Feliz año nuevo a tod@s! We’re excited to come back in 2017 with a renewed dedication to sharing and celebrating the wealth of literature focused on Latin@ experiences in children’s and YA books. We start the year inspired by the outpouring of community-focused sentiments and social justice emphases that have emerged in the last two months. With this in mind, we’ve decided that now is a good time to focus in on a conversation about social change and how it happens. How do we achieve a more just and equitable world? A world that prioritizes multicultural experiences and backgrounds rather than denigrating differences?
Though these questions merit much larger conversations than we can engage in here, we can offer at least one approach: to think of change as something brought about not only by famous, charismatic leaders, but more so by thousands of individual actions. We’re talking about actions that may be public or private, societal or familial, formal or informal, quiet or loud, compassionate or fierce, to name but a few of the many variations. To get at what this spectrum of change looks like in practice, we’re using the month of January to move beyond traditional heroes and to consider lesser known stories and “unsung heroes” in children’s and YA Latin@ literature.What are the stories in Latin@ literature that can spark change and inspire young readers?
We hope you’ll join us along our journey now and in the coming months. As always, thanks for being here and we look forward to hearing your thoughts and ideas!
En solidaridad,
Keira
Image: Adapted from photograph of mural commemorating the Madres de la Plaza del Mayo in Argentina. Reprinted via CC © from Flickr user Seven Resist.
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