 Welcome to the awards luncheon of the National Latino Children's Literature on France. We're very excited to have a program today that represents yet more first for our beloved San Antonio and for our nation and I believe our world. Today our program includes a very exciting dual keynote as well as some scholarship presentations of the United Scholarship for the very first year of this award and even more importantly we have the Premio Campoia Ava happening at today's luncheon. The Premio represents the first award in North America focused specifically on quality children's literature and the lengua española in the Spanish language and we've seen before from our history of children's literature that when an award becomes reality publishers start to pay attention and suddenly books begin to appear not that nobody wrote before then not that there were no Latinos writing. I served on the Tomas Rivera Book Awards National Committee for what I got in 10, 12 years, 15, a thousand something like that. And we noticed that after the first year the number of submissions came in and people said oh it's so good that all these Mexican American authors are writing now. I said no these Mexican American authors have been writing for years but they were being thrown into file 13 or being ignored by publishers who said nobody wants this nobody's interested in this. And so the Premio Campoia Ava gives us an expansion of that realm of literature for the many, many children who need, want, and deserve children's literature of the highest quality in their native language in Spanish. So that's part of our program today. We have some wonderful things happening but I'm not the person who's been a welcome you. I have one of our deans from UTSA, formerly chair by cultural bilingual studies and now coming on behalf of our dean of the College of Education and Human Development, Will and I mark right now Dr. Belinda Flores. I want to welcome everybody that's here and I'm assuming everybody with bilingual but I want to especially thank our honorable mayor Ron Nerdenberg and his wife Erika for being here with us. So let's thank them for taking time to congratulate the conference organized by Dr. Premio Campoia, Dr. Howard Smith, and Dr. Jamie Nayuzo who helped organize the conference but also all the students in the department of Bicultural Bilingual Studies. It takes a lot of work to put a conference together and last year I know that the throats of it because I was the department chair. But we do this at UTSA because we are dedicated as a community to our capitol youths. UTSA was founded in 1969. It was the dream there and hopefully we will realize that three one day that UTSA would become the first bilingual university and that also the secretive from UTSA would be bilingual. But I heard it's when you're not there in the school and it doesn't mean it cannot happen. Perhaps we can lead the way. The department of Bicultural Bilingual Studies, we always have promoted bilingualism, Biculturalism, and the rights and the social justice for others. We have very strong faculty in the department but our dean is also dedicated to that vision and vision. Our new president Dr. Taylor Amy is also very dedicated and appreciates the way they both have embraced our community because it takes someone special. Those of us who are from the community, of course this is our backyard, this is our love. It's difficult for us to leave every San Antonio but I encourage the writers and I also want to thank them as well. The ones that are here, I know there are many. And aspiring writers, I met one this morning Natalia. I won't forget her name Natalia because that's my husband's grandmother's name and she was a wonderful storyteller, también. But it's very important that we as an institution here at UTSA not only embrace our Latino community and our culture but like I said, our language. And so I ask you to challenge our university. Say, what can I do in Spanish? I know that we often live in our department of Bicultural Bilingual Studies. So, I don't want to take too much time because I know that we have a lot on our schedule. But again, thank you for being here. Tell others about your wonderful experience here. In Bicultural, I know Natalia is already planning a session for those who want to be aspiring writers. All of you in here have went through this while. We as an institution share our culture. So, tell others and invite others so we can have a room larger than this next year for lunch and for the conference. We know that you are national, international recognized scholars and children writing. So, we are so honored to have you. Muchas gracias. Gracias, doctora Flores. And I want to underline what she said. This is a place with a lot of history. We have a centuries long bilingual, illiterate heritage on this ground. And for those of you who are bilingual educators, I know there's a lot of you out there, raise your hands if you've been involved in bilingual education. The first national conference on bilingual education was held here in San Antonio in 1964. Before the rest of the nation even knew what bilingual education was. I know it for a fact because my late husband was involved in that conference. And we are not proceeding. Dr. Albania was chair of Bicultural Bilingual Studies at that time. And so, we have a history and we have heritage. We also know that the oldest known bilingual textbook in the Americas was used in San Antonio by the Spanish missionaries. It was in Spanish and Guadalcan and it was in Catechism. And this was the way they used language, dual language instruction to communicate the Catholic faith. So, we have a lot of history here. It's very appropriate that we make a lot of firsts. Our first verse for today is the awarding of the Milagros Scholarships, which my chair, Dr. Patricias Sanchez, will be presenting to students here in the Department of Bicultural Bilingual Studies who plan a career in education. I'll give you a little history, even though this is our very first award, set of awardees. Dr. Howard Smith and Dr. Katnicka Bolia, as well as Dr. Jamie Nadu from Alabama are our organizers of this conference. And there was a vision there actually by Dr. Howard Smith. I'm not surprised he should be there, but I'm probably presenting this. He's always wanted to help fund our students who are trying to pursue careers in bilingual education. He's often not funded in terms of pursuing graduate work. So, he had a vision that if there was a post-ease that could go from registration fees at this conference, why not help propel the next generation of bilingual teachers? Now, in trying to name a scholarship, because it is coming from funds that registrants give to the conference, he thought of his daughter. And this was also shared with him to power the name of Milagros. Dr. Howard Smith has a daughter named Milagros. And he is someone who has championed bilingual education and bilingualism since he became tri-lingual, or he might even speak four languages now. And so, this scholarship was a very special one because it was the first year that we're going to award it. And we hope that with the continuation of the conference here in San Antonio, we can continue to award those educators who are pursuing bilingual education, either as a career or also in their academic research. We had five recipients this year. I am not sure if all five were able to attend today and receive their certificate. They have actually already received their award. We awarded five of these, and each recipient received $1,200 this spring for their tuition. We're going ahead and name the awardees, and if by some reason they are not here, we will still clap for them in their absence because this is a tremendous honor. The first recipient, who is a doctoral student pursuing research and work in bilingual education, is Ms. Francine Johnson. Our next recipient, she is also a doctoral student pursuing work in bilingual education, Leticia Medina. So if they're not here, we're going to mail these to their homes. Our next three recipients are pursuing a master's degree in bilingual education, Ms. Denaida Rodriguez Costilla. And then we have another master's student, Blanca Garza Infante. Mr. Hector Castellón Costa. This recipient is actually based out of Austin, and he drives down twice a week to take classes down here at ETSA. So thank you so much for coming to our conferences this year, for helping fund these awardees, and hopefully, again, awards that are going to be distributed next year will come from the proceeds from this conference. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Sanchez. I'm very honored to be able to introduce our dual keynote today for our luncheon. And you might think I'm excited because I'm introducing the mayor of San Antonio. I'm not. We've had a lot of mayorals. Some of them have been good, and some of them are hard to talk to. I'm excited because we have with us today a leader with courageous dedication to this. A leader who, when he gave our commencement address a few months back at the December graduation at ETSA, shocked an audience that was ready to just go party and have fun. And yeah, you know, we don't remember the commencement address. They said, what? Hurry up. There's a program. We're going home and celebrate. We finally got this graduate group. We have a large number of first generation students in ETSA. We make a big deal about it. Dr. Sanchez, in fact, has spearheaded a program for us to identify ourselves as first gen. And so many faculty members, including myself, have a sign on the door on the desk that says, I'm first gen. I'm first generation college. My parents did not finish college on most of our instances. Start, or some of the time, not high school. My mother's instance, she didn't finish middle school. So it's a big deal. A lot of our students also have struggled to become legal residents of the United States. Some of them do not have papers. They have the loyalty. They have the patriotism. But they live in fear of being separated from their family or being deported or being questioned. And we're in a time period of a lot of hate, a time period when we're out of the gun. So the first thing our mayor said when he was talking about our city and what he wanted our city to be, was that this would be a city of compassion. And suddenly the eyes turned to the stage and they started to water up. And he said, is he saying what we think he's saying? And he spoke about compassion. And he spoke about equity. And he spoke about the value of a very diverse population. And so for that, for his being a courageous leader in cultural equity and for his understanding of our society's need to be united from the ground up, that there is no up, that we're all on the ground together, that we're all related to this planet, that's what I would most like to say about Mayor Ron Nirenberg. But you don't just get one today, you get two. And if you think we're excited about our mayor, you should see what we think about our society. Erica Prosper probably needs to run for mayor whenever Ron gets tired of it. Because she is a Latina executive of a Fortune 1000 company. She's mother to a curious and kind son, and she's a community volunteer who's leading the San Antonio Hispanic Chamber of Commerce this year. She states one simple goal for 2018. To remind our city, state, and country that Latinos are leaders and that our culture, kids, and money is the future. So I'd like to welcome to the podium Mayor Ron Nirenberg and First Lady Erica Prosper. As is always the case in my house and in life, Erica always gets the last word. I'm truly honored to be here with you today and to have my son Jonah and my wife Erica with us as well. When I was inaugurated not too long ago, I wanted to make sure that the first words out of my mouth were about compassion and the fact that I believe that this city is not just a city in the world but San Antonio is a city of the world. Not too long ago we were actually a city in Latin America. Well, we are certainly a city of the world and we embrace our diversity and embrace our heritage. And I am very proud that once been an intern at the Intercultural Development Research Association that had a champion in bilingual education for a long time and one of my heroes in that pursuit is Dr. Kuka Obledo Monticello. She's here. I don't know if she's here, but if she's not here, she's here in spirit. And I'm also very proud that this conference and these awards are located in my city of San Antonio. And I would like to welcome you to our beautiful, multicultural and multi-lingual city of San Antonio and to the awards luncheon of the Latino, National Latino Children's Literature Conference. Ours is a special city, a city with a centuries old history of literate, bicultural, bilingualism. This year of 2018 is San Antonio's Christentennial. We are celebrating 300 years as a city with the presence of the Spanish language in this beautiful coilo by the river. San Antonio is a deeply committed city to its most important demographic, the children who will become tomorrow's leaders. And we owe it to those children to give them the best writings, the best stories and the best art that reflects their own experiences and that reflects who we are, a diverse, compassionate, dynamically growing, changing and learning people committed to each other, committed to our unlimited potential. Every child deserves the right to read and expand his or her own capacities and dreams and options through books that mirror, connect and guide their own experiences. To ensure that this happens, children need to see the lives and cultures they know are represented in the books that surround them. This often has been the case for dominant culture kids, but it's most often not been the case for Latino children. I have more than 3,000 books that we were published last year, only 70 were written by Latino authors. This is not equitable and this is not equal opportunity for Latino children to read and to succeed. In today's world, those who don't read don't have a voice, they all submit the magic of literature, the magic of art. Reading inspires the imagination and so much more and if that's one small portion of where my son gets his magic, I can tell by the snacks of books that are always surrounding him today. If we want all children to succeed and excel academically, they must be exposed to books that reflect their cultures, languages and experiences. In short, we as a nation need more Latino books and all children deserve literary masterpieces written in the languages that reflect their culture and linguistic heritage and wealth. We need to ensure that our literary capital will be as carefully guarded, developed and protected as our financial capital. We need to ensure that our literary heritage is preserved alongside our cultural and linguistic heritage. Today represents a first for this conference for our city and for the North American continent. Today we see the awarding of the Premio Necroyada for high literary quality children's books written in the Spanish language. We also see the awarding of the Milagros Scholarship for Young University students who will someday be bilingual educators and create their own Milagros in the students they educate. Today we see this wonderful national conference taking place here right here in San Antonio. A conference aimed at providing Latino children the magical, beautiful books that they deserve. And we see participants coming in from Maine, Mexico City and all places in between. And from Illinois, and Arizona, from California, and from the Rio Grande Valley. Together all of us will change the future for Latino children in this nation and in this world. Latinos are leaders. By assuring the quality and the diversity of the books that give them a voice and give them a reflection of their own hearts and their own dreams. I applaud the efforts of all who have participated in this conference, as well as the organizers, one of Milagros, Dr. Carmen, as well as everyone who is here today for making this happen. And I want to particularly thank the co-conference co-directors, Drs. Jamie Campbell-Nanou, Howard Smith, and our very own Dr. Correa. So as Mayor of San Antonio on behalf of this wonderfully rich, compassionate city I want to thank you for being here and I invite you to come back to San Antonio again and again and again. And let us be the literary capital center for Latino children's literature to change this year. Thank you very much. Again, introduce First Lady of San Antonio, someone who is my partner in life, who I love and adore but who most importantly keeps my and my son's feet firmly pointed on the ground and just makes me a better person every day. Jonah is going to go crazy if at some point he doesn't come up here, so we will greet at the end. I'm going to invite him, but only if he sits still. It's up to you, buddy. You have power over this. Thank you for having us here. I am first generation, family to go to college. I will not be the last. Obviously, that is an important thing for us and our family to continue to explain the importance of an education to our son. But I want to start with the theme of why you're all here. Because the stories that are out there about communities matter. They shape identities. They shape self-esteem. They shape how much people invest in those communities. And for our part, for my part, it is a really important thing that we as San Antonio reclaim that story. And we reclaim it by quite simply telling them, publishing them, and getting them into schools. I took pride in reading. I loved the stories I read. I loved about Paul Bunyan and his oxen blue. Y'all remember that one? Thank you. And his onions, apparently. I loved reading about our founding fathers, what they were fighting for. The underdogs against the great empire. It made me a stronger American. It also made me a stronger student. And in many ways, for me, the most important thing that I lacked, though, during that time were equal stories telling me about heroes that looked like me. For my part, the only stories I ever heard were the stories where Mexicans were defeated at the Alamo. Because somehow they were in the wrong. Other stories, unfortunately, that I got were about the cuckoo. Maybe not unfortunate. It kept me actually out of trouble. But my grandmother would have to tell me everything, because most of the stories from my culture, from my point of view, were oral histories. La llorona, el cuckoo, el diablo que bailaba con la muchacha si no les acaso la mamá. You see that in my grandmother's stories. Then, for that oral history, I wouldn't have gotten a good sense of who I was. But I can tell you that if a book called That's Not There, No Jesucidicia, about Emma de Mayuca was written, I would have had a better sense, and I would have felt ashamed at being a migrant farm worker. Because I would have known the hard work and the proud history that migrant farm workers brought to this country. If books had been written about first gen, I would have been easier for me to explain to my family why I was leaving them in the valley, Bo Valley, to come up to Austin and get an education. If books had been written about my culture and its point of view, during world scuffles, or Texas scuffles, or local scuffles, they would have given me a better sense of what is justice and a balance and fairness of discussion. Now I am lucky. Because my grandmother always taught me that justice is beginning in conversation. So for her it was the reason that I did grow a little more tolerant, a little more open-minded in the heart to listen to the whole world. But if there wasn't that woman in my life, as there are many families where parents work a lot, or maybe they are not involved in their children's day-to-day life, there are many children who don't have that person in their life. And they need literature, they need books, we need to read those stories, those stories. So for me, when Carmen says my goal is to ensure that this city, this city, that this state and this country understands the value of the Latino children and the value of them as our future, it is important because there are 18 million Latino children under the age of 18 in the United States. 90% of the growth in children in the United States, between 2000 and 2015 I believe, was Latino children. They will be the future. And right now their stories are being written as criminals, as illegal, as if their cultural heritage, whether they are first generation, second or third, it's somehow a burden on society. And it is my belief and I believe every one of y'all's belief, our city's belief that it is not so, that Latinos, Latinas are leaders, that they are innovative, that they are heroes, that they are authors, that they are scholars, and that that $1.7 trillion that they wield is something that we should finally take seriously, especially in the publishing world. The fast-destroying segment in education, believe it or not, is bilingual education. Because other people have seen the value it is for their children, not Latino parents, for their children in the future. Why can that not be translated back when it is just as simple as a native language that we speak? So I applaud you all for being here and being the first to have such a conference. I also applaud you for the long-term vision of making UTSA a bilingual school, but primarily what I want to encourage everyone from all over the country, from all over the world to know is that San Antonio is going to continue to say over and over and over, Latinos are leaders, Latinos are smart, our children are your future. They will wield the dollars, they will marry your children. Generation that looks up, reads books about them and says, without even hesitation, I deserve to be here, not because somehow my skin color is different and I'm given a benefit, but because quite frankly, I'm that good. And that is the message you want to leave you with, our family. Now, Jonah, you have stood as still as I can ever see you still, so please come on up. I'll let you have the last word because you are ultimately the whole point of our here. Come on over here, buddy. I'm so motivated and we're about to get to the Fresno Capoeira Awards, but I think you need to have a little activity. So, if you look at the center of your table, the centerpiece is not in flowers. The centerpiece are what the aspect is called in such a little cuicado, in flower and song. They are the poetry of words. They are the poetry of children's books. There are two children's books at the center of every book, I mean every table. And that's the heart of what this conference is about. So, if you want to see what's going to happen to those two books, you have to stand up and look under your chair or get your neighbor to look under your chair. And if you see a little round piece of paper that says N-N-C-N-C-C, that means you get to take one of those books on. Because when everybody else put up a national note N-C-N-C, so we knew it was... We also know that there were some school districts here that had hardy participation. So, we're going on the honor system here. If your school district sent ten or more participants to this conference, raise your hand. How many school districts are those? Say it out loud. Judges are good, because I have two books left. I was praying we would have six school districts that said they'd say, I think we have two. So, we have Drone Dream Girl, How One Girl's Courage Changed Music by my faith and goal of forever free awarding for whoever gets here first. Judges are surprised, everybody. But we gave away door prizes yesterday. We hit little papelitos under your table. We did everything we could, and I have a feeling that next year, we saw a lot of publishers this year go, oh, there's a lot of excitement. Here, you can have some of my books to give away too. So, all of a sudden, it was like the loaves of the fishes. We started with like ten books, and then it became twenty, and then it became thirty, and then it became like fifty. This was over. How many have we given away? So, I think next year, we're going to have a ton of donations for our conference registrants and probably have them in your registration bag so that you can take them right off from the beginning and get some autograph signatures on them. You're going to be receiving a little request for a survey assessment of this conference. If you like something about this conference, please tell us. This is the way we get our support and our excitement and our university to say, sure, we'll help you out a little bit more than we did last time. And it's also a good place to say, you know what would make it better? And I know some things already that we need to do to make it better, because we didn't have enough of the books available for sale that we could have for our keynote speakers. But there may be other things, help us on it, help make it a better conference, send us in, let's see what was planned. It's my great pleasure to talk about the two women that will be coming to the podium next. What can we say about Alma Florada and Isabel Campoy? Books. That might be a little low for an estimate. Everything from scholarly books, text books, academic articles, children's books, chapter books, books, books, memoirs. What did I leave out? Everything. Everything. They've done it all. And especially they have been leaders in the transformation of education for Latino children and for the widest diversity, cultural and linguistic diversity of children. They've transformed the way we think about and talk about education. And the way we think about and talk about literature. So it's a pleasure to see them collaborating with a group that I'm just getting to know a little better. I'll let. The North American Academy of the Spanish Language, which joined in 1973 the 20 Spanish language academies of the Americas. Can you say, I'm talking about bunches of the United States, Americas to continents. Its objective is to preserve, support and expand the use of Spanish in the United States and honor the Latino culture in this country. This year, the Academy inaugurates the Campoy Avalab Award. Donated by Dr. Isabel Campoy and Dr. Agma Florella. And it is an award for children's and young adults, this is what why we're all here and what we're about. The purpose of this award is to recognize the merit of both written or translated into Spanish and published in the United States, to support the work of publishing companies that publish Latino authors and to expand and honor the use of Spanish in the literature for children in this country. So please put your hands together and welcome Dr. Isabel Campoy and Dr. Agma Florella. Last month in Cuba and we also celebrated the fact that the UTSA was able to sign the agreements with the Academy of the American Language, with the benefit that we have been working to prosper the English, the Spanish language into the children's literature. It is truly an honor to be here with all of you. We thank you very much for being here with us. We are presenting the gifts and we have brought them to the UTSA. I just want to say thank you for the valuable association that has always given me in UTSA. Although I am excited and I will not take the same time with which my mission is to read the names of the books, I just want to tell you that when the celebration of these 80 years that have had more recognition than I would have expected, in Cuba they wrote a journalistic article about the 80s and the dreams. The truth is that there have been many dreams that have been fulfilled in the 80s, but this is a very important dream because our children deserve the best literature and they deserve it in both languages. And we have awards for literature written by Latinos in English, but until now we did not have it in Spanish. And I am really glad that life has given me for the last few years to see this very beautiful dream come true. Thank you very much to all of you for what they do every day, but mainly because of your passion, because of your dedication, because of your generosity, because of your compassion, because of your creativity, because of your enthusiasm, even though you face life and in that way you prepare and now the awards, this is what we all want to be. This award has a series of categories. The first category is image books. For image books, the first award is the Abbey of Mass. Written by Andrés Piandreu illustrated by Quim Amate, published by Andriana. And there is a mention of honor. And the mention of honor is the best is my father. Written by Joaquín Alázalo illustrated by Marcella Calderón and also published by Santillón. And today I would like to thank all of you. The second category is illustrated children's books and we have the pleasure of the mention of honor to the book, the Caracolas, the Pallazos and the Shadow of the Sea, written and illustrated by Circe Lolo, can be received in the book's category of chapters. The first award, since I had not read it, a strange disappearance I would have received a mention of honor. In the book's category of chapters the first award is for a book written and illustrated by Lulú de Láchez Rafi and Rosy, and others, published by Lulú de Láchez. Lulú de Láchez is not only a book written and illustrated by Lulú de Láchez, which is the same case that happens with Lulú de Láchez and the truth is that Lulú de Láchez has read more than 100 books in the book, but he could not read them. In this category, in the next category of children's novels, there is a mention of honor in the book of Caracoles Escarlata written by Daisy Valls, illustrated by Juan José Catalan, who has not been able to be present, but all of them have not been able to come. Of course, they have sent their personal gratitude but also their congratulations to the conference and their commitment of trying to be present in the next few years. The category of children's novels has a first prize, although it is a novel, it is a novel with illustrations of the author Adalucía. Adalucía has conceived and created a magnificent book in which, in a very well-traveled way, in the course of history, the characters ask for in different moments of their lives in different Spanish-American countries. And that allows us to get to know a lot of the culture, the customs, the day-to-day of these countries. And as a real psycho-graphic novel, it is capable of reproducing the own dialogue of each of these places. And the truth is that it is a book that should be in all the classes because it would learn a lot the children of our culture in such a free way and almost without realizing what the good literary can do. To hide myself from my father, which is a lot less. In the category of infant poetry, the first prize goes to a great poet who has been able to come and be with us with the title Precioso Agua Aguita illustrated by Serice Pugalde Alcántara, published by Muñata and Avenido Jorge de que va con frecuencia a trabajar con los niños a enriquecerles con la mejor literatura a llenar su vida de libros tratando de darles una orientación, un futuro, esa esperanza de la que habla Margarita en un país donde la juventud está muy amenazada de terminar siendo parte del libro del canga, verdad? Pueblo sin infantil hay una mención de honor para poesía alada una ambia antología escrita por Mariana Llanos que nos acompaña ilustrado por varios ilustradores de Adri Mallorca, Juliana Afran quien verles los ilustradores enriqueciendo con las voces históricas la voz de Mariana en poesía juvenil hay un primer premio para un libro cuya autora también va a ser en España La Bodicera Marina de María Tragués un libro escrito ilustrado por María José Tobal una fiesta de imaginación conocemos a Martín cuyo autor tanto Andorra Rodríguez nos ha abolido venir todos que me reconocen su obra novela Chiquita ilustrado por Pablo de Bella publicado por Santillana que también nos manda su presencia al cripto y hay tres menciones de honor otro libro sobre Martín y sus versos por la libertad cuya autora es Emma Ottegui ilustrado por Beatriz Vidal publicado originalmente en ingles pero con traducción al español de Adriana Domínguez el libro es Quivel cuya autora es Susan Kuhl ilustrado por Tonotiu con una versión en español de Carlos Calvo y otra biografía de Georgina Lázaro que hace estas hermosas biografías en perso, verdad Lori publicado por Hector y terminamos con la categoría la oficción en un libro ya la autora en español está también presente con nosotros es el libro El Planeta Azul el libro en el cual la oficción, sin embargo se convierte en hermosa y creativa literatura el autor es Marc Rejer Lucia Sanchez que está con nosotras esencial es el que está en el corazón de cada uno de ustedes es el premio que haber decidido dedicar la vida a quienes más lo perecen a lo que son y les convocamos con todo clase de esperanza hererosidad y compasión a una nueva visita de San Antonio el próximo año y a todos los que están empezando a escribir en bien los sus boluscritos el próximo año se encantará es uno de estos premios un saludo y feliz año Muchísimas gracias doctoras Alma Florada Isabel Campoy y muchas gracias también a los autores I'd like to thank not only Doctors Ava and Campoy but I'd also like to thank all the authors both the winning authors but authors to be the young authors like Jonah who are just popping with ideas right now and haven't even gotten them on to the paper yet because to quote the great one I look like I've seen a call from yesterday's keynote when she talked about being asked people talking about an educator having to carry a weapon an educator whose purpose is to protect and guide and teach a discussion going on right now about whether they should be armed as well and she ended her view of the keynote behind my saying which she said we're going to be publishing that keynote watch for it it's going to be probably factors myth and the violin review journal but it's definitely going to be on the website of the conference proceedings but she ended it by saying so given all that we've been through and all of the history that we have survived all the ugliness with which we've been treated how we have made it through anyway if I am asked to carry a weapon I will poor thing she's going to have to stare at God in the purse and she says I will carry my weapon of choice and I will speak about my history and I will speak about justice and so I want to thank writers like one of them is like our the days like our emerging writers all of the authors who have made these books possible and all of the readers who have provided that support and enthusiasm that we love of course you're the ones who make this really good today we have an extra treat Jorge Agüeta has agreed to show us a little power point about his growing up and how it ties into his writings we don't like to have any event go too long about hearing from an author about the work and Jorge has agreed to show us a little bit of his work just for your listening pleasure but thank you all for working on the technical difficulties I want to thank nowcast who is with us today who is filming this it is being streamed live on the nowcast channel and it's also going to be available we'll send out also on the website the information about where you can get the recording of this days award selection so thank you nowcast you're amazing you record history, you document history you make history thank you for all the things you've done all the work you've done to help in the light of our city and our world okay good afternoon thank you so much the best word you can have in life is the best word it says thank you it says mountain it says river the Mother Earth the most humble the most proud the most beautiful the most beautiful of all the most beautiful of all my grandmother I'm going to show it to you on this on this in the language of the birds, you get it? Now I want to thank you. I'm not going to mention names, but you know, I'm saying thank you. To all of you, to all of you, but to the child, to the child, that we all should take care of and continue to take care of. We must continue so that our children are happy. We have to be happy. We have to be happy. I work with schools, with a library in El Salvador, and I see children, gangsters, non-gangsters. You can't go, you can't go to this battle if you're not happy. You have to be happy. You have to be happy. So that's what my grandmother taught me. My grandfather was a man who loved horses, and he learned how to love horses. He made them dance. It's beautiful to dance in a horse. My grandfather had some lands where we planted corn, beans, and he grew up there. And what's around all of this are stories. Boom! Witches! A lot of wonderful stories. And I grew up listening to all these stories that these people had. In Nahuatl and in Spanish. I first mentioned Nahuatl because that was my first language. This is my father, and my mother, and my siblings. And this is me. It was the only picture I had of myself. And I was always in a ball, basically naked. We had no need to wear clothes, the river was there. But for that occasion there was a man taking pictures. Bring that boy! Maybe you want to take a picture? You don't want to have time for that picture. But I didn't want to take pictures. And they took me those pictures. I have two pictures of myself. And here, this book that we're celebrating, Aguauita, I'll tell you briefly. My grandmother told me that in this video those stones that you see are our Nahuatl grandparents. And Indian people. And that under each of these stones, in the same water that you pour, the corpusas are a nation. In Indian. When Aguauita passes, they're talking. And sometimes they sent me to bring water. And don't step on the curb when you have it, don't step on the curb. So I always said, you look like a gay, you live very fast. It all happened on the other side. I went around. But the most important thing that the lady told me, my grandmother, when you get into the water, the river asks you for a wish. Ask for a wish. In some way, maybe I ask to be with words. My grandmother never knew how to read or write. She used to talk with the fire, with the wind. She used to talk with the birds. She used to speak that wonderful language. But she didn't know how to read or write. But her hands, her heart, her eyes. And her tenderness. Because she was a curator, my grandmother. So there are people who used to go to work home. My grandmother hugged them and rubbed their hands and made them have good childhood. They had it at home. So I witnessed all of that with my grandmother. And she told me about this wonderful river. I want to read a little bit, I don't know if we have time. I'm going to read a little bit about it. My grandmother was a lady who was told about the jacoas. The mergers. And I didn't like to listen to what my grandmother told her about the jacoas. Because they were Tlamenes. My grandmother made pomales. And they had heavy heavy battery. And she would transport that. Like 10 10 miles in her back. She would tell her about the jacoas. My grandmother was a jacoa. My grandmother was a merger. And I didn't like to listen to what I was listening to. And what I saw was that my grandmother was a magical person. She was a magical person. She would tell me about the river. And one time among so many things she said she told me something about a woman who was a jacoa. And why did my grandmother say that? Because she was there in the belly in the belly of your mother. And the first music you heard was the music of love. Through the heart of your mother. Sometimes we have this word about people sometimes crying. One of my uncles tells me they cry because when they hear the drumming they remember the first sound the mamas the heart of the mother through the water. And then that is the connection the mother of the earth the belly and the heart of the mother. My name is water but everyone calls me little water. I like to be called little water. I ask in the background of our mother earth I come singing I am born deep in our mother earth. From there I come singing I am a tiny drum I am rising to the surface I pass through the pores I surrender to the roots I go up through the rocks I travel through the clarity and darkness and drop by tiny drop I climb to the surface I pass through the quartz getting tangled in roots climb along rocks trouble through light and darkness little by little I am rising to the surface I come back to the surface I return to rest on the tip of the leaves on the terraces or on the petals of the flowers drop by drop I climb and when I come to the surface I rest by hanging on the tips of leaves on the spiderwebs or on flower petals I ask the children if you have seen this little girl and they say yes I saw her this morning I saw her when she came to school I am rising to the surface Listen! I am rising! I am rising to the surface A sigh of the rose of theис morning rising to the surface A sweet song tender and strong I am little water a sight of mourning do little water a sweet, tender and strong song I am rising to the surface and drop by drop I am little water, and drop by drop. Me convierto en grillo, en lago, en mar, de gotita en gotita subo el cielo. I become a river, a lake, an ocean, and drop by drop, I climb to the sky. Soy de un color por la mañana y de otro color en la tarde. I am one color in the morning and another in the afternoon. Y luego, por la noche, soy de otro. And then at night, I am another color. Soy de todos los colores y no tengo color. Soy de todos los sabores y no tengo sabor. Soy de todas las formas y no tengo forma. Soy agua, soy agüita. Save me, soy agua. Soy agüita. I am all colors and have no color. I have no flavors and have no flavor. I am all shades and I am shapeless. I am water, I am little water. De gotita en gotita, me convierto en nubet. Drop by drop, I turn into a cloud. Soy pájaro de agua. De gotita en gotita, regreso cantando a nuestra madre tierra. Soy agüita, soy vida. Soy agüita, soy vida. I am a water bird. Drop by drop, I return singing to our mother earth. I am little water. I am life. Soy la vida. Thank you all. We want to thank our sponsors. We want to thank our mayor, first lady, and first son. I have to explain my first son, I am a person. Latino culture is not a problem because every child has many people and they should come. So thank you all for being here. I know they have to scoot out to another event. I'm going to ask those of you who would like to talk to the pre-annual winners. You can stay here, you can mob them, you can try and get their autographs. Don't forget to take their books from the table. If no one else claims it, there was an empty church or table and it was under there. It's for grabs. Our sponsors have been wonderful. Our food service people have been wonderful. San Antonio. Now, do not forget, we have two more rounds of presentations this afternoon. The first of those rounds begins at 2.15. We have some wonderful, exciting presentations, bridging culture into the writing workshop with Chicanx Children's Literature. We have Luminarias, recommended book list for bilingual student readers and national identity and ethnicity. And then at 3.15, we have Tiempo Social with book signing for Campoyala winners. Here in this room, there will be nothing scheduled in this room between now and then, so you're welcome to get the party started early. We have two author readings happening at 3.15. Dr. Mariela Rosales Pérez and Luper Riz Flores. And we have a presentation on the Latino Collection and Resource Center at the San Antonio Public Library. And 4 to 4.15, we have a 15-minute closing session in this room with Dr. Smith and myself. Just kind of tapping some ideas from you for next year. And those of you who are interested, we're closing down here at 4.15 so that you'll have a chance to get over to the San Antonio Public Library, where we have a wonderful Latino Collection. The library staff has agreed to give us a group tour from 4.5 to 5.30. So if you are interested in that and you know you're going, leave your name at the desk. And that way, we just have a muscle Reynolds number so we can call the library and give a heads up and change your rank in the last minute and you say, yes, I have to go. That's fine. You don't have to. I've given your name. It's not reservations. But it lets us tell, let them know whether it's 20 people or 40 people or 80 people that are going to leave you a little ready for it. Yes, would all of the premio capoe adau awardees please come forward for a photo shoot? And after that, I know you'll be proud by other people wanting your autographs and the pictures you take as well. Thank you. Until the next sessions.