Pura Belpré Celebración 2020

The Pura Belpré Celebración took place on Sunday, June 28^th, 2020, at the virtual ALA Book Award Celebration.

 

Here is the video of la celebración. ¡Felicidades a todos!

 

Pura Belpré Awards honoring a Latino writer and illustrator whose children's books best portray, affirm and celebrate the Latino cultural experience:

 

“Dancing Hands: How Teresa Carreño Played the Piano for President Lincoln,” illustrated by Rafael López, is the Belpré Illustrator Award winner. The book was written by Margarita Engle and published by Atheneum Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division.

 

Three Belpré Illustrator Honor Books were named:

 

"Across the Bay,” illustrated by Carlos Aponte, written by the illustrator and published by Penguin Workshop, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC.

 

"My Papi Has a Motorcycle," illustrated by Zeke Peña, written by Isabel Quintero and published by Kokila, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC.

 

"¡Vamos! Let’s Go to the Market," illustrated by Raúl Gonzalez, written by the author and published by Versify, an imprint of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

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“Sal and Gabi Break the Universe,” written by Carlos Hernandez, is the Pura Belpré Author Award winner. The book is published by Disney-Hyperion, an imprint of Disney Book Group.

 

Four Belpré Author Honor Books was named:

 

"Lety Out Loud," written by Angela Cervantes and published by Scholastic Press, an imprint of Scholastic Inc.

 

"The Other Half of Happy," written by Rebecca Balcárcel and published by Chronicle Books.

 

"Planting Stories: The Life of Librarian and Storyteller Pura Belpré," written by Anika Aldamuy Denise, illustrated by Paola Escobar and published by HarperCollins Children’s Books, a division of HarperCollins Publishers.

 

"Soldier for Equality: José de la Luz Sáenz and the Great War," written by Duncan Tonatiuh, illustrated by the author and published by Abrams Books for Young Readers, an imprint of ABRAMS.

2018 Pura Belpré Award Celebración Acceptance Remarks

The authors and illustrators' acceptance remarks were delivered at the Belpré Celebración on Sunday, June 24, 2018, during the American Library Association Annual Conference. To read the complete remarks visit, 
http://www.ala.org/alsc/sites/ala.org.alsc/files/content/awardsgrants/bookmedia/belpre_2018_w.pdf



Ruth Behar received the 2018 (Pura) Belpré Author Award for Lucky Broken Girl (Nancy Paulsen/Penguin Random). 

When I was growing up in Queens, New York, there was a Sunday ritual I remember fondly. In the summertime, my parents, and my brother and I, together with a big group of friends from Cuba, as well as my grandparents and aunts and uncles and cousins, would make the trek to Jones Beach. It was a New York beach, as crowded as the subway in rush hour, and whoever arrived first staked out as much sand as they could and waited for the rest of us to get there.

We hung out on the beach all day. It wasn’t Cuba—the sand at Jones Beach was scratchy rather than silky, the ocean was cold and rough rather than a warm bath, but it was as close as we could get to the tropical island we had loved and lost.

At the end of the day, everyone went home and showered and in the evening the party reconvened at a favorite restaurant—Asia Continental on Roosevelt Avenue—a Chinese-Cuban restaurant where you could order egg drop soup and fried rice, black beans and fried plantains, and grilled steak and onions, with coconut an and fortune cookies for dessert. As the Chinese-Cuban waiters took our orders, I felt at home. They were mixing Chinese and Cuban cultures with the same ease and audacity with which we were braiding together Jewish and Cuban cultures.



Juana Martinez-Neal received the 2018 (Pura) Belpré Illustrator Award for La Princesa and the Pea (G. P. Putnam’s Sons/Penguin Random), written by Susan Middleton Elya.

I was born in Lima, Peru, a place where everything thought impossible is possible. A country rich in culture and beliefs, where we always make room for one more at our tables, homes, and hearts. The country of Machu Picchu, Cusco, llamas and alpacas, conquistadors, and the Incas. A country often romanticized because of these, too.

My parents came from two different worlds in Peru. My mom and her family came from the North. They were white matriarchs who got things done. My dad and his family were from the South. They were brown artists raised with less money and more books. My parents found each other in Lima and made a family together.

My dad was an artist, too. The subject matter of his work was the indigenous people of Peru—the same subject matter his father, who was also an artist, had chosen to paint decades before.



Pablo Cartaya received a 2018 (Pura) Belpré Author Honor for The Epic Fail of Arturo Zamora (Viking/Penguin Random).

I am here, aquí con todos ustedes, because of my abuelos. Well, I’m here because all of you honored my novel, and because I have the world’s best editor, and an incredible publisher, and team at Penguin Young Readers who made sure my book got out into the world. But really, it’s my abuelos who brought me here. If you’ll indulge me, I’d like to talk about them for a moment:
I didn’t get enough time with my Abuela. Ella falleció cuando yo tenia solamente cinco años. But incredibly, I remember her so fondly. “Mi Pucho,” she used to tell me, a nickname that has carried me to this day. Okay, so embarrassing childhood name aside, I want to share why it was important for me to create the relationship between the titular character, Arturo Zamora, and his Abuela.

It is Abuela who helps him navigate life’s inevitable changes. Both from within as well as external forces from the outside. This relationship is one of the main plot threads of the novel and one that holds a very deep, very personal connection.



Celia C. Pérez received a 2018 (Pura) Belpré Author Honor for The First Rule of Punk (Viking/Penguin Random).

The first time I attended a Pura Belpré Celebración was in 2011 when the award was celebrating its quinceañera. Over the last seven years I’ve been in this room wearing different hats. I’ve been here as an audience member, swearing to myself that I wouldn’t cry this time and then, sure enough, bawling my eyes out as I listened to the authors and illustrators give touching speeches. I’ve been here as a volunteer, scrambling around taping papel picado and hanging rebozos. I’ve been here as a committee member, celebrating the writers and artists we selected as the best of that year. I’ve been here as a co-chair of CAYASC, the Children and Young Adult Services Committee of REFORMA, collecting winning books from publishers’ booths and welcoming attendees to the ceremony.

It’s hard to pick which of these experiences has been the most important to me because they have all been significant in different ways. I’ve had the opportunity to see what happens on both sides of this stage, the amount of work that goes into being on the committee, into planning this event, into writing a book, and it makes me feel so happy and so grateful to have had all of these opportunities. I love the Pura Belpré Celebración, no matter the role I’m filling. Perhaps next year I’ll infiltrate this event by trying to pass as a child performer! But today, I am here as a 2018 honor winner. Go figure!


Adriana M. Garcia received a 2018 (Pura) Belpré Illustrator Honor for All Around Us (Cinco Puntos), written by Xelena González.

Have you ever met up with your amiga for coffee to chat about your lives and vocalize the dreams you want to make real?

Well, that is how this crazy journey started. My dear friend Xelena and I spent many sessions challenging and encouraging one another to do exactly that which moves us, what makes our hearts beat con ganas.

Over three years ago, she asked if I would illustrate a story she wrote about circles. Before she could finish her sentence, I responded with an emphatic yes! Knowing her work and the soulful person she is, I knew it would be a beautiful, mindful story even before reading All Around Us. She finished her pitch with, “But I cannot pay you,” to which I didn’t flinch. After actually reading the story, my belief in her and the story solidified, and it became a mission.

John Parra received a 2018 (Pura) Belpré Illustrator Honor for Frida Kahlo and Her Animalitos (NorthSouth/NordSüd Verlag), written by Monica Brown.

Last year I was inspired to begin a quest to map my family tree. Armed with some handed down stories, DNA tests from my parents, and a few background facts, I was off. I began with my father’s side, tracing his roots into Mexico. Questions swirled, “What town did my grandparents live in?” “When did they emigrate to the U.S.?” “Am I really related to Pancho Villa?” Thrilled to examine old records and historical photos, I found many connections with names and locations, familiar yet shrouded in mystery. I learned that my paternal grandfather, Delfino Sr., was born in Casas Grandes, Chihuahua in 1900. My Grandmother Adela was born in Guadalupe y Calvo, a mountainous mining town in 1904. Both came to the United States through El Paso, Texas, living in the little town of Canutillo. Eventually their family grew and migrated, to the central, San Joaquin Valley of California. To support themselves, my grandparents, along with my father and his siblings, became migrant farm workers, traveling up and down the state, picking potatoes in Bakersfield, prunes and cucumbers in Morgan Hill, or apples near Sonoma. It was a hard life but filled with family and love.

2015 Pura Belpré Award Speeches

The Pura Belpré Award was established in 1996 and honors Latino writers and illustrators whose works of art best portray, affirm and celebrate the Latino cultural experience in a book for children. It is named for the first Latina librarian who distinguished herself for her storytelling and outreach work with children and their families while working for the New York Public Library during the first decade of the twentieth century.

To read the complete speeches visit,

http://www.ala.org/alsc/sites/ala.org.alsc/files/content/awardsgrants/bookmedia/belpremedal/belpre-2015-speeches-lores_final.pdf

Los Ganadores

Picture cortesía de Oralia Garza de Córtes

Marjorie Agosín received the 2015 Pura Belpré Author Award for I Lived on Butterfly Hill, illustrated by Lee White (Atheneum/Simon & Schuster).

“Abuela Frida used to say that there are no coincidences and that the universe weaves its luminous magic. I am honored to be here and to receive the Pura Belpré award in Valparaíso sister city, San Francisco—where the hills are as whimsical as the ones of Valparaíso and where elegant cable cars run up and down this welcoming and beautiful metropolis. I am sure Celeste Marconi would have found joy wandering the many hills of San Francisco and getting lost in its mist and fog.”

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Juan Felipe Herrera received the 2015 Pura Belpré Author Honor for Portraits of Hispanic American Heroes illustrated by Raúl Colón (Dial /Penguin).

“Let me thank the heroes who are in-between the colors and lines of Portraits of Hispanic American Heroes. First of all, the Pura Belpré Award Committee, Lucia Monfried, tireless and generous editor of Dial books for young audiences, also REFORMA who cosponsored the award with ALSC, Kendra Marcus, my patient agent, Raúl Colón, a genius artist, who with his multiple layers of hues called on the unique spirit of every countenance, and, without doubt, Margarita Robles, my partner, for her guidance and boundless support, my son, Joshua, who examined every line. I am honored to receive the 2015 Author Honor Book Award.”

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Yuyi Morales received the 2015 Pura Belpré Illustrator Award for Viva Frida (Neal Porter/Roaring Brook).

“I want to congratulate you. I don’t know if you have heard, but you won the 2015 Pura Belpré Award. You did! And we are here to celebrate it. Certainly my fellow authors and illustrators and I are the ones who get to climb the podium and get our pictures taken, and we even give the speeches, but we are just a little part of what you all have created. You are the ones who have been suggesting, insisting, demanding a more diverse body of children’s literature. You are the Oralias and Sandras of this world, who could take it no more when the only multicultural books you found on shelves were riddled with inaccuracies and stereotypes, and who worked hard to establish awards like this with the mission to see cultural truths flourish. It has been you who asked that in books we find the voices that are seldom heard. It has been you who shared books such as the ones we are recognizing today, not only with passion but also with orgullo, with pride."

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Susan Guevara received a 2015 Pura Belpré Illustrator Honor for Little Roja Riding Hood, written by Susan Middleton Elya (GP Putnam’s Sons/Penguin).

"Thank you to the Pura Belpré Committee for this important recognition for illustrating Little Roja Riding Hood. It reminds me of what you taught me many years ago; you showed me the responsibility I have as a bookmaker to be completely honest and unflinching in drawing what I know to be true. Thank you too, to my agent, Kendra Marcus, for suggesting to Putnam that I be the illustrator for Susan Elya’s Little Roja Riding Hood. Thank you, Susan Elya, for your fine sensibilities with rhyme and Spanglish. The wacky unpredictable word, “Telenovelas” gave Little Roja’s Abuela her romance-writing career."

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John Parra received a 2015 Pura Belpré Illustrator Honor for Green Is a Chile Pepper: A Book of Colors, written by Roseanne Greenfield Thong (Chronicle).

"Colors are everywhere! They are image. They are emotion. They are energy. Color is diversity. Color is life. Color is sacred. I see colors celebrated in countless stories and poems about glorious sunsets and striking far off landscapes. They are the kaleidoscope of vegetables, fruits, and spices, as bountiful flavors are prepared and cooked in Abuela’s kitchen. They are seen splashed about in an infinite array of painted murals as directed from an artist’s creative eye. They are the vibrancy of piñatas, ribbons, and banners at children’s birthday parties. They are the details in the costumes worn by performers at Folklorico dances. They are the whispered, tender words of love used to describe a companion’s eyes, skin, and hair. They are felt, through music, ideas, and memories. They are for all peoples and backgrounds. Color is everywhere...and I love color!"

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Duncan Tonatiuh received a 2015 Pura Belpré Illustrator Honor for Separate Is Never Equal: Sylvia Mendez & Her Family’s Fight for Desegregation (Abrams).

2015 Pura Belpré Medal Award Celebración

The Pura Belpré Award, established in 1996, is presented to a Latino/Latina writer and illustrator whose work best portrays, affirms, and celebrates the Latino cultural experience in an outstanding work of literature for children and youth.

Sunday, June 28, 2015

1:00 pm - 3:30 pm

InterContinental San Francisco Hotel,

InterContinental Ballroom

San Francisco, CA

Join ALSC and REFORMA in a splendid Celebración to honor the 2015 Pura Belpré medal winners and honorees as they receive their awards and deliver their acceptance speeches Sunday, June 28th at 1:00 p.m.

Come celebrate! You don't want to miss this year's amazing winners:

Winner for Illustration

“Viva Frida,” illustrated and written by Yuyi Morales, and published by Roaring Brook Press, a Neal Porter Book.

Honor Books for Illustration

“Little Roja Riding Hood,” illustrated by Susan Guevara, written by Susan Middleton Elya, and published by G. P. Putnam’s Sons, an imprint of Penguin Group (USA) LLC.

“Green Is a Chile Pepper,” illustrated by John Parra, written by Roseanne Greenfield Thong, and published by Chronicle Books LLC.

“Separate Is Never Equal: Sylvia Mendez & Her Family’s Fight for Desegregation,” illustrated and written by Duncan Tonatiuh, and published by Abrams Books for Young Readers, an imprint of ABRAMS.

Author Award Winner

"I Lived on Butterfly Hill" written by Marjorie Agosín, illustrated by Lee White and published by Atheneum Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division.

Author Honor Book

"Portraits of Hispanic American Heroes," written by Juan Felipe Herrera, illustrated by Raúl Colón and published by Dial Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Penguin Group (USA) LLC.