Pura Belpré Celebracií³n

It was a joyful event, which started with Suni Paz’s singing and maracas followed by REFORMA president Mario Ascencio and ALSC president Jane Marino’s welcoming words and Jean Hatfield, the chair of the Pura Belpré Committee’s introduction to the award and the authors and illustrators.

What made the event truly special was that each of the authors and illustrators said something heart-felt and memorable. Yuyi Morales listed all her childhood fears of ghosts, skeletons, brujas, and zombies and closed with a song to La Llorona, who just needs some love.  Margarita Engle spoke about her desire to let the world know about the poet whose talents were unquenchable in spite of brutal treatment and who, she was sure, was watching over her shoulders as she wrote. Marisa Montes described her life in terms of The Little Engine That Could giving her mother particular thanks for instilling in her the value of perseverance. We heard about her determination to learn English, then to become a skater, later to become a lawyer, whether young women were encouraged in those days to go into law or not — she said she looked for strong women models — and to become a writer when she realized that is what she really wanted to do . Finally, she told the story of  Los Gatos Black on Halloween’s publishing Odyssey from 1996 to 2006, with rejections by all the grand, important engines whose editors couldn’t imagine what Spanish had to do with Halloween, for instance, until she found the editor at Holt, who saw exactly what Montes had in mind — a celebration of language. Carmen Bernier-Grand recited a poem in her mother’s honor and talked about learning English and how her mother inspired her. Raul Colí³n talked about the pressures of working on multiple projects while creating the fantasy world of Gabriel Garcí­a Mí¡rquez. Maya Christina Gonzalez sent her thanks and words through her editor from Children’s Book Press, explaining that she had to participate in a march supporting same sex marriage, which she felt was a gift she owed, in the name of human rights, to her daughter. Finally, Carmen Agra Deedy regaled us with the story of how Martina the Beautiful Cockroach came to her in the voice of her mother during a hot Georgia storytelling session in a large school auditorium which had just been invaded by a large flying cockroach. The story was the only way to calm the children.

The Celebracií³n ended with music: Suni Paz led us in Spanish and English in a sing-along about the freedom to fly, think, speak, and read, Yolanda Valentí­n sang a beautiful solo, and the Rhythmo Mariachi Kids played and sang “Los Colores” for the audience, then serenaded the authors, with Yuyi Morales’s son also playing a guitar.

Book signing followed. Included among the books were not only the Pura Belpré authors’ books but also Lucí­a Gonzí¡lez’s and  Lulu Delacre’s The Storyteller’s Candle: La velita de los cuentos, a biography of the Puerto Rican-born New York City librarian Pura Belpré, which the author and illustrator had created to honor the first librarian to promote the passing on of Latino/a cultural heritage to children through her retelling of Puerto Rican folktales. Proceeds from the sale of the books will go toward support of the award.