Racial Microaffirmations in Latinx Picture Books

• In Event: Cultural Affirmations as Remedy Within Latinx Children’s and Young Adult Literature

Abstract

Overview and Purpose
In recent years, there has been an increase in children’s/young adult books with Latinx main characters published in the U.S., from 336 books in 2019 to 381 books in 2023 (CCBC, 2024). This slight increase represents opportunities for more mirrors, or the ability for young Latinx readers to see themselves and self-identify with stories (Bishop, 1990; Rodriguez & Braden, 2018). Using a Critical Race Content Analysis (CRCA) (Perez Huber et al., 2020), this paper examines how Latinx picture books can serve as racial microaffirmations for young readers. The purpose is to identify whether contemporary picture books with Latinx main characters can serve as mirrors by affirming young readers. This project asks the following research question: 1) How are Latinx main characters and intersecting identities portrayed in children’s picture books?
Theoretical Perspectives
The project is guided by a Critical Race Content Analysis (CRCA) (Perez Huber et al., 2020), a methodological and analytical guide rooted in Critical Race Theory (CRT) in education (Ladson-Billings & Tate, 1995; Solórzano, 1997). A CRCA serves as a tool to interrogate white supremacist ideologies that perpetuate distortions and stereotypes of Communities of Color within children’s literature and to identify the experiential knowledge of Communities of Color and their cultures within the storylines.
Methods & Data Sources
This project consists of a CRCA analysis of 51 picture books published in the U.S. in 2021. Using the Cooperative Children’s Book Center’s (CCBC) book search tool, we omitted young adult novels and non-fiction books and selected fiction picture books where the primary character was Latinx. A CRCA was completed for each book, where we noted how the culture, identities, and experiences of People of Color were represented in both the text and the images.
Findings & Significance
Findings indicate that family relationships and immigration were prevalent in the storylines. Within this theme, we found culture was celebrated through cultural illustrations, textual references, and language. For example, in My Two Border Towns by David Bowles, a young boy who shares his point of view crossing La Aduana Reynosa (Customs in Reynosa, south Texas) to shop and visit his family and friends in Mexico. Through text, images, and translanguaging, the book positively portrays the experiences of migrants and refugees at the border. By centralizing culturally authentic experiences, this book serves as a racial microaffirmation, a space of “validation to acts of acknowledgment that seek to (re)claim humanity and challenge the dehumanization of everyday racism” (Perez Huber et al., 2021, p. 4). Within the storyline, the young boy states that it’s unfair that his friends have to wait to cross into the U.S. and he imagines “...a wonderful day, when all my friends from the Other side can go back and forth between my two border towns, just like me” (Bowles, 2021). The author encourages a critical awareness of migrants and refugees through a humanizing and empathetic story. Identifying racial microaffirming picture books is critical for challenging stereotypical depictions of Communities of Color in children's literature.

Authors

• Lorena Camargo Gonzalez, California State University - Sacramento

• Lindsay Pérez Huber, California State University - Long Beach