Juan Felipe Herrera honored with Tomas Rivera Children’s Book Award
Posted by Jayme Blaschke
University News Service
June 6, 2007
Growing up as the child of migrant farmworkers--longing for stability and the love of an often-absent father--proved resonant subject matter for Juan Felipe Herrera’s Downtown Boy.
For his efforts, Downtown Boy has been honored with the Tomás Rivera Mexican American Children's Book Award for books published in 2006. The award, established at Texas State University-San Marcos in 1995, is designed to encourage authors, illustrators and publishers to produce books that authentically reflect the lives of Mexican American children and young adults in the United States.
Herrera’s books are often inspired by his past as the only son of a pair of migrant farm workers, along with his belief that language, culture and good-hearted laughter are key ingredients. As a child, Herrera traveled through the many small farming towns of California before his parents finally settled in San Diego. That influence is apparent in Downtown Boy, which follows the life of Juanito Paloma, who, along with his mother Lucha and his elderly father Felipe, moves to San Francisco's Latin Mission District to live with relatives after years of working in the fields of California's Central Valley. Juanito longs to live in one place, rather than “going, going, going,” and pines for the love of his often-absent father.
The author of 19 books ranging from children’s literature to verse, Herrera is best known for Calling the Doves, winner of the 1997 Ezra Jack Keats Award; Crashboomlove, winner of the 1999 Americas Award; and Featherless/Desplumado, winner of the 2005 Independent Publisher Book Award.
Beyond his writing, Herrera has also founded bilingual theater groups, music and poetry troupes. He learned his love of word, language and writing at a young age from his mother. Poetry has been a part of his life ever since, and he now writes poetry for both children and adults.
Herrera currently holds the Tomás Rivera Endowed Chair in Creative Writing at the University of California, Riverside. He lives in Redlands, California. He is also an actor, both on stage and film and currently is writing a young audiences bilingual play for the La Jolla Playhouse POP tour in Southern Calfornia schools.
About the Tomás Rivera Mexican American Children's Book Award
Texas State developed the Tomás Rivera award to congratulate and acknowledge authors and illustrators dedicated to depicting the values and culture of Mexican Americans. Rivera, who died in 1984, graduated from Texas State with both his bachelor's and master's degrees before receiving a Ph.D. from the University of Oklahoma. A Distinguished Alumnus of Texas State, Rivera published his landmark novel in 1971 titled ...y no se lo tragÛ la tierra/ ...And the Earth Did Not Part. In 1979, Rivera was appointed chancellor of the University of California-Riverside, the first Hispanic chancellor named to the University of California System.
For more information on the Rivera Award, please visit the Rivera Award website.