The 2018 National Latino Children’s Literature Conference will
showcase the works of authors, illustrators, and scholars which embody Latino
culture and art as a means to promote literacy and reading in Latino children.
Highlighting the literacy needs of Latino children and their
families, the conference also serves as a forum for librarians, educators,
researchers, and students to openly discuss future information and education
needs necessary to promote Latino literacy.
This year’s conference will be held at UTSA’s Downtown Campus in
San Antonio, TX.
Keynote Speakers
Rafael López
Rafael López is an internationally recognized illustrator and
artist. A children’s book illustrator, he won the 2016 Pura Belpré medal from
the American Library Association for his illustrations for Drum Dream Girl and
the 2010 Pura Belpré medal for Book Fiesta. In 2012, he was selected by the
Library of Congress to create the National Book Festival poster. He has been
awarded the 2017 Tomás Rivera Children’s Book Award, three Pura Belpré honors
and two Américas Book Awards. The illustrations created by López bring diverse
characters to children’s books and he is driven to produce and promote books
that reflect and honor the lives of all young people.
Monica Brown
Monica Brown, Ph.D. is the author of many award-winning books
for children, including Pablo Neruda: Poet of the People (Henry Holt), winner
of the Américas Award for Children’s Literature and an Orbis Pictus Honor for
Outstanding Nonfiction, and Waiting for the Biblioburro (Random House), a
Christopher Award winner. Her picture book Side by Side: The Story of Dolores
Huerta and Cesar Chavez/Lado a lado: La historia de Dolores Huerta y Cesar
Chavez (Rayo/HarperCollins) was an NAACP Image Award nominee and Tejas Star
Book Award finalist. Monica’s books are inspired by her PeruvianAmerican
heritage and desire to share Latino/a stories with children. “I write from a
place of deep passion, joy, and commitment to producing the highest possible
quality of literature for children. In my biographies, the lives of my subjects
are so interesting and transformational that I am simply giving them voice for
a young audience. I don’t think it is ever too early to introduce children to
the concepts of magical realism, social justice, and dreaming big!”
Margarita Robleda Moguel
Author of over 30 Latino/a children’s books and winner of the
Juanes de la Cabada Fine Art of Children’s Tale Award.
From Margarita: On the migration card, when I leave Mexico, I
put in occupation: to be happy. In doing so I remember that everything I
do has that goal. Happiness, not as a state of mind, but as realizing my
sense of life: being a better person. I think the frog is my
nagual. Through his eyes I see things that I have the impression that no
one else sees, these discoveries I translate into songs and stories, articles
for the newspaper, conference themes, and in recent times in poems and
photographs, such as those of the Moon. For many years I have dedicated
myself to sing and tell stories to children, now I have opened the age limit
until the age of 112, because I consider that the 113 as that changes the
character. I struggle day by day so as not to lose my temper.
Guadalupe Garcia McCall
Ms. Mccall is the author of Under the Mesquite (Lee & Low
Books), a novel in verse. Under the Mesquite received the prestigious Pura
Belpre Author Award, was a William C. Morris Finalist, received the Lee Bennett
Hopkins/International Literacy Promising Poet Award, the Tomas Rivera
Children’s Book Award, and was included in Kirkus Review’s Best Teen Books of
2011, among many other accolades.
Ms. Garcia McCall was born in Piedras Negras, Coahuila, Mexico.
She immigrated with her family to the United States when she was six years old
and grew up in Eagle Pass, Texas (the setting of both her novels and most of
her poems). She is currently a high school English teacher in San Antonio.
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