WANTED/SE BUSCA IS A LETTER OF INQUIRY TO PUBLISHERS OF CHILDREN'S BOOK

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A QR code was created in 2024 to present three children's books illustrated with photos by the same author. Instead of an egg hunt, you'll find this presentation or letter of inquiry to you as a publisher. The egg is the main character in different stories that originated with an egg searching for his/her papa.

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MENU/STORY EXCERPTS/TEXTOS contains a submenu with three bilingual books in Spanish and English with the same character: an egg. Each book presents a synopsis and an excerpt.

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The FIRST BOOK Are You My Papa? is Version B for Children

Submitted to the LKBF or Latinx Story Tellers Conference.

See Submission of 10 pages on First Book.

 

The SECOND BOOK (21 Days/21 días) is a picture book for preschoolers and kids learning how to read. It has been created to build vocabulary and language skills, learn about places and professions as well as introduce biology lessons related to the egg becoming chick during 21 days. 

 

The THIRD BOOK are poems written for adults with notes about the writing and creative process. In this section you will find notes related to the creative process of the three books.These notes have tested the waters in a literary and creative workshop for children at the Lake Chapala Society in 2021.  

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Related to the photos in PHOTO GALLERY/FOTOS: the author has improved some colors manually (not digitally) to create colorful images for children, then took a photo of the photo (see below Audiences and Photography Locations to Illustrate these Children's Books)  

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The flyer SE BUSCA/WANTED is the author's way to visualize the books with photos ready to be published. It will be a playful invitation for both children and adults. Some adults will recognize the connotations of SE BUSCA/WANTED in western movies.

 

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SECTIONS OF THIS PROPOSAL

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—Synopsis

—Characters

—Audiences (based on photos you can say they are from México, Latin America, Hispanic/Latinx in the US))

—About Diversity and Representation (kids with disabilities and the gender issue in Spanish)

—About Bilingual Publishers and Co-Editions

—Photography/Locactions (Chapala-Jalisco and Ybor City-Florida are the locations where the photos were taken)

—Adults: The Third Book (A work-in-progress in collaboration with the Bronx Documentary Center)

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SYNOPSIS

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Are You My Papa?/¿Eres tú mi papá?  is the story of the author and of many kids around the world who experienced the absence of one or both parents. The main character is Little Egg/Huevito who realized that someone important in the family, the father, is missing. Determined to find the papa, Little Egg/Huevito leaves home and finds a world willing to help and support. This children’s story is both a playful and a serious way of addressing the confusion many children face about their origins, feelings of not belonging as well as abandonment. The story addresses issues of gender and disabilities. 

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CHARACTERS

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• Main Character:                     Little Egg/Huevito (who turned out to be a “pollita”)

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• Secondary characters:           Nature, animals, chickens, rosters, and men (helpers)

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Little Egg/Huevito is the kid at home, next door, and unprotected in the streets. The adventures of Little Egg/Huevito resemble that of some road movies. From the start, the quest for answers demands physical movement. But Little Egg/Huevito has no way to move as most animals and humans do.

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The other characters around Little Egg/Huevito are helpers. They are models to imitate. The responses to “Are you my papa?” asked over and over again, serve as a message to us on how to demonstrate respect and a loving caring attitude when encountering  kids in similar circumstances.

The ants, the wind, the sun, and a tree with its shadow are the first helpers of Little Egg/Huevito. They are all related to nature, not humans. Little Egg/Huevito then started encountering humans. The first is a bus driver who offered a free ride to the town of Chapala, Mexico; then, other working-class men from the same Mexican village.

 

The helpers  in the story offered simple solutions to help a homeless, orphaned, or neglected kid. The life of Little Egg/Huevito is an example of the survival skills needed at a very early age.

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 AUDIENCES

Based on the photos the audience will be able to identify people from Latin America

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The national and cultural group represented in the stories will attract those readers who can identify the character and the subject as Hispanic/Mexican/Latinx. The Mexican/Hispanic population in the United States and in Mexico is big. Statistic says that a 19% makes Hispanics/Latinx and their descendants the largest ethnic minority group in the US. Mexico. On the other hand, Mexico has the biggest Spanish-speaking population in Latin America. (See Note Bilingual Edition and Co-Publishing).

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• Children

 

Are You My Papa/¿Eres tú mi papá?​

First Book (ages 3-11)

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In order to identify what audience feels more attracted to this story, some statistics indicate that by the age of 3 or 4 a kid starts noticing the absence of a parent. The First Book talks to 3 to 11 years old kids (Versions A & B), offering a broad age range of reading possibilities.

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Second Book 21 DAYS/21 Días  (Picture Book: ages 3-8)

For preschoolers (not readers yet) the Second Book (Picture Book) serves for lessons on vocabulary acquisition as well as to introduce biology concepts related to the egg until it breaks the shell in 21 days.   

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• Adults (double code story and message)

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Parents

Teachers

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I am not Mexican but re-reading one of my favorite novels, Pedro Páramo, by Mexican novelist and photographer Juan Rulfo, triggered this mythical ancient story of a son in search of his father: “Vine a Comala en busca de mi padre"/I came to Comala in search of my father” is a tribute to the novel through the reference in my First Book where Little Egg/Huevito says:

 

By saying “I came to Chapala…”  I made echo to the character searching for his father. As a Hispanic woman, I/we know about Pedros (the father): an archetype and reality behind the story of certain men, “the machos,” who have children everywhere with no sense of guilt and moral obligations. Some men feel proud about the number of kids produced in their lifetime. Thinking in empowering women starting at young age, I offer different solutions in Are You My Papa?/¿Eres tú mi papá” to “unmask” or  discoveri who the real hero is behind the words. Little Egg/Huevito has no physical human or animal features until it is born. 

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All AUDIENCES: A DOUBLE CODE LANGUAGE OR NARRATIVE

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There are some classic children’s books that creates a level of complicity with the adult through a double code language or narrative. My goal as a writer is to expand an audience and be able to write and talk to both children and adults. The obvious step towards this ideal is hopefully found by the indirect citation of Pedro Páramo.  

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The truth is that this question “Are you my papa?” is and will always be there along the life of a person who experiences this void.  The subject of our story is universal: the absence of a parent in the life of a person has psychological as well as social consequences.

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DIVERSITY AND REPRESTATION

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Persons with Disabilities can Identify with the Main Character

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Are You My Papa?/¿Eres tú mi papá? mirrors human realities of people with disabilities who perform in unconventional and heroic ways. The kid has no face with eyes, mouth; no body with legs and arms. The slogan "Little/Egg/Huevito can do it" is one of the strong messages in the story. 

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Gender & Language Issues in Spanish

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In a male oriented society, the inclusiveness of women within “male” nouns creates false expectations and wrong perceptions of who the doer is. By using the word “Huevito” for Little Egg, the readers mind constructs an imaginary hero that has a masculine identity. The English version does not have in its translation this language gender issue. 

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Thus, Are You My Papa?/¿Eres tú mi papá proposes a heroine through a surprise ending (Huevito turned out to be a female chick or “pollita”). The last photo in the story shows a white, an Asian, and a black girl holding the chick.

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We shift from the first image on the top, the egg with moustache, to a female character.  Little Egg/Huevito can be part of series or saga. Huevito/a is in a theater, and will become an actor/actress changing masks and disguises. 

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BILINGUAL PUBLISHERS AND CO-EDITIONS

 

The author lives part of the year in Mexico/Chapala (Jalisco) and part in New York and have live more than 20 years in Manhattan. With a friend, has been organizing workshops for  children of Chapala as part of the writers' and artists' residence "Casa Pilar." The idea of bilingualism is result of such reality, between two languages and two worlds. A bilingual edition can be a possibility using advances of online books (audio or pdf versions) as well as printed in collaboration with another publisher of any other country.

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The idea behind a co-editorial book comes because of the different audiences in Spanish-speaking countries and to Hispanics/Latinx in the US. These books have its origin in Chapala-Mexico (Jalisco) and were partly developed in Ybor City and New York City. The author travels often to the Spanish Caribbean. 

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PHOTOGRAPHY/ LOCATIONS TO ILLUSTRATE THESE CHILDREN’S BOOKS

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• Chapala region (Jalisco, Mexico)

       Are You My Papa?/¿Eres tú mi papá 

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The story is the result of my many visits to Chapala (Jalisco, Mexico). Literature and photography come to terms in my life through the photos illustrating the First Book and Second Book. Both books show Hispanic/Mexican people interacting with Little Egg/Huevito. The main photos were taken along the Lake of Chapala, Jalisco-Mexico. ​

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• Ybor City (Florida, US)

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Is a National Historic Landmark District in Tampa founded by Cubans, Italians, Spanish and Germans emigrants during the XIX century. One of the main attractions are the chickens, rosters, and chicks’ descendants of the cigar worker population. Thy are protected under the law and they can roam freely along the streets. Many photos were taken with support of the Ybor City Saturday Market sellers. There is a children’s book, Henrietta and Cock a Doodle Do by Captain Eric Schiller, that presents an interracial relationship between a black chicken and a white roster. This is the other neighborhood and audience to be included. When you google the book, it shows some of the marketing platforms and libraries selling it. 

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ADULT: THE THIRD BOOK

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(A work-in-progress with photography and poems)

As a poet, most of my writing in fiction or non-fiction go beyond form and genres. This book is a process and a dialogue, an exploration of different forms and artistic languages. The creative process unfolds double languages and stories using photography (See author's CV). 

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WANTED/SE BUSCA

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After publication, the flyer with its QR code can be used as playful public interventions. As you have seen in western movies, the flyer can be placed and posted in different public spaces in neighborhoods of New York City, Ybor City, St. Petersburg (FL), different cities of Mexico. These are the places were the author has been taking the photos.  The Spanish-Caribbean will be included. 

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SPECIAL THANKS

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The author recognizes the collaborative and co-authorship aspects of this creative project that include, but is not limited to, children’s books. Special thanks/Mil gracias to David Lelyveld, Tonatihu Mercado, Manuel Araneda, Pilar Blanco-Ruiz, Myrna Nieves, Robert Roth, Michael Searles and Deirdre Searles, Michael Young and friends of Bronx Documentary Center. 

 

COPYRIGHT reserved/photographs registered. 

Thank you for being part of this adventure. 

The author uses the artistic name of Hilespa.

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