They Call Me Güero

This week we are proud to feature a session from the 2019 Tucson Festival of Books curated by Pima County Public Library’s Nuestras Raices program.

In this discussion entitled What Do You Mean? It’s My Book! local artist Mel “Melo” Dominguez interviews author David Bowles and illustrator Zeke Peña. The artists share some of their personal journeys and influences and the process of working on They Call Me Güero, available from Cinco Puntos Press.

David Bowles is a Mexican-American author from south Texas, where he teaches at the University of Texas Río Grande Valley. He has written several titles, most notably The Smoking Mirror (Pura Belpré Honor Book) and They Call Me Güero (Tomás Rivera Mexican American Children’s Book Award, Claudia Lewis Award for Excellence in Poetry, Pura Belpré Honor Book, Walter Dean Myers Honor Book).

His work has also been published in multiple anthologies, plus venues such as Asymptote, Strange Horizons, Apex Magazine, Metamorphoses, Rattle, Translation Review, and the Journal of Children’s Literature.

Zeke Peña is a cartoonist and illustrator from El Paso, Texas. He studied Art History at the University of Texas, Austin and is self-taught in illustration and painting. He has published work with VICE.com, Latino USA, The Believer Magazine, The Nib, Penguin Random House, Holt/Macmillan, and Cinco Puntos Press. In 2018 he received the Boston Globe Horn Book Award for a graphic biography he illustrated titled Photographic: The Life of Graciela Iturbide. His first children’s book My Papi Has a Motorcycle was written by Isabel Quintero and will be published in Summer 2019 by Kokila, a Penguin Young Readers imprint.

Mel “Melo” Dominguez is an artist, muralist from Los Angeles who has lived in Tucson since 2007 Mel’s artwork is a direct expression of her Chicano/a culture, political issues, social issues, and environmental issues. Mel enjoys using creativity and activism to create a difference throughout the Tucson community.

Recorded and produced by Amanda Shauger.