>> Heather-Marie Montilla:
Hi, I'm Heather-Marie Montilla,
and you are watching PBS
Books. Thank you for joining us.
PBS Books, in collaboration
with South Florida
PBS is pleased to host
tonight's conversation with
trailblazing author Juliet
Menéndez in celebration of the
2022 Library of Congress
National Book Festival. PBS
Books is proud to partner with
the Library of Congress to
promote their 2022 National
Book Festival.
Let's take a moment to hear
from the Librarian of Congress,
Dr. Carla Hayden.
>> Dr. Carla Hayden:
Books bring us together
as the Library of Congress
National Book Festival
returns in person
on September 3rd at
the Washington
Convention Center.
The festival is free for
readers of all ages.
We will also be live streaming
three stages for audiences
across the country.
Featured authors this year
include Janelle Monáe, Leslie
Jordan, Nile DeMarco, Nick
Offerman, Angie Thomas and more.
So go to
loc.gov/bookfest for more.
>> Heather-Marie Montilla: Thank you.
Well, if you can travel, and I
want you all to know that
actually South Florida is only--
it's about less than three hour
plane ride from
Washington, D.C..
Don't miss, if you can get
there, the 2022 Library of
Congress National Book
Festival.
It's on Saturday, September
3rd from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m..
The festival is free and open
to everyone.
The complete schedule for the
2022 Library of Congress
National Book Festival can
be found at loc.gov/bookfest.
But if you can't be there in
person, you can live stream it
and you can also work to curate
your own experience from the
comfort of your home.
Well, now, through August 31st,
PBS Books and PBS stations
across the country will host a
series of ten virtual events
with 11 authors.
This is our second.
They will also be available on
demand at PBS Books and the
National Book Festival.
Let's take a quick moment to
hear from our partners station,
South Florida, PBS.
Their president and
CEO, Dolores Sukdeo.
>> Dolores Sukhdeo: Hello,
everyone. I'm Dolores Sukdeo,
president and CEO
for South Florida
PBS, and I'm thrilled
to introduce this
evening's event with author
Juliet Menéndez in celebration
of the 22nd annual Library of
Congress National Book Festival.
I'm proud that South Florida
PBS is committed to sharing the
voices of contemporary authors
through our program "Between the
Covers," hosted by Ann Bowcock,
who will be moderating today's
conversation. There's no
question that books have the
ability to bring people from
various places together, just
like the Library of Congress
National Book Festival theme
"Books Bring Us Together."
We hope that you'll join us on
a journey tonight and learn more
about Juliet Menéndez and her
book Latinitas: Celebrating
40 Big Dreamers, which
celebrates trailblazing Latino
women. We're also thrilled that
PBS Books partners with
libraries as libraries are a
crucial partner for South
Florida PBS and other PBS
stations across the country.
We hope you'll enjoy
tonight's conversation.
South Florida PBS is proud to
be a part of this important
event. Back to you, Heather.
>> Heather-Marie Montilla:
Thank you, Dolores.
And thank you for
your--your words.
Today's conversation, as
Dolores shared, focuses on Juliet
Menéndez and
her work, Latinitas.
Her involvement with her-- with
the festival will also be
discussing. Her book has
gorgeous handpainted
illustrations, and it explores
how influential Latinas from all
over the US and Latin America
became the women we celebrate
today. Well, before we begin,
as you all know, I'd like to
thank our library partners more
than 1800 strong across the
country, as well as numerous
PBS stations.
But most importantly, we'd like
to thank you for joining us.
Quick reminder, before we do
our introductions, if you have a
question for Juliet, please do
not forget to put it in the chat.
If time permits, Juliet
will have-- will be answering
the questions live on
the program tonight.
So, the moment you've been
waiting for.
Juliet Menéndez.
Juliet Menéndez is a Guatemalan
American author and illustrator
living between Guatemala City,
Paris, and New York, while working
as a bilingual teacher in New
York City's public schools,
Menendez noted the need for
more books that depicted
children like the
ones in her classes.
She studied design and
illustration in Paris, and now
spends days with her
watercolor and notebook.
"Latinitas: Celebrating 40
Big Dreamers" is Menendez's first
children's book, and is
featured, as you now know, in
the 2022 National Book
Festival.
Welcome, Juliet.
>> Juliet Menéndez: Hi. Thank
you so much for having me here.
>> Heather-Marie Montilla:
Oh, we're so happy to have you.
And we're so excited to talk
about your book, which I--I'm so
excited to have because I think
it is so wonderful, especially
as someone who is a mother of a
Latina.
So wonderful. So to
moderate today's conversation,
I am pleased to introduce Ann Bocock.
Ann began her
broadcasting career
in radio news in
Richmond, Virginia.
She then joined the United
Press International as a wire
service reporter.
Missing broadcasting,
she returned to her work as an
anchor, reporter, and talk show
host, working in several East
Coast markets.
She was the host of the talk
show Florida Forum on the NPR
affiliate radio station WXEL
for eight years, with interviews
ranging from the national
interest to local celebrities.
She is currently the host of
the fabulous "Between the Covers"
an-- an interview show about
books and authors that I love.
And it is produced by South
Florida PBS, and it is
distributed na--nationally.
Before COVID arrived, "Between
the Covers" was taped in front of
a studio audience.
The current season will be live
streamed open to everyone and
later edited for national
television distribution.
Welcome, Ann.
>> Ann Bocock: Thank you
Heather, I'm so glad to be back.
Thanks for having me.
>> Heather-Marie Montilla:
We're so excited to have you.
You know, you are
one of my favorite hosts.
Every year when we do this, I--
I love having you as
the host of our show.
So thank you for being here.
>> Ann Bocock: Thank you.
>> Heather-Marie Montilla:
Can you tell us-- I know
"Between the Covers,"
it has changed a
little bit, obviously,
because of COVID.
Can you share a little bit
about what you worked on this
summer and what's in store for
the next year?
>> Ann Bocock: Well,
I'll tell you, what's in store
is that we're back in the studio,
so I am thrilled about that.
I mean, it really takes on a
different life when--when it's
face to face. So I--I am
absolutely delighted about that.
We will be doing some virtual,
but most of them will be
in-person in the studio.
In the summer, we did something
a little different and it was
all--it was all social media
directed, and we did short, local
author interviews,
and it was wonderful.
It was really a time to
spotlight South Florida because
during a regular season, it's
generally New York Times
bestsellers and
award winning authors.
So this brought it home and it
was very special to us.
But we're really looking
forward to the new season
starting in October.
>> Heather-Marie Montilla: That's
so exciting, and so wonderful.
So one of the things I love
about that--this year's National
Book Festival, the Library of
Congress National Book Festival
2022, is that it is back in
person, too, right?
Yes. I feel like one of the
things we've learned is that we
can connect with people
through the computer.
And one of the cool things,
too, as we discussed, is you'll--
people will be able to stream
that content all day on
September 3rd, and then that
content will also be available
for you, me, everyone to be
able to access all of the
content that was at the
festival. I think about two
weeks after, they'll
be rolling it out.
So I know I love watching your
show because I can access that
content. I know it's just such
a resource for--for me as--as an
avid reader and as someone who
also has a book show that I
think it will also be great that
you can utilize
that - content too.
>> Ann Bocock: I'm thrilled
about this because even like you
said, it's only a
three hour plane ride.
I can't go, but I can--I can
watch all of this to my heart's
content. So thank you for that.
>> Heather-Marie Montilla:
Well, without further ado, enjoy
the conversation with
Juliet. I can't wait to hear.
>> Ann Bocock: Thanks, Heather.
Juliet, welcome.
And hello. It is so nice to
meet you.
>> Juliet Menéndez: It is such
a pleasure to meet you as well.
Thank you so much.
>> Ann Bocock: Okay, so here
is my one word for your book.
And it's beautiful.
It's beautiful artistically,
it's beautiful in what you
wrote. And--and first of all--all
libraries ought to have this
book. All schools
ought to have this book.
It's that kind of--
not just little girls.
Yes, it is about girls, but
boys should be reading this book
as well. It celebrates 40 big
dreamers, and we are talking
Women that-- who are scientists and
activists and artists and even a
Supreme Court justice.
Let's take a step back.
Where did the idea come from,
and how did your background, I
guess, propel you into making
this book?
>> Juliet Menéndez: That's
a great question.
Well, you know, it started as a
poster project all the way back
in 2014, which I can't believe
it's been so long.
At the time, I was working as
an art teacher in Upper
Manhattan, and my students had
families that mainly came from
the Dominican Republic, Puerto
Rico, Mexico.
But when I would walk through
the halls of the schools, I
would see posters up on the
wall, people like Benjamin
Franklin, Einstein and Dali.
And I thought to myself, what
if there were some fresh new
faces up on these walls that
looked more like my students,
that came from similar
backgrounds? And--and so
that led me to start really
researching Latinx history.
And I was finding all these
great stories.
But something incredibly
important was missing: women.
When I was finding their
stories, they were in the
footnotes in the margins, and I
knew that--that was not the case.
They were a central part of
shaping our history.
So I decided to dedicate my
research to celebrating Latina
women. And since I knew that
these stories really needed to
be told, I knew it couldn't
just be a poster project.
Though my background was in art
and design, that I really needed
to turn this into a book.
So that's really how
Latinitas came to be.
And I guess the way my
background played into it was
being a teacher and just seeing
the need for these stories out
there and for my
students to be inspired.
And I guess also my
background in art and
design and my love
of writing as well.
>> Ann Bocock: Honestly, I've
never seen anything quite like this.
And here we are.
We're doing this in
honor of the Library
of Congress National
Book Festival. So I have to
ask, have you done the event
before? And if
not, is this your first
time, and are
you really excited?
>> Juliet Menéndez: I've
never done this event and I'm so
excited. It's such
an incredible honor.
And some of my favorite authors
are going to be there, too.
And it's just--it's amazing.
It's like a dream.
>> Ann Bocock: Congratulations
on that. We're happy for you.
As you said, you're an artist.
Your background is in
illustration and design.
And the way this book is
crafted, on one page is the
drawing that-- it's not a drawing.
You did the artwork on the one
page, and on the opposite page
is the story.
And you depict each story from
the mind of a young girl.
The illustrations
themselves pretty
much tell the story,
which is fantastic.
Talk about how you decided
on this particular art form.
>> Juliet Menéndez: Well,
I've always loved painting
with watercolors, but this--this
book has a particular kind of
iconic graphic quality.
And it's really, as I
mentioned, it was started as a
poster project. So I look to a
lot of poster art as
inspiration. I really wanted
these women to look like icons.
At the same time, as you
pointed out there, I illustrated
them as young girls, and the
big reason for that was because
while I certainly wanted to
highlight their achievements and
accomplishments, I also really
wanted to show where these
journeys began, so that when
readers pick up this book, they
can see that just like them,
these women started out making
mistakes, playing games, and
figuring out who they are in the
world. And so that's why
they're depicted as children.
But they still have that iconic
quality that was really inspired
by artists like Fortunato Rivera
and--and you know, this kind
of like graphic kind of
modernist quality to them.
>> Ann Bocock: It--It's
a beautiful quality,
the way you put it together.
And when I was a
kid, I loved biographies.
And I think in this particular
book, you give that child a look
at this famous person's
childhood, which makes it
approachable and relatable.
And maybe, a, if they
could do it, I could do it.
>> Juliet Menéndez: Exactly.
Is that--
obviously that was your intent.
What my--I have to know, how
do you do the research for this?
And I'm asking this--
Okay. Full disclosure here.
There were quite a few of these
people I didn't know anything
about. So where--
did you already
know these names, and
how did you research it?
>> Juliet Menéndez:
Yes. So I didn't know
many of the names in this.
>> Ann Bocock:
Oh, good. [Laughs]
>> Juliet Menéndez: That
was--the that was really the
whole
reason that--that made
me decide to create this book.
Because, you know, I had, of
course, known about people like
Sonia Sotomayor, Isabel Allende
and they're in the book, and I
admire them greatly. But there
were so many women that I
realized that have been such
pillars of the of our history
that I really didn't
know very much about.
For example, Gumercinda Páez
is from Panama.
She was the first black
congresswoman in Panama, and she
actually was one of the people
who helped write the
Constitution after the 1941
coup.
And she included things like
pay for women who are on
maternity leave and included
afro-latinx rights.
And, you know, she--she was
already so ahead of her time,
and I hadn't actually known
about her.
She came from a background of
writing radio novellas, and
that's how she had all of these
people from Panama knowing the
stories of working class people
like herself.
And I really didn't
know about her.
Or, for example,
Susana Torre, the
architect who figured out how to
create architecture that was
actually feminist, like the
first fire station that welcomed
women into--into being
firefighters and things like
that, that I just I really
didn't know these women before.
But finding their stories was
just it was such a gift.
And I knew it was a gift that I
wanted to share with readers.
>> Ann Bocock: What kind of material
did you use to--to find them?
I mean, you're not just
Googling to--to--to find out what
where were there letters?
Were there books that
needed to be translated?
>> Juliet Menéndez:
Yes. I would often look,
for example, I
would find--I really
wanted this book to represent a
lot of different professions.
And that was the--that
was the initial idea.
And so I would find different
professions and then look to
find what women were
in these professions.
And that was kind of
where my search started.
And then I would look into
archives and I would try to find
these out-of-print
books. I contacted
people, for example,
for Gumercinda Páez,
who I mentioned, I saw a
congresswoman, a current
Congresswoman Balbina Herrera,
holding this book that was about
her. I couldn't find the book
anywhere.
And I went out on a limb and
decided to contact her and see
if somehow she could
share this book with me.
And she called me back and was
willing to share pages from the
book. And another
person who was writing
her thesis on
her, Dania Batista,
she shared her
whole thesis, like all of the
research she had about her.
So it was these little tiny
kind of clues.
And then it would be this whole
treasure hunt of finding
historians and family members
who had preserved documents and
old newspaper articles that
mentioned these women.
It really was a whole process,
very much like a treasure hunt.
>> Ann Bocock: It's a treasure
hunt. It's a jigsaw puzzle.
And of course, they
would share it with you.
Who wouldn't? You--
You're just so easy to talk to.
No wonder it took from 2014,
I think you said.
that's a lot of
information to go
through to get--to, to now.
In my mind, this book is
about inclusion.
It's about representation.
And I sense that that is
something that is deeply
important to you.
And how much does diversity
matter in children's books?
>> Juliet Menéndez: There's so
many people who have said this
so much better than
me. But to me, you
know, creating a
book, I just wanted
it to reflect the
reality we live in.
So if you look at Latin
America, there are so many
different types of people from
so many different backgrounds
and ethnicities and cultures,
and I wanted that to be
reflected in the book.
So for me it was really just
reflecting what's already out
there, that-- that
was really the goal.
>> Ann Bocock: I was--was
I don't know if surprised
is the word, but I
guess happily surprised
that there were so many
cultures, so many countries.
This is not
narrow, this is wide.
And that was
intentional, was it not?
>> Juliet Menéndez:
Yes, definitely.
I really wanted to show this--
the great diversity that Latinx,
that the Latinx cultures have.
And it's--it's--it's really
something that, you know,
growing up in a place like
Guatemala, where I am now, I
you know, there's so many
languages here, so many
indigenous languages.
There's, of course,
the Spanish culture, but
there is also so much
more than that. And
I really wanted this
book to reflect that.
So I even included some
Indigenous words in their text
and things like that, especially
for Rigoberta Menchú Tum,
here from Guatemala, the
Nobel Peace Prize winner.
So I think that that's just
something that's part of how I
grew up and experience the
world, and I wanted that to be
reflected in the book.
>> Ann Bocock: Let's talk
a little bit about how you
did experience the world.
When--when Heather
was giving your
introduction, and we are
talking Guatemala, and
Paris, and New York.
And I mean, that's
pretty interesting.
>> Ann Bocock: How did you end
up here, and what was the journey?
>> Juliet Menéndez: So my mother
is actually Irish American.
She was born in the United
States right outside of
Washington, D.C. So coming to
the National Book Festival will
be a bit of a homecoming for me.
And I'm currently in Guatemala,
and my father is from Guatemala.
And the whole French
side, I don't know. [Laughs]
We took French in high school.
My sisters and I, and my oldest
sister-- or one of my older
sisters lives in Paris.
And so I decided to study
design and illustration in
France. So that's
kind of how all of
these different
parts came together.
And my mother has always called
us an international family.
So I guess she just really--she
herself knows like seven
languages and has always really
loved exploring other cultures.
So that was always a big part
of my upbringing.
>> Ann Bocock: So what
would be the takeaway
from you yourself being immersed
in all of these cultures
around the world?
>> Juliet Menéndez: I
think that it gives me this
way to kind of look at things
from an outsider's perspective.
At the same time, having lived
there and met so many people and
I'm kind of both in the culture
and outside of it, and it makes
me, I think, maybe
observant in a different way
than-- that I might have been.
>> Ann Bocock: There--
Another word I would have
to describe
the book would be, I
guess, inspirational, because
you show these women who are
incredible women with every
sense of the word being inspired
perhaps by a situation, an
event or a person, and you bring
this down to their childhood
level.
So that begs the
question, who inspired
you, or what event inspired you?
>> Juliet Menéndez: Well,
all of the women in the book
most certainly inspired me.
But I would say that probably
what led me into wanting to
create books really was my
experience as a teacher.
After I studied studio art, I
knew that-- when I was in college,
I worked helping just-- Latina
youth after school, and I just
knew that I really wanted to be
part of that community.
And so I went into teaching
soon after college and there
were some great books in our
classroom library, but there was
so much room for so much more,
and it meant so much to me to be
able to connect with my
students.
I would create these little--
these little kind of little
books, but they
weren't real at the time.
They were just like little
stories about students in my
classroom, and they were just
about their daily lives.
And I could tell how much it
meant to them.
I didn't put their actual
names, but I would just use
little snippets of things they
were doing at the time, and it
meant so much to them to see
themselves reflected in this
way. And that's really what
inspired me to go into studying
illustration and design and to
just want to create more books
that reflected kids that might
have grown up like me or like my
students. And
that was really what
inspired everything
from then on.
>> Ann Bocock: As
a teacher, I am sure
that there is this
light bulb moment
when the child sees herself or
himself in that situation
depicted in a book, in a story,
in a painting, it
means something.
>> Juliet Menéndez:
I think it really does.
I know that, you know, even
just giving them little ideas
about-- for me it was so much
about just connecting with them
and showing this is how they
handled something and turning it
into a little story.
It would inspire the rest of
the class and they felt so proud
that it was their own story and
they were like, oh, do you know
Miss Menendez that really
sounds a lot like me.
I was like, oh, does it? And
they just they loved it so much.
And I know those weren't real
books at the time.
They were just these little
kind of illustrations to share.
I was working with first
graders, but they just brought
so much joy to that.
And then--and then seeing how
much they responded to the books
we did have in our classroom
library that were by Latinx
authors. We did have
Dr. Seuss translated
into Spanish, but that
wasn't the same thing
at all as reading books by
Monica Brown and John Barron.
You know, all of these authors
that just-- Martinez Neal, that
brought so much
to the classroom.
And I knew that that was--that
was the path I wanted to take.
>> Ann Bocock: Having
characters that look like you
or that talk like you, it
makes a difference. Is-- I--I have
the English version of your
book. How many other languages
has your book been published in?
>> Juliet Menéndez: It's
currently in Spanish as well,
So, [speaking Spanish]
is the Spanish title. And
there's a board book version as
well that's bilingual, but so
far it's in English and Spanish.
>> Ann Bocock: Would
you say that there's 40
stories in here, and then there
are-- there's 40 pages of
different women, and then at the
end there are like ten I think
I counted ten, perhaps, others,
that there were little
snippets because
you couldn't make
this book tremendous.
So they just didn't
make that first 40.
Would you say that there's one
thread, perhaps, or one
characteristic
that you would find
across the board for
all of these women?
>> Juliet Menéndez:
Definitely. I think that
all of these women
share this love for
their communities. And first
and foremost, before, you know,
they certainly had their own
ambitions, but they really had a
core sense of who
they were and what they
wanted to contribute
to their communities.
And it really
guided all of them.
And, you know, they weren't
satisfied either, just kind of
being the token Latina. In
all of the stories they really
wanted to uplift and bring like
the rest of the women with them,
starting with Sor Juana de la Cruz.
Sor Juana de la Cruz in the
1600s, you know, she was, you
know, unequivocally brilliant.
And yet her whole thing was
just that all women were these
they weren't-- it wasn't
that she was exceptional.
It was that all women had the
capacity to achieve these
incredible things.
And when she wrote at
that time, that was
her whole message.
All women--all women should be
able to do these things.
So and that's reflected all
throughout the book.
>> Ann Bocock: What--what was
interesting, you just said it.
It starts in the 1600s, and
there were several women of that
era. And it goes all the way up
into the present time.
I would think it would have
been very difficult finding that
information. Was--was
that the hardest?
>> Juliet Menéndez: Yes, some
of the more historical women
were harder to
find because there
were very few
resources about them.
And that's really when I would
reach out to historians, people
who were studying these women,
making phone calls all around to
Latin America to see if
somebody could help me out with
some of these--these resources.
And yes, they were some of the
hardest ones to find out about.
>> Ann Bocock: I'm Anne Bocock,
and you're watching PBS Books.
I'm here with author Juliet
Menéndez in honor of the Library
of Congress National Book
Festival.
Now, let's get back to the
conversation with Juliet.
Was it hard to
narrow it down to 40?
>> Juliet Menéndez: Yes,
definitely.
You know, I knew that I wanted
to show a wide variety of
professions and ethnicities, and
backgrounds at the same time
this book was never
meant to be comprehensive.
And as you pointed out, there
are ten additional little
stories and there could be so
many more.
It's honestly, these were women
that personally inspired me, and
I really wanted to just show
kind of a broad range and to be
more like an introduction than
anything kind of definitive.
So it was really hard to to
find the women.
But I think that, you know, as
I was researching, honestly, if--
you know--if it sparked this
kind of curiosity and passion in
me, and I just was like, oh, my
God, I love this woman.
She's just so amazing.
Look at this that she
did and that she did.
I would do this research in
this cafe downstairs and I would
come running back home at the
end of the day to tell my
partner all about the women.
And I knew that if I could talk
for an hour after reading about
them all day, that they had to
be in the book because--
>> Ann Bocock: It's so
inspiring to do that work.
Would you mind, Juliet, if we
talked about a few of these
women? And I would like to
start with one that everyone
>> Juliet Menéndez: Of course.
knows, and that's Supreme Court
Justice Sonia Sotomayor.
And you always knew that she was
going to make the
cut in the top 40?
>> Juliet Menéndez:
Yes, definitely.
She was one of the very first
that I researched.
Actually, her book came out
around the time, actually that I
started this project, "My
Beloved World."
And--and I was so
inspired by her story.
>> Ann Bocock: I have a quick
personal story about her.
I was at a book event and she
was surrounded by, I guess it
was US marshals who were very
insistent that she not get into
the audience. And--and of
course, quite like your book,
she defied them.
Huge room. She walked right
down into the audience does not
take questions from the adults.
But any of the children,
and they were mostly little
girls, that had a question walk
right up there and--and she
answered every single one.
That was impressive for a room
of maybe 500 people, that that
was really impressive.
>> Juliet Menéndez: So I
have goose bumps.
Like, she is just--she is so
incredible.
She's-- I love her so much. And
yeah, I love that story, too.
>> Ann Bocock: There
is-- my personal favorite,
and then I'm going to ask you
yours, was the Cuban ballerina.
I--I hope I pronounce her name
correctly.
Alicia Alonso.
>> Juliet Menéndez: Yes, yes.
>> Ann Bocock: I did. Well,
okay, if you could please tell her story,
because that blew me away.
>> Juliet Menéndez:
Yes. So, Alicia Alonso,
she grew up in Cuba,
and she was one of
the very first dancers there
because there wasn't even a
ballet school in Cuba.
And they opened a ballet school,
and she actually had the first
pair of ballet shoes, and she
would sleep with them under her
pillow. She loved them so much.
And her career was just starting
to take off. She had run away
to New York to become a
ballerina, and she started
losing her sight and her--her
husband was with her as she
went through all these
operations to try and regain
her sight.
And while she had these
bandages on her eyes, he started
showing her in the palm of her
hand, the choreography for the
upcoming performance of
Giselle.
And it was how they kind of got
through that time.
She--she just, I don't know how
she could envision all these
movements in her mind, but she
was able to do so.
And then when it was time for
the show to come up, the
ballerina who was going to play
the part was actually sick.
And Alicia Alonso took off the
bandages from her eyes.
But unfortunately she did not
recover her sight.
And nonetheless, because her
husband had shown her all of
these steps and she was so
amazing that she was able to
imagine them in her mind and
connect that with her body,
which I just--I that
blows me away.
She was able to dance the
part without being able to see.
And she continued dancing
without being able to see all of
these years and opened up her
own ballet school in Cuba and
brought it to so many rural
places around Cuba as well.
Ballet. She--she just she is
she's such an inspiration.
I'm glad that's one of your
favorites. I love her stories.
>> Ann Bocock: Was truly my
favorite. And I read that one twice.
I thought, how could she be
blind and still do these
principal ballerina parts?
It absolutely amazed me.
There is-- there are quite a few
artists in the book, and you are
an artist, and I'm
not going to say, so,
you tell me, who was your
favorite artist?
>> Juliet Menéndez: Oh,
that's so hard to say.
>> Ann Bocock: That's why I didn't say it.
>> Juliet Menéndez: Yeah.
And I've never been
able to pick a favorite Latina
to begin with, or an artist.
I always love so many, but I
did really love coming across
Maria Auxiliadora
da Silva, who is
from Brazil, and
I just loved her
colors so much and the way that
she has her compositions.
And what I--what I loved was
that she, she decided that she
didn't want to fit into any
category, so she didn't want to
be this one type of European
art or another.
She really kind of created her
own art, and she used even her
own hair to build out
parts of her paintings.
And she just was so inventive,
and she made her own clothes and
she had a whole
background in textiles.
Her mother was a seamstress and
did embroidery with her, so she
really brought
that into her art.
And I've always loved this kind
of multimedia type art where
they just-- where artists have so
many different materials that
they bring in and inspiration.
And I love that she had that
background with her mother as
well, that they would tell
stories together through the
weaving and that it became such
a central part of how her art
looks now. So I
would say I love her.
And of course, all the writers.
My grandmother was a poet, so I
had to include lots of poets.
[cross talk]
>> Ann Bocock: Your grandmother was a poet.
>> Ann Bocock: So you
grew up in such an art family?
>> Juliet Menéndez:
Yes, definitely.
>> Ann Bocock: I'm-- now Frida Kahlo
was also profiled in the book as well,
and another one that
most of us know of,
and a fascinating story.
But the others. No, I--
I was pleasantly surprised with
all of these new names.
There was, I'm leaving the art
section for a while.
There was an astronaut that I
had never heard of, Serena Onan.
>> Juliet Menéndez: Onan. I think so, I
think that's how you pronounce her name.
>> Ann Bocock: And an astrophysicist.
>> Juliet Menéndez: Yes.
>> Ann Bocock: And I
am truly embarrassed
that I didn't know about
any of them either. So.
Or-- tell me a story that
surprised you?
>> Juliet Menéndez: Well,
for Serena Onan, actually,
I was amazed
that she was not
only an astronaut,
but also a physician.
So she studied medicine and she
really wanted to see how the--how
cells in the body respond to
different environments, like
being in space with
gravity-- without gravity.
I mean, and so her story really
blew me away, that--that was her
specific passion and that she
still treats patients, you know,
on Earth. And then she also
studies, you know, she does
Alzheimer's research and things
like this in space.
And I just thought what a
fascinating connection that she
was able to make.
And I love her story.
And also, you mentioned the
astrophysicist, Wanda Díaz-Merced,
and her story, much
like Alicia Alonso's,
she also ended
up becoming blind.
And we associate so much of
astronomy with looking at the
stars. And she came
up with this way to
listen to the stars
through sonification.
And she literally describes the
stars as like listening to the
symphony. And you can hear the
way that she's turned every
single wavelength and every
single measurement into these
pitches and tones.
And it literally
does sound like this
beautiful orchestra
playing. And she is able to
turn that into data and
information and
learn about the stars.
And I just I found their
stories.
Well, everyone in this book
really just blew me away.
But those are some of the most
surprising stories for sure.
>> Ann Bocock: The
way that she could listen to
the stars, even writing that was
like--like hearing a symphony.
We do have an audience
question, and I would remind
anyone who has a question to
put it into the chat and we,
hopefully we'll have time to
get to it.
This is from Juliet in Detroit.
And her question for you,
Juliet, is have you used any of
your students for feedback in
developing your illustrations
and the bios for Latinitas?
>> Juliet Menéndez: I would
say that actually, I didn't.
I--I started the project when I
was still working with students,
but I ended up finishing it
later, after I had stopped
teaching and dedicated myself
full time to working on this
book. But I will say that I did
share these with my little
niece to get some feedback as
well as a little nephew of mine.
And I did try to--try to see how
they would respond to it as well
as other children.
I also work a little
bit at a library
here in Guatemala.
So I did get some feedback. And
actually, a little girl at the
library here was an inspiration
for including one of the Latinitas
authors, Mercedes Doretti, who
is a forensic anthropologist.
To be honest, it hadn't
occurred to me to include a
forensic anthropologist.
And I met this little girl
through my partner, who was doing
a program at the
library, and she had this
dream of being a
forensic anthropologist.
And she had read Rebel Girls,
and she had read all of these
other books with these
collections of stories about
women. And she said, you know
what they don't have? A forensic
anthropologist. And so because
of her, I ended up finding out
about this. And another
incredible story of Mercedes
Doretti and how she's been
working for human rights and
justice by her work in forensic
anthropology.
So definitely there were
children involved, but not
specifically my students.
>> Ann Bocock: It is amazing
how smart children are.
You hit the jackpot
with that one.
What do you want us adults to
get from this book?
>> Heather-Marie Montilla: I
think for me as a woman, and
I'm sure many other women feel
this way, too, and any any
adult, but especially for women,
you know, I think there's this
tendency to sometimes believe
that women are in the margins
or in the footnotes are somehow
not central to how
our history is shaped.
And I think that even though
there's a part of us that maybe
thinks we know our own family
history, as we know other women
who have done incredible
things, but there's this sense
that men are at the center, but
really, in reading this book and
doing-- doing the research for
this book, I found that women
were just as much there the
whole entire time, you know,
going all the way back to Juana
Inés de la Cruz from the 1600s.
They were shaping everything.
They were always part of it.
They were never on the
sidelines. And I really hope
that everyone takes that away
from reading this book, that
just knowing they were always
there, they always will be
there. And they contributed so,
so much to our history and
really made it what it is
today.
>> Ann Bocock: We
have a question, and it is
how did-- Juliet
how were you able to
narrow it down to just 40?
And the stories, he says, sound
so detailed and so interesting.
And I can underscore that, yes,
they are detailed and
interesting and they
are only one page.
Each story is only one page.
So how did you narrow it down?
>> Juliet Menéndez: Well,
I was mentioning it a little
bit before that. I
knew I wanted to
represent a lot of
different professions and
a lot of different backgrounds.
But I think that, for me, it was
really just showing a lot of
different places from Latin
America and a lot of different
cultures. But I knew that I
couldn't show everyone, so I
would pick just one--one
person from one profession.
And instead of having multiple
people from the same profession
or similarly from countries,
there are just a few from
different countries. So I tried
to whittle it down in that way.
But I think that really it just
came from stories that really
touched my heart. And if they--
just they--they got to me.
And honestly, I fell in love
with every single Latinita in
this book. And if I could do
that, then I knew that they had
to be in it. And that was
really how I made those final
cuts. But again, there are so
many more and it could have been
it could be so much longer.
>> Ann Bocock: It sounds
like--like there might be more.
And I will point out, because I
think we probably glossed over
it before. The book covers
centuries of women, starting
with the 1600s, and
several countries.
Do you remember how many
different countries are here?
>> Juliet Menéndez: It's
pretty much every country
in Latin America.
There's just a couple
maybe that didn't
quite make it, but
it's really-- it's all throughout
Latin America, and I don't
remember the exact number of
countries in the book.
But yes, it's it's pretty-- it's
all across Latin America.
>> Ann Bocock: You are an artist at heart.
This book is both a
story and an art book.
So which direction did you
start with?
What was the process?
Did you do the art first and
then the story?
>> Juliet Menéndez: Well,
initially I had started with