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Puerto Rico Tag

Side By Side by Marilisa Jiménez Garcia

This is really cool to see! The cover of this new book features an illustration I created for a series of “story time” posters I started two years ago. I made these images because I wanted to contribute some reflections to reading rooms and areas in libraries. I’ve seen images of celebrities in “Read” posters but I wanted the images to be of every day people and children. 
Scholar Marilisa Jiménez Garcia studies Latinx history and children’s literature and has written this book “Side By Side” about the ongoing colonization of Puerto Rico and how media from the US has affected Latinx kids on the island. You can order a copy of the book HERE
Heres the description from the book:
During the early colonial encounter, children’s books were among the first kinds of literature produced by US writers introducing the new colony, its people, and the US’s role as a twentieth-century colonial power to the public. Subsequently, youth literature and media were important tools of Puerto Rican cultural and educational elite institutions and Puerto Rican revolutionary thought as a means of negotiating US assimilation and upholding a strong Latin American, Caribbean national stance.

In Side by Side: US Empire, Puerto Rico, and the Roots of American Youth Literature and Culture, author Marilisa Jiménez García focuses on the contributions of the Puerto Rican community to American youth, approaching Latinx literature as a transnational space that provides a critical lens for examining the lingering consequences of US and Spanish colonialism for US communities of color. Through analysis of such texts typically outside traditional Latinx or literary studies as young adult literature, textbooks, television programming, comics, music, curriculum, and youth movements, Side by Side represents the only comprehensive study of the contributions of Puerto Ricans to American youth literature and culture, as well as the only comprehensive study into the role of youth literature and culture in Puerto Rican literature and thought.

Considering recent debates over diversity in children’s and young adult literature and media and the strained relationship between Puerto Rico and the US, Jiménez García’s timely work encourages us to question who constitutes the expert and to resist the homogenization of Latinxs, as well as other marginalized communities, that has led to the erasure of writers, scholars, and artists.

Also, check out this other book edited by Marilisa about Puerto Rico.
If you’d like a print of the original illustration, cop one here.

 

November 25, 2020
in General
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Puerto Rico -Marilisa Jiménez Garcia

 

Fam, this is a book about Puerto Rican hxstory edited by a Boricua scholar and activist named Marilisa Jiménez Garcia. It’s published by “Teaching for Change” a DC non profit who focus on teaching the shit US hxstory books typically have ignored or left out. Growing up around a small but vocal community of Puerto Ricans here in the Bay Area and living in NYC I have always wanted to learn more about the struggle for a free Boriken (Puerto Rico) and some of its great figures. So for Women’s Hxstory month, Inktober, etc I have drawn some Puerto Ricans. Please share this educational opportunity to read, teach, and learn from this very detailed compilation of art, poetry, people, events, places, etc. 
Shout to Marilisa and Teaching for Change for including some of my work in the book which you can see below. In the book they talk about Salsa, Bomba y Plena, Vejigantes, the island of Vieques, Hurricane Maria, US Colonialism, Afro Latin identity, the Puerto Rican diaspora, and so much more.

November 1, 2020
in General
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Defend Puerto Rico

So the US response to PR has been weak, disappointing, faulty, irresponsible, and down right hateful. It is not just the current idiot in office. There are other presidents since the colonization of the island (yes Obama too) who have contributed to a financial stranglehold on Puerto Rico. But check it out, you can help by calling your congress member and letting them know how you feel. Please follow DEFEND PUERTO RICO.
You can donate to them because they have Boricuas on the ground doing work, or you can put pressure on the US Govt. Check out these graphics by Michael Cordero, one of the co-founders.

October 25, 2017
in General
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Kids & Book Zone- Life is Living back on

Check it out, so we’re back on this Saturday. Bring your babies, teens, and family to Life is Living. This is an intergenerational event. So, I will be there with several authors doing storytime: Grace Caroll, Tiffany Golden, Laurin Mayeno, and Kamaria Lofton.  We will be there as part of the Kids Zone!
The event was postponed briefly as we were trying to avoid putting folks outside in dangerously smoky and toxic air. After the northern California fires the smoke was everywhere and not good for the babies, the performers, or the people. But, we’re back. 
If you would like to send relief to the folks affected in the fires and in Puerto Rico, please check out this LINK. Come through to Life is Living!

October 24, 2017
in General
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Inktober 8 – Roberto Clemente

Roberto was one of the best baseball players to step on the mound. He was born in 1934 in Barrio San Antón of Puerto Rico and began playing ball at an early age. Baseball is huge in Cuba, PR, the Dominican Republic and many other Latino & Caribbean countries. Clemente joined an amateur league in his teens and by the time he was 18 played for the national team Santurce. A major league team called the Brooklyn Dogers came to PR to play and offered him a spot. He bumped around after moving north and landed on the Pittsburg Pirates where he made a name for himself. He had a 353 bating average, he played in the world series, got 240 home runs, played with some of the greatest and was the first Afro Latino player in the league after the likes of Jackie Robinson. He died in a plane crash at an early age but was inducted into the baseball hall of fame and opened the door for many Latinos to join the MLB, which now has hundreds of players from Puerto Rico and other countries.

Sources: 21-Wilfred Santiago, Wikipedia

Peep this: Lolita Lebron

October 13, 2017
in General, Inktober
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Inktober 2- Repeal the Jones Act!

This is for all my Puerto Rican fam, but also it is a lesson in US Colonialism. In 1920 the law was imposed on the island of Puerto Rico makes it so folks in PR have to get goods brought to the island via US ships, which not only makes items more expensive for Boricua’s (Puerto Rican’s) but it lines the pockets of US corporations. This law was created after WW1 to keep the US from being attacked but that was nearly 100 years ago. If the US Govt doesn’t want to treat the people of PR like US citizens, they need to release their claws from the island and that starts w/ repealing this act. Although the idiot in the White House waived it temporarily, it is no where near getting the clutches of the US Govt as a colonialist power off of Puerto Rico where they have bombed, taxed, and exploited the people. If you would like to assist the people check out www.Defendpr.com for updates and information on how to advocate in the US.

Peep this: Rosa Clemente

October 2, 2017
in General, Inktober
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Latinxs in Kid Lit-Pura Belpre

Hey! If you are not a regular reader of “Latinxs in Kid Lit” please go check them out. They blog about new books, history, and up and coming writers/artists. This is my second time contributing to the blog. Above is an illustration I did of Pura Belpre for women’s history month this year. Please take a look and read the article. Here is my favorite quote from it: “Storytelling as a means of resisting and challenging oppressive dominant narratives.”

May 16, 2016
in General
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Who is She?4 – Pura Belpre

Pura Belpre was NYC’s first Puerto Rican librarian. She was a storyteller, educator, and a pioneer in library programming and learning for children. She was born in 1899 in Puerto Rico and came to the US in 1920. In 1921 she began working in the New York City public library system. She has been called a pioneer because of her outreach to the Latino community offering programming in spanish. She founded a mobile puppet company that went around the neighborhood performing her stories. She looked for and purchased books in spanish for the library when multicultural literature was not a thing. As a storyteller she brought stories from her country like “Perez y Martina” and shared them with the children uptown, while also translating them and publishing them in books for the first time. Because of the amazing work she did as an advocate for literacy and education in the community an award has been named in her honor by the American Library Association. I did not hear a single thing about Ms Belpre until I was in my 30’s. But, her dedication to engaging children and getting them to read inspires me. And I hope that more about her life is uncovered and that we as kids and adults learn about stories like hers. Check out the book “The Storyteller’s candle” and the documentary by the Center for Puerto Rican Studies at Hunter College called “Pura Belpre” https://vimeo.com/30837106

Sources: Wikipedia (website) and “Colorin Colorado” (blog)

Did you see the image of Arturo Schomburg?

March 7, 2016
in General, Who is She?
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