels Sing,
The Story of Rock
Legend Carlos Santana."
Let's give a hand in recognizing
those commended titles.
[ Applause ]
And now I'm going to
hand over the podium
to my colleague, Christi.
>> Christi Moraga: Good evening.
My name is Christi Moraga from
Connecticut, and this evening,
I am happy to say that
there were two books
that the Americas Book Award
committee deemed so outstanding
that we would like
to honor them today
with the 2019 Americas
Honorable Mention titles.
First, the author Elizabeth
Acevedo could not be
with us today, but
her book called
"The Poet X" impressed
the committee members
with its raw authenticity
and cultural sensitivities.
The book is a novel made
up of poetry that centers
around a Dominican
teen who is trying
to find her way in
a hybrid world.
She is restrained by her
parents, especially her mother,
who is very religious.
She becomes confused with her
first romantic relationship,
and she struggles with the
co dependence that she has
with her twin brother.
Some of you may have
been saved by a teacher.
Xiomara, the name
of the protagonist,
is invited by her
English teacher
to attend an after-school
poetry club.
Writing poetry becomes an
oral activity, and eventually,
Xiomara finds her
voice at a poetry slam.
If you have never
been to a poetry slam,
the experience is enlightening,
as you watch young
people find their voices.
I've been to one in
Hartford, and it's incredible.
Congratulations to
Elizabeth Acevedo in absentia
for this amazing book
for young adults.
Our next honoree is
here, and perhaps some
of you heard Francie Latour
reading in the morning session.
Her picture book, "Auntie
Luce's Talking Paintings,"
called to me in many ways.
This is a story of a little New
York Haitian girl whose world
grows immensely when she
visits her Auntie Luce
on the island of her ancestors.
Through the medium of painting,
Auntie Luce reminds her niece
that the island has
a collective history
and a personal history
that she is part of.
Not only does Auntie Luce
commemorate historical figures
like Dessalines and Louverture,
but she also paints the villages
and countryside, the
marketplace, the good
and the bad of everyday life.
She paints her own family,
and most importantly,
she paints the little girl
who is longing to remember
and striving to belong.
I love the string of
adjectives that Miss Latour uses
to describe the many hues of
Haiti and the Haitian people.
The illustrator, Ken Daley, has
transformed her vibrant words
into vibrant pictures
that permit outsiders
to step into Haitian life.
I am proud to award the 2019
Americas Honorable Mention
to "Auntie Luce's
Talking Paintings,"
written by Francie Latour
and illustrated by Ken Daley.
[ Applause ]
And now, the amazing
Francie Latour.
[ Applause ]
>> Francie Latour: Hi, everyone.
Thank you, Christi.
>> Christi Moraga:
You're welcome.
>> Francie Latour: I appreciate
that introduction so much.
Good afternoon, everyone.
Good afternoon, everyone
[laughter].
>> Good afternoon.
>> Francie Latour: Okay.
It means a lot to be included
in making community with you all
in this gathering,
in this moment,
and in this particular way.
So traditionally,
when Haitians gather,
or even greet each other, the
greeter says [foreign language],
honor, and those who are
gathered respond by saying,
[foreign language], respect.
Should we try it?
>> Sure.
>> Francie Latour: Okay.
[Foreign language] okay.
That was beautiful.
Okay. "Auntie Luce's
Talking Paintings" stumbled
into existence pretty
accidentally
over a number of years.
So it's a little
overwhelming to be here, and so,
know that the thanks that
I am about to give comes
from a very deep place.
I want to thank the Consortium
of Latin American
Studies Programs
for recognizing this book, and
its story of Haitian culture,
Haitian family, and
Haitian history.
In recognizing work that
celebrates Caribbean as well
as Latin American experience,
the Americas Award honors
the unity and the complexity
of our shared history as
descendants of West Africa,
a powerful connection that
extends across language,
across faith, across food ways,
across nations, across time.
That makes this recognition
extremely special to me.
I want to thank the Hispanic
Division of the Library
of Congress, and especially
Suzanne and Dani, for creating
such a warm, and
welcoming, and safe space
for us all here today.
I read recently that, of the
12 or so million holdings
in the division's
Hispanic Reading Room,
only about 2.5 million
are books.
Among the many other
items is a collection
of spoken-word recordings by
hundreds of poets and writers
from across the Hispanic world
and the Caribbean,
including Haiti.
And so, we are surrounded by
the keepers of our stories here,
whose voices connect
us and celebrate us
through the written
and spoken word.
I want to take just a moment
to thank the Librarian
of Congress, Dr. Carla Hayden.
As a black woman, there is
incredible meaning and power
for me in being recognized here,
inside the Thomas
Jefferson Building.
Under the leadership
of a librarian
who is not only the first
woman, and the first black woman
to hold the post of Librarian of
Congress, but also the product
of two cities that have
anchored black communities
for generations, and
have produced some
of the U.S.'s most important
leaders, visionaries,
artists, and freedom fighters.
Those would be Baltimore
and Chicago.
I want to thank the author and
illustrator Duncan Tonatiuh
for being Duncan
Tonatiuh [laughter].
I am a huge, huge fan.
One of the things that was
really hard about making
"Auntie Luce's Talking
Paintings" was figuring out how
to tell important truths,
and how to tell them in a way
that would make kids
want to turn the page.
All of Duncan's books do this
effortlessly with his words,
and then with his own images.
This is a superpower,
and although I don't
have any standing
with the Americas Award
committee, I would urge them
to consider awarding
author/illustrator book creators
with a cape in addition
to the awards themselves.
Speaking of illustrators,
I want to thank the person
who breathed stunning
life into the words
of this book, Ken Daley.
Whenever I catch a glimpse
of "Auntie Luce's Talking
Paintings" in a bookstore,
or I see stacks of them
in a classroom visit,
I think two things.
The first is, I have got
to be the luckiest first-time
children's book writer
in the history of first-time
children's book writers,
because I was matched with
an illustrator whose heart is
as authentic and
beautiful as the world
of Auntie Luce that he created.
The second thing I think is,
I'm about to be bum-rushed
by a room full of kids whose
first question is always,
"Did you paint the pictures
for this book [laughter]?"
And I have to disappoint them
all again by telling them, "No,
I only wrote the words."
I was born in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania,
but I think of myself
as a daughter of Haiti.
That means that I have a
very, very, very big family,
too big to call by name here
today, but there are a few
who are extremely
important to me to name.
Because without them,
I would not be here,
and "Auntie Luce's Talking
Paintings" could not have come
into being.
My mother, Marijit Belt
Noel Latour, my brother,
Stefan Latour, my sister by
marriage, Michelle Latour,
their daughter, my niece, Lauren
Alexandra Latour, my partner,
and my greatest love, Wayne
Lake, my sister in all ways
but blood, Tonya Nixon-Silberg
[assumed spellings].
My Haitian heroes in the
here and now who continue
to tell our story in all its
beauty with incredible love,
and with the knowledge that love
without justice has no meaning.
The writer, Idwich Nautica, the
choreographer, Jean Apollon,
the linguist, Michele
de Graf, the champion
of Haitian culture-makers,
and my cousin, Regine Woumay,
and most important of all
of these, my children,
Owen Sky Comiski,
Riley Rose Comiski,
and Leo Satchel Comiski, to
whom Auntie Luce is dedicated
[assumed spellings].
So I brought the book up
to the podium with me,
because I realized that as
many times as I've read it
to audiences, I have never
actually read the author's note
out loud to any audience, and
I spent a lot of time on it.
So I thought I would read it
here, but before I do that,
I wanted to just share
something that was on my mind
on the plane here
yesterday morning,
which is kind of related.
I was thinking about my
kids, who were five, two,
and one when the idea of
Auntie Luce first came about,
and who are 14, 11, and 10 now.
So when people ask me
to describe my kids,
the first thing I usually say is
that they are incredibly
tight, and that's true.
They have always been, and it's
also true that two brothers
and a middle sister who
are incredibly tight can
occasionally get
incredibly annoyed
with each other, occasionally.
Like all kids, Owen, Riley,
and Leo have an extremely
sensitive radar
to what feels fair, and
what doesn't feel fair.
A lot gets picked
up by that radar.
Who's holding the remote?
Who gets to ride
shotgun in the car?
Who does the most
chores, and so on --
they fight, and they forgive.
But for a long time, actually,
there was one specific cause
of fighting that seemed
harder to forgive or get
over than almost anything else,
something that brought wailing,
and hot tears, and
long, bitter grudges.
And that was when one of them
told me another one's story.
It could be the story of a split
lip from a spectacular fall
at recess, or it could be
the story of the turtle one
of them found in the road.
But if something memorable
happened to one of them
when I wasn't there, and
their brother or sister got
to me first and blurted it out,
all hell would break
loose [laughter].
Why did you do that?
That wasn't your story to tell.
To my kids, taking someone
else's story and telling it
as if it were your own
is a terrible betrayal.
A remote control
can be given back.
Chores can be re-balanced,
but you can't reverse time
and un-tell a story, and
you can't undo the crime
of being the first to have told
it to someone who wasn't there.
In "Auntie Luce's
Talking Paintings,"
we meet Tishou [assumed
spelling],
a Haitian-American
girl who flies to Haiti
to visit her aunt, a painter.
Through her aunt's brush,
the girl looks into the faces
of Haiti's heroes and begins
to trace her own history,
to see herself in a new way,
to find where she belongs.
The story mirrors
a common reality
of hyphenated American
identity, the journey back
to an ancestral homeland, often
from a young age, as my brother
and I did, as families
yearn to bridge divides
that are physical,
cultural, and generational.
In this moment, here, today,
stories like those recognized
by the Americas Award
carry a special urgency.
For immigrants and all
people of color whose safety
and dignity is under attach,
storytelling affirms
our humanity.
It grounds us in our brilliance,
and it is a powerful counter
to the voices of others who
have tried to tell our stories,
who have tried to tell
the world who we are
without our experience,
and without our permission.
It is not their story to tell.
It is our story to tell.
So I'll just read the
author's note here.
"We all have birth stories.
In my family, we
tell them often.
My brother, the miracle baby,
born so early he wasn't expected
to survive, much less to
thrive at six feet tall.
My daughter, the
daredevil, who could not wait
to meet the world, and
shot out like a cannon,
with people to see, places
to go, and things to do.
Nations have birth stories, too.
Although few people would
know it, the two countries
at the heart of Tishou's
[assumed spelling] world,
Haiti and the United
States, were both born
from the same fire,
revolutions for freedom
that changed the world.
Only one of these revolutions
is taught in school,
a band of colonies that
overthrew British rule,
a heroic general named
Washington, and a new nation
of free citizens we
now call America.
But just a few years later,
and a little farther south,
a band of rebels on an island
called Saint Domingue also
defeated a powerful
European ruler.
They, too, had a heroic
general named Louverture,
and a declaration of
independence from France
under the Emperor Napoleon.
When these rebels birthed a
nation and called it Haiti,
the whole world paid attention.
Why? Because these new
citizens who beat the French,
the Spanish, the British, were
black, descended from Africans
who were forced across an ocean
and into an inhuman
system of slavery.
The Haitian Revolution did more
than overthrow a government.
It overthrew an idea, one that
Europeans invented and had
to protect to keep slavery
going, that they were white,
that Africans were black,
and that blacks were
somehow inferior,
less human, or not human at all.
As long as this idea
stayed in place, Europeans
and Americans could use
the forced labor of others
to become wealthy world powers.
They could write birth stories
of freedom and democracy
in our history books,
despite keeping generations
of black people in chains.
For proving these ideas wrong,
Haiti would be punished.
From the moment this
black republic was born,
it was totally alone
in the world.
No country would trade with it,
or even recognize
it as a nation.
To get that recognition,
Haiti had to sign a deal
that guaranteed a
future of poverty.
It was forced to pay hundreds
of millions to the French
for the property
they lost in war,
an amount that today is
worth about $20 billion.
That lost property included
Haitians' very own bodies,
which the French believed
they had a right to own.
Growing up, the only stories I
heard about Haiti in school were
that it was violent and poor,
one of the poorest countries
on Earth, and this is why
knowing our birth stories is
so important to understanding
the world and each other."
Thank you.
[ Applause ]
>> Connie Sharp: Good afternoon.
My name is Connie Sharp,
and I'm a district librarian
with Metro Nashville
Public Schools.
I am honored to serve as
a review committee member,
and excited to be
with you today.
It is my great pleasure
to recognize the winners
of the 2019 Americas Award.
The first book I would like
to recognize is "Islandborn,"
written by Junot Diaz and
illustrated by Leo Espinoza.
This heartwarming debut
picture book captured our hearts
as we learned the
story of young Lola.
Lola was given a class
assignment to draw a picture
of the country she
was originally from.
As her classmates became
excited, she struggled
to remember what her
country was like.
Through the experiences
and stories of her family
and neighbors, she took an
extraordinary imaginative
journey back to the island,
and is able to create
a vivid picture
of the culture she left behind.
Although they were not able to
be with us today, please join me
in congratulating
author Junot Diaz
and illustrator Leo
Espinoza for "Islandborn."
[ Applause ]
Our next 2019 Americas
Award goes to "Undocumented,
a Worker's Fight," written and
illustrated by Duncan Tonatiuh.
This powerful story
shares the journey of Juan,
an undocumented worker who
travels to the United States
in order to find employment
to help support his family.
After finding a job
in a restaurant,
he faces unfair treatment,
low wages,
and the fear of exploitation.
He works tirelessly for his
rights and the rights of all
in that same situation.
This timely story is
important and relevant today.
"Undocumented" is
masterfully crafted
into an accordion-fold
format similar to that
of the ancient Mixtec Codex,
and will bring enjoyment
to readers everywhere.
At this time, please join me in
congratulating Duncan Tonatiuh.
[ Applause ]
>> Duncan Tonatiuh: Good
afternoon, [foreign language].
Thank you everyone for having
me here, for being here.
It's very special to be here.
I'm very happy for
all the support,
all the love towards my
work, towards my book.
I want to thank CLASP
for supporting my book,
for supporting my work.
I think the Americas Award
is a very special award,
and one of the things
that I want to say
about the Americas Award is
that they do a wonderful
job creating a lot
of educator's guides,
a lot of resources
so that teachers can use
these books in the classroom.
They create this wonderful
commended list of books,
so it's not only the
books that win the award,
but it's also other books
that can serve in schools.
And so, I -- if you're
an educator,
I definitely invite you to visit
their website, and to check
out some of the resources
that are there.
They have created some amazing
guides and resources for some
of my books, but for
many of the other books
that have been honored
by the award.
And I think it's just a
really wonderful thing,
and a really great resource.
And I always try and -- when I'm
invited to talk to librarians
or teachers, I always
mention it to them,
because I think it's
really wonderful.
And I definitely want to thank
my publisher, Abrams, who --
I've been working with the
same editor for 10 years now,
with Howard Reeves
[assumed spelling],
and we had a very
good relationship,
and they've always been very
supportive of my work there.
The different people in the
different departments --
Pam, who did the design of the
book, Jenny [assumed spellings],
and other people in marketing
and sales who have just --
have always been very
welcoming towards me,
and have really helped
the book succeed,
get it out there
so people see it.
To my family, my wife, my kids,
you know, who just fill me
with joy and happiness, and with
purpose, with determination,
and about the book, I
want to say a few things.
You know, the book is
called "Undocumented."
You know, it's --
the main character
in the story does not have
the property documentation,
the proper papers to be in the
United States, so that's one
of the reasons it's
called "Undocumented."
But I also thought it was a
good title because the stories
of working people,
especially people
in low-income jobs,
are not often told.
They're not often covered.
It's not something
that we discuss enough.
So in that sense, I thought
they're not documented.
So I thought it was -- you know,
it's sort of like the opposite
of a documentary is
something that's undocumented.
So that was another reason
for calling the story that.
At the end of the book, I have
an author's note, and in it,
I -- you know, I share
different statistics.
I think it's about -- I
think there's eight million
undocumented workers
in the U.S., and --
so that makes it about
one in every 20 workers
in the U.S. is an
undocumented person.
And because of their
undocumented status, they are --
you know, for fear
of deportation,
they're often exploited.
You know, they tend to work
in, you know, construction,
the service industry, and in
agriculture, paid very poorly,
work long hours, and -- but,
you know -- and so, obviously,
I don't think it's right
that that is happening.
But what I try and mention
in this author's note is
that that's bad for them,
but it's bad for everyone.
Because I think that
affects the conditions
of all working people.
So I think that when
a group is exploited,
and is able to be abused
like that, then it makes it
so that the working conditions
for everyone deteriorate.
The people have to -- long
work hours, get paid less,
have less opportunities to
organize, to be compensated
when they have a
problem at their job.
And so, that was a --
that's just something that I
hope people get out of the book.
You know, people say
that the book is timely,
and I think this issue
of immigration is
definitely very much
in the news these days.
You know, and, you know,
we all hear about the --
about what's going on
in the border, you know,
and just the awful
situation there,
the cruel treatment
towards children,
towards migrants
that is happening.
And so, you know, even
though the book is something
that I started working on 10
years ago, it was relevant then,
and it's definitely
very relevant now.
But also, just wanted to point
out that I think it's also
relevant in other ways, too.
You know, today, there was --
for example, the
Chicago teachers decided
that they're going on strike.
You know, there's a strike
of auto workers,
the GM auto workers.
There were more climate
change strikes today.
You know, and so I
think that this idea
of organizing is something
very important, you know,
of protesting, of people not --
of standing up against abuse,
and of just trying to improve
their situation somehow.
So that's something else
that I hope the book shares
with people, that
that's something else
that people get out of it.
The book is very personal to
me in a professional sense,
and I'll speak a little
bit more about that
when we do the workshop after.
But it's definitely -- it's
the book that led me to --
I have a very distinctive
way of drawing,
very much inspired
by pre-Columbian art.
And it was this project
-- this began as my --
what is now a book first began
as my senior project when I was
in university, and that's
what led me to kind of come
up with this illustration style.
And I'll talk a little bit
more about that later, and try
and show some images, so
it's a little bit more clear.
And it's also the book
that put me on this path
of becoming a published
author, a published illustrator.
So it's very dear
to me, and it's sort
of a very full-circle moment, so
to speak, you know, to something
that I wasn't able to publish
when I first worked on it more
than 10 years ago, to now have
it published and be recognized
for it is very special to me.
And so, I just want to say
that I'm very grateful,
and very thankful.
Thank you.
[ Applause ]
>> Denise Woltering-Vargas:
We'd actually like you to stay,
and we're going to do our
tradition of gifting a weaving,
which represents the
weaving of telling stories,
the gift that you
have, and we'd also
like to have Francie come up.
This is a tradition started
by the founder of the award.
These weavings are
brought to us by --
Tulane University has a
Kaqchikel Maya language scholar,
a program, and she
brings these each year
for our Americas Award
authors and illustrators.
So we will be giving you
each one of our weavings.
So here. Thank you so much.
>> Duncan Tonatiuh: Thank
you, thank you thank you.
[ Applause ]
>> Colleen McCoy: Hi, everyone.
My name is Colleen McCoy,
and I'm the co-coordinator,
along with Denise, of
the Americas Award.
Just wanted to say thank
you again to the Library
of Congress, to Suzanne
Schadl, Dani Thurber,
and the Hispanic
Division, to the founder
of the Americas Award,
Julie Kline,
and to all of the authors,
illustrators, and publishers
who submitted to
this year's award.
Thank you to the Consortium of
Latin American Studies Programs,
and to all of this
year's sponsor.
And thank you to the
phenomenal review committee,
with a special thanks to
committee chair David Campos.
This committee was
incredibly meticulous
and thoughtful during the
entire review process,
and we couldn't be more
grateful to each of you.
Now, as Duncan mentioned
earlier,
the Americas Award is not
just a children's book award,
but also represents a
variety of resources
for teachers and librarians.
The CLASP website,
claspprograms.org,
which is listed in your
program, holds a collection
of open-access resources
for teachers, librarians,
and outreach professionals.
This includes educator guides
to accompany recognized titles,
as well as a comprehensive
toolkit full
of classroom activities,
curriculum, ideas for workshops
and ideas, and other
suggestions for engaging
with the Americas Award.
Thank you all for coming, and
we look forward to next year.
[ Applause ]