>> Catalina Gomez: Well, hello, everyone. Thank you so much for being here. It's very exciting. I am Catalina Gomez. I'm a reference librarian in the Library of Congress Hispanic Reading Room, and I'm a curator there as well. And I am so excited to be here with Juliet Menéndez, author and illustrator of Latinitas: celebrating 40 big Dreamers. This book is a masterpiece. I really recommend that you pick it up. It's absolutely gorgeous. I'm going to introduce our author today. 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 public schools, Menéndez noted the need for more books that depict The children like the ones in her classroom. She studied design and illustration in Paris and now spends her days with her watercolors and notebook. "Latinitas: Celebrating 40 Big Dreamers" is Menéndez first children's book and is featured in this festival and hopefully in many other festivals coming up. Juliet, welcome. Thank you so much for being here, for coming and to come to talk about this beautiful book. >> Juliet Menéndez: Thank you. Hi, everyone. Holla. I am so happy to be here. >> Catalina Gomez: We're happy to have you. I'm just going to ask a few questions. We do want to leave a little time for Q&A for some of you to ask questions. I encourage everyone to ask questions and-- But, of course, I have my own questions that I'm very excited about. And my first question is what led you to create this beautiful book? What inspired you and how did the idea come about? >> Juliet Menéndez: Yes. So as you mentioned In my introduction, I've always been very inspired by my students that were a lot like you coming from a lot of different backgrounds. And this started out as a poster project when I was working up in Upper Manhattan as an art teacher. And I would walk through the halls of the schools and I would see posters up of people like Benjamin Franklin, Einstein and Ali. How many of you have seen photos of this? They're usually in every school. And I thought to myself, my students come from families from the Dominican Republic, from Puerto Rico, from Mexico, yeah. And I thought, what if there were some fresh new faces up on these walls that looked more like my students? And that led me to start looking into LatinX history and researching. And I found these wonderful stories, but there was something very important that was missing; women. And when I found them, they were often relegated to the footnotes or in the margins. And I thought if there's anything that's going to bring out the feminist in me, it's that. So I decided to dedicate this book to celebrating Latino women. And as I mentioned, it started out as illustrations, as posters. But of course, because these stories, so many of them haven't really been widely known or told, I thought it was very important to also include the stories along with the posters, and that's really how it became a book, Latinitas. >> Catalina Gomez: Well, it's beautiful. And I realized we didn't kind of introduce what the book is about. Latinitas is actually a diminutive form of Latinas and That little Latin; that's like little Latinas. And do you want to kind of do a brief description of what the book contains before we-- So basically, it's a feminist history from the 1600s all the way up to the present day, starting out with Juana La Cruz, an amazing writer and philosopher, and going up to Laurie Hernandez, who's an Olympic gymnast, and you get to find out all about the little things, the little sparks that inspired them to become the women that we celebrate today. So it starts in their childhood. You can see them as children, and it goes up to all of their big accomplishments. >> Catalina Gomez: Great. Thank you so much. I thought that we wanted to frame the book a little bit before continuing. So something I love about the book is that you cast a wider net. So in addition to the widely renowned Latina women that we often hear about Frida Kahlo, Supreme Court Justice, Sonia Sotomayor, Celia Cruz, the book also highlights many more figures that we don't often get to read about. I think that you expand this repertoire in a very beautiful way and just give us the lives of all these women that we don't know about. And yeah, representing all these different occupations and arts and time periods and cultures. So can you talk a little bit about kind of why You decided to expand the repertoire? >> Juliet Menéndez: Yeah. I love this question because it got so much to the core of why I created this book, which as I was mentioning, I noticed that women were very much missing from the history I was looking at. And when I was a child, I definitely didn't see a lot of these figures in books, not even the ones that you mentioned just now who are more widely known now. And so a big part for me of showing this history was really starting with Laurie Hernandez in the 1600s and going up until now is to show Latinos have always been here. They have always been shaping our history. They've never been on the sidelines just observing it The way our history books might make it seem, and yeah, they are central parts of our history. So I really wanted to show that going very far back to show how they've been shaping building our cities, running our cities as well, presiding over our courts, healing our sick all throughout and shaping the history that we have today. So but the other part, as I mentioned, is that it's also a feminist history. So starting with Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz was very important to me. I love history, but I'm not a historian, and I really wanted to show that Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz in the 1600s, she had this vision of women and she was undeniably a genius, and she decided to become a nun because she felt if she married, she couldn't continue writing. She was a playwright. She wrote poetry, she wrote prose, she wrote everything. And she was also a philosopher. She also had her own theories of music. She related everything, kind of like the woman version of Leonardo da Vinci, I would say. And so she had this idea that it wasn't just her. Of course, she was able as a nun to continue writing. And she found her way, which was very difficult, but she found it. But her writings are really about how all women had talents, had passions , had things to contribute to society, and that they really needed to be allowed to do that. And so I wanted to start with her and I wanted to kind of show how Latina feminism evolved and how it grew and how these women influenced and inspired each other. So that was a really big part of it. And then also this wide range that you mentioned not only historically, but showing so many different cultures, so many different backgrounds. Again, it goes back to my students and children like you. I really wanted you to see yourself in this book. I wanted you to be able to open up the empty purse and be able to see one of your countries. How many of you here are from Latin America or have a connection through family? Oh, that's wonderful. Yeah, I wanted you to be able to see that you're in this book, to see-- open the table of contents and see the flags. And to also really be able to relate to these stories and see your struggles, hopes, dreams represented. So that's why I try to really show a wide range, because, of course, as Latin Americans or having connections to Latin America, that's a huge term, right? It encompasses so much, even just in Guatemala, Where my family is from, there are 22 Mayan languages aside from Spanish there. There's the Garifuna language as well and Chujean. So that's so much in just one country. I think sometimes we forget how much the term Latino-Latino-LatinX holds. It holds so much. And I know there's a lot of debate about the term itself, but trying to just show that huge range of diversity, which, of course, this book was never meant to be comprehensive. But yeah, I wanted to show at least a range. >> Catalina Gomez: Because you start from the 16th century, but at the end include women that are alive today so very contemporary figures as well, which is beautiful. I love it. Okay, my third question is that's something that I really also adored about the book, is that it starts with all of these stories of these women. The way you portray them in the book is that you start with the seed of childhood and the power of dreams and you really express how all of these women, as they grew, they didn't let their all curiosity and their ability to dream big to diminish as they were adults. They all took their dreams very seriously and were very, very passionate and committed to their to their dreams. As Juliette mentioned, you painted them as children in the poster. So can you talk a little bit about this, this concept of the Dreamers because these women were all amazing dreamers. >> Juliet Menéndez: Yeah, I love this question as well. And I told you that when you first told me, I had goosebumps because it's such a beautiful question that they hold on to these dreams. And I hadn't heard it phrased in that way, but yeah, I mean, I wanted to represent them as children from the very beginning. I found out about this wonderful architect Named Susannah Torre, who she managed to be a feminist architect, which I at first didn't know exactly what that means, but she created the first fire station in the United States and in Ohio and it was a fire station that welcomed women into the workforce. And I found that fascinating, and I wanted to find out more about her. And so I started delving into her own childhood. I'm always fascinated with people's childhoods to see how things began. And I found out that when she was little, Growing up in Argentina, she used to create these little nests for birds and she would hide them in the park near where she lived, and she would see if the birds would come. And sadly, bad news they didn't come, but it left her with this idea of what makes something feel like a home? What makes something feel welcoming? And she didn't even know what an architect was when she had this idea, when she was making these little nests for birds. And I just thought I found that so beautiful, because we often forget that children are doing things, they're exploring things like all of you, and you don't know where it's going to take you, right? But Susana Torre stayed with that idea. And so much of her architecture now is centered around these inclusive, welcoming spaces that really invite people to feel at home. And I love that connection. And so as soon as I found that story, I knew I wanted to make this book about children. And in addition, I know when I was growing up, people would ask me but what do you want to be when you grow up? And it seemed so distant and I would see role models and I felt like it was a million miles away, so abstract, and I thought, I want children like you to be able to relate to these women and to be able to get a sense of where they started. Because just like you, they were making mistakes, they were experimenting, they were playing. They were figuring out who they were. Exactly, yeah. They were dealing with bullies or figuring out where they fit in or not feeling like they fit in and all of the things that we deal with, right? So I think that I really wanted to show that as well, To make them relatable. And before they had these huge contributions that are so remarkable, they were children just like you, just like us, starting out on their path, so I really wanted to show that. >> Catalina Gomez: And I also feel that children's books can be so much for adults as well. And I also really encourage not only children to get a copy of the book. But I think for I mean; I'm definitely going to keep it in my library. And I just feel like there's something that is so powerful that like all these reminders that children's books give to adults as well and this book definitely has that power. I think we have about 10 minutes left. Maybe before opening the floor for some questions from all of you, just wanted to ask a little bit more about your art. So your process with-- I know you said that you started these as you first started with the poster. So it's first started with your drawings and you have a lot of experience doing illustration and you love watercolors. So can you talk a little bit about your process and your art? >> Juliet Menéndez: Yes. So right around the time that I started this poster project, it was very cold in New York and I popped into a little store. Not a little store. What am I talking about? [Laugh] It's a huge, giant store to warm up. And I saw this beautiful glass case with these watercolors inside, and I just fell in love with the colors. And there was something about these colors that I was seeing that really reminded me of the painted murals and the signs and restaurant titles in Latin America. And I was standing there. I was probably-- I looked like someone looking at pasta ricos or something. And the person came over one of the workers there and said, would you like some of these paints? And I definitely did not have money for them at that time. But I felt like I needed them, so I bought them. And that was really how that started. And all throughout when I was illustrating this book, I wanted to keep that sense of warmth, that sense of vibrancy that's in the murals and the painted houses in Latin America, so those colors really influenced me. And the women themselves represented as children, I knew it was really important to me to have something That linked them because just like I was-- I really wanted to focus on the seeds and the little things that they did when they were children that inspired who they later became. I wanted those to be part of the illustrations. So it meant a lot to me to have these symbols in the illustrations themselves. For example, with Berta Cáceres. I was thinking she would listen to this little radio in her kitchen with her mom, and it was actually prohibited to listen in Honduras at the time to any type of socialist, communist, anything radio. And so I thought, well, in that illustration, how am I going to represent not just the radio, but that it was also these socialist messages from Nicaragua and all of these things that really inspired her. So I was very influenced by, of course, other artists, and I included Lissitzky essentially in the little radio, his famous painting of Russian constructivist painting of communism essentially. And so I included a lot of details like that or national flowers to represent and birds to represent where these women are from. And I really wanted to include so much of that symbolism there and a little bit of that magic, too, of that transition from childhood to adulthood and that link between who they were as children and who they were as adults. So the symbols were very important. >> Catalina Gomez: Yeah, thank you. So I think we have just enough time to open up the floor for questions. I hope you guys have some questions for Juliet. And I also hope that you get the book. As I said, I also forgot to mention I'm sorry that Juliet's book signing is from 12:30 to 1:30. So, yes, if you get a copy, make sure you get it signed by Juliet. Does anyone have a question about any of these women, about Juliet's beautiful book, about her process or anything? Yes, we'll start with you in the couch. Oh, I can't really -- Oh, yes, I'm sorry. If you guys can come to the microphone, that would be awesome. Thank you. >> Yeah, it’ll help without the mess, too. >> Juliet Menéndez: Hi. >> I wanted to ask you a little bit more about your art process. So I'm super happy that the book is now available in Spanish as well. So that was a big thing. But how long did it take you to create all of the artwork? Because I understand publication can take a few years, but how long did it take you behind the scenes to create all of the artwork for your book? >> Juliet Menéndez: Oh, that's such a good question. Well, I'm super old school and slow. As I mentioned, I used watercolors and painted these all by hand and I did the sketches by hand as well. Since I came from Guatemala, I couldn't bring the sketches because it's literally like this pile like this. Yeah, it took me quite a long time, but I was really writing it and illustrating it at the same time, so I can't say exactly how much was on the illustrations, but the whole process, once I sold it to Macmillan, the publisher, it took about two years to both write and illustrate it and finish the research. So it's quite a long time, and yeah, the watercolor part is always my favorite. And when I get to that point so, yeah, it goes. So there was another question as well. >> Hi, thank you for your book. I have a question. So how did you decide who to choose to research because there are so many fierce Latinas in our history? >> Juliet Menéndez: There are definitely. >> So how did you choose to pick the ones that you chose to write about, and how long did it take you to do all the research before you came to the final of compilation of the final book? >> Juliet Menéndez: That's a wonderful question. And as I was mentioning a little bit earlier, this book was never meant to be comprehensive. So choosing these 40 women was a very difficult task. And I think at the end of the day, I did want to have a lot of different professions and a lot of different cultures represented, as you pointed out. But at the end of the day, they really are personal choices. Women who affected my heart, women that I just fell in love with. I couldn't write one of these profiles without literally being like, oh my God, I love her so much. I used to work downstairs at a cafe right under my apartment, and I would literally run home to tell my partner about all of these wonderful women that I was finding out about. And if I could talk about a woman after researching her all day for like an hour, I knew that she had to be in the book. And so a lot of the choices were made very personally in that way. But of course, I always thought of my readers, of you to see whose stories could be connected with. >> Catalina Gomez: This is a sample of many more women that are, right. >> Juliet Menéndez: Yeah. And I wanted to show such a broad range of experiences so that any reader could pick up this book and see themselves in it. >> Just piggybacking on that question, do you have plans for a sequel? And also, I was curious, when you are writing, do you write in Spanish first and then it's translated to English, or do you write in English and then is translated to Spanish, or did you write both of them? >> Juliet Menéndez: That's a wonderful question. So the first part, which will there be a sequel to Latinitas? I guess that will be something that Macmillan will have to let me know or another publisher. There are so many more women to include those, so if I could, I would love to do that if anyone's listening. And the second part of the question, do I write in Spanish first? No, I very much love thinking about things in Spanish, and it comes out very mixed, as you might notice in the book. There's a lot of Spanish words interspersed. But yeah, I write in English first, and I worked with A wonderful translator, Isabel Mendoza, to create the Spanish edition. It looks like we have another question. Oh, okay. Yeah, you have a question? I don't know, you were raising your hand, right? >> When you were in the art store, what colors were they? >> Juliet Menéndez: Oh my God. I love that question so much because those colors mean so much to me. There was a geranium color that I loved so much. >> Catalina Gomez: There’s geranium color. >> Juliet Menéndez: It's like this very soft pink, but it's also vibrant. It kind of reminds me a little bit of like a softer version of the dragon fruit, if any of you have had that pink vision. So there was that one. There was Naples Yellow, which I love. I love these names that they come up with. It just it sounds like, oh my God, they're like rubies. And there was an emerald green and a manganese blue. Those were the four colors that I could afford and also fell in love with that day. >> Catalina Gomez: Are these sort of the-- because you choose -- the book has like a four to five colors. You don't have a ton of just --. >> Juliet Menéndez: Those are basically the colors in the book. >> Catalina Gomez: You guys like to paint and draw? Yeah, yeah, you like to paint? Maybe one day you can write a children's book and paint it too. >> Juliet Menéndez: Yeah. I love seeing little artists in the audience. >> Catalina Gomez: Do you mind coming to the microphone? >> I was just wondering if you could share what was most surprising about the whole process of writing a book and then trying to get it published? The whole system seems mysterious. >> Juliet Menéndez: Oh, my goodness. So many things are so surprising. I can just tell you that if anyone here is looking to get published, it took me like three years to find my agent and I didn't hear back from anyone in the beginning. So it's a long process, but I would say that just sends your work out to anyone if that's where that question was going a little bit. But what was so surprising about creating this book Was really just all of the different stories that I had never heard of, like Antonia Navarro from El Salvador, who was a topographical engineer. I really never heard of these stories, and she literally discovered a new part of the way that we view the moon. It had only been European astronomers who had done this before. And yeah, she found an entirely different -- But it looks like time is up. So I'm so thankful for all of you who came today. Thank you. >> Catalina Gomez: Thank you all for your great questions. Thank you so much. Thank you, Juliet so much for being here. >> Juliet Menéndez: Thank you to all of you.