By Nancy Salazar

Acclaimed children's author and illustrator Duncan Tonatiuh visited Bruce-Monroe ES at Park View in September 2019 for a powerful conversation with 50 students where he discussed his path to becoming an artist, the creative process, photo editing, and much more. The visit was sponsored by An Open Book Foundation.

“Buenos días everyone.” Tonatiuh greeted the class. “¡Buenos días!” roared the school’s entire fifth grade and one very eager third grade student. The third grader, clutching a Tonatiuh book to his chest, was excused from class to hear his favorite author speak. All around this bright dual language classroom are Native American drawings and writing in both English and Spanish.

A representative of An Open Book Foundation held up Tonatiuh’s book Separate is Never Equal: Sylvia Mendez and Her Family’s Fight for Desegregation and asked the students to share what they remember from it. One Latino student raised his hand and said, “I remember this book. There are dramatic differences in how whites and Mexicans were treated.” Another student shared, “I remember it said ‘No Mexicans allowed’.”

Tonatiuh nodded in agreement and began sharing his earliest childhood memories of Mexico and what inspired him to start writing. “I immigrated from Mexico to the United States at age 15. I didn’t know people in my neighborhood and didn’t have many friends so I spent a lot of time in the library checking out books which later inspired me to write my own book.” 

Tonatiuh explained how he came up with the idea for illustrating his books with artwork inspired by pre-Colombian and Mexican artwork. “I began to miss Mexican traditions, the music, the celebrations like Día de los Muertos. I realized that those traditions were unique. Oh and the food, I missed the taquitos.” The students laughed and whispered to each other while admiring the myriad Indigenous artwork projected onto the board.

Eleven of Tonatiuh’s books were displayed in the classroom. Tonatiuh explained that some of the ideas for his books come from his imagination and others from real life experiences.

[For Dear Primo: A Letter to my Cousin] I had an idea about two cousins, one that lives in the countryside (rural Mexico) and the other that lives in the city (USA), who send letters sharing their different experiences. My book Undocumented: A Workers’ Fight was based on true events. I went to a centro de trabajadores, union workers center, and all of the people I met there were the inspiration behind this book.

One girl looked visibly moved, raising her hand to ask, “Cómo te sientes cuando ves (How do you feel when you see) undocumented people at the border?” Tonatiuh replied,

I feel sad. I wrote a book about undocumented immigrants called Pancho Rabbit and the Coyote. It is so frustrating because little is said about why they leave and all of the dangers behind it. I don’t think people leave “just because” — there’s always a reason behind it. It’s difícil, las familias se extrañan (it’s hard, the families miss each other) y no se habla de la explotación hacia los imigrantes, and the exploitation of immigrants is not talked about. They get the most blame but an immigrant is the man who works the hardest, has minimal rights, doesn’t get paid well, and it’s frustrating they’re not talking about the humanitarian crisis. People leave because of violence, poverty, and people don’t talk about that or things like the U.S. involvement in Central America.

Over the course of the presentation, Tonatiuh spoke to the students about what it takes to be a writer. He explained that it is a long process that involves a major amount of revision, collaboration, and work. “When I write something, it’s never perfect the first time. I’m always revising and rewriting my work” says Tonatiuh.

Fifth grade teacher, Cesarina Pierre, jokingly cleared her throat, “Did you all hear that? Writing is never perfect the first time. You have to work at it again and again.”

Tonatiuh then showed the class the process for creating his illustrations. He scanned a hand drawn picture to his laptop and gave a brief tutorial on how he creates his signature illustrations. The students watched as Tonatiuh explored Photoshop on the smartboard.

“Mindblown!” shouted a student, after learning how to cut and add texture to different drawings. 

After the presentation, each student received a copy of Tonatiuh’s newest book, Soldier for Equality: José de la Luz Sáenz and the Great War courtesy of An Open Book Foundation. Students and teachers continued to ask questions while Tonatiuh signed each book. An Open Book also gave a set of Tonatiuh’s books to the school and classroom libraries so that all the students can read and enjoy his body of work.

In response to one student’s question, “¿Qué fue tu inspiración para los libros? (What was the inspiration for your books?)” Tonatiuh replied,

Reading a lot inspired me...I learned about the necessity of multicultural books — only a small percentage are Latinx or AfroLatinx. The rest of the books don’t represent the diversity among Latinos and our different communities. When you read a story you relate to, you see how powerful you are and how powerful your voice is. We are more alike than we are different no matter where we live or where we are from. That’s what inspired me.