Duncan Tonatiuh has pretty much always known he wanted a career in the arts. The Mexico native, though, has not always known he wanted to write and illustrate children’s books.
Tonatiuh is known for using Mixtec imagery in his work — the Mixtec are an Indigenous people from Mesoamerica. Tonatiuh says he aims to put his own spin on this ancient artwork.
Tonatiuh joined The Show to discuss how he got into writing and illustrating books for children.
Full conversation
DUNCAN TONATIUH: Well, to be honest, I sort of fell into it, you know, I was interested in art since I was a kid. I loved comic books and manga, and so by the time I was a teenager, I was very kind, I knew that I wanted to pursue a career in the arts, and I went to design school, I went to art school in New York City, but I always thought I was going to do stuff for adults, you know, maybe I'd be a painter and my paintings would hang in galleries or photojournalists, or I had different ideas throughout the years.
But my last year in college is when I came up with my illustration style. I had to have a, a senior project and I ended up doing it about a friend of mine that I met in New York. And he is from Mexico and I'm from Mexico, too. But he is Mixtec, and there's a big Mixtec community in, in the tri-state area in New York.
And so I thought that that was really interesting and I, so I made this kind of short graphic novel, novella. It's too short to call it graphic novel, but this kind of like comic book about it, but I got really interested in my art. They had this very unique way of drawing. So I started drawing in a similar style.
And a professor at my university saw my project and she thought that it was really good. She thought that the illustrations were really interesting. And she introduced me to a children's book editor, and he liked my work, but he said, “you know, this project you're doing is more for adults, you know,” he gave me his card. And I wrote the story about these two cousins, and I, you know, revised it and eventually became my first published book. And that's kind of what opened this world of making children's books.
MARK BRODIE: Well, it sounds like it wasn't a terribly difficult transition for you then, from going from thinking that you were gonna have paintings hanging in galleries to writing and illustrating kids' books.
TONATIUH: No, not, not at all. And I mean, I'm super happy that I found the medium because, you know, like I said, I get to write and illustrate, which are things that I love. But I think also, like, you know, one thing that I like about kids' books is that I don't think they need to have like a happy ending, but I do think they need to have something like positive, something hopeful in them.
And one thing that I really love is that if I'm interested in a topic, I can try and learn as much about it as I can and kind of take all that knowledge and hopefully turn it into, into an interesting book.
So I've made books about the people that painted books in, in Mesoamerican times, about Posada and his Day of the Dead skeletons, about social justice, about different themes, and, and so it's been, it's been really wonderful. I love it.
BRODIE: Were you exposed to Mixtec imagery growing up in Mexico?
TONATIUH: A little bit. I mean, not Mixtec particularly, but definitely like Mesoamerican art. Like I remember, you know, in one of my textbooks when I was like in 4th grade or something, it had on the cover a picture of the Aztec calendar. And where I grew up in, in San Miguel, in San Miguel de Allende, there's an artisans market with different crafts and sometimes they sold these or they still sell these kind of codex-like paintings, but as a kid, I mean, I saw them, but the things that I really liked were, you know, like I said, comic books, manga, anime.
And it wasn’t until I had moved to the United States that I kind of started missing some things that were around me growing up in Mexico, the food, the music, the different traditions. And that's when I kind of became more interested in the art of Mexico and the culture of Mexico.
BRODIE: Was there something about seeing those, that even though it wasn't sort of the, the dominant imagery and, and graphics that, that you were used to growing up, was there something that kind of made you feel at home or maybe felt familiar or comfortable to you?
TONATIUH: Yeah, yeah, maybe. I mean, I think, you know, the thing about Indigenous art and Indigenous culture in Mexico, I think it's just so part of life, you know. Like Mexican cultures are mestizo culture is a mix of Indigenous and European and I think it's, it's kind of everywhere, you know, sometimes more obvious than, than in other instances. But I think it's just kind of, it does feel familiar when you see it, you know, even if you don't see it all the time, if that makes any sense.
BRODIE: Yeah. So in terms of writing books for children, you mentioned some of the issues that you're able to bring up and some of the artwork you're able to, to use. Is there something about it that appeals to you in terms of maybe teaching kids about cultures that they don't know about or exposing them to different kinds of artwork that maybe they haven't seen before?
TONATIUH: Yes, definitely. I mean, you know, when I started making like my project in college and when I started making books, you know, it was a way for me to connect with, with kind of my Mexican background, with my Mexican heritage.
But then, you know, soon after I started making books, I kind of learned about this need for diversity in children's books, you know, cause there's so many different kinds of kids in the United States, but the books that are published don't really reflect that diversity. And I think especially when it comes to Latino children, to Mexican-American children, Mexican children, you know, it's such a large community. There's so many of them in U.S. schools, but so many, so few books where they can kind of see those, that part of themselves in books.
So I think for me it's very important to, to have those, those books out there where, where kids can see themselves and can know that their stories are important, that their culture is important, that that's something kind of unique and special and also hopefully for other people from From other experiences and from other cultures to kind of learn a little about someone different than themselves. So that's something that I'm very interested in, in doing and something that definitely motivates me well, while making books.
BRODIE: Have you heard from. from readers or parents of readers who, who've had that experience of maybe for the first time perhaps seeing a book that is about their culture or seeing themselves represented in a children's book?
TONATIUH: Yes, definitely. And one, for example, you know, I'm sometimes I'm invited to visit different elementary schools, and I visited a lot of different schools in different parts of the United States. And, you know, it's interesting to see the reaction from children but also from teachers, especially from Latino teachers that often say, you know, “I wish there were these kinds of books when, when I was a kid, you know, growing up there wasn't anything, you know, like there weren't any kind of books where, where I kind of felt represented.”
And, and I think with younger kids, you know, they, you know, depending on the book, you know, there's a lot of items, the food, you know, like, like, for example, there's a book that I did that one, ”Dear Primo,” the first one, and there's a scene where they're breaking a pinata, so I, you know, I sometimes when I'm reading the book to kids, I say, “oh, you know, I remember when I was a kid I would break a pinata and we would all sing this song that goes, “Dale, Dale, Dale, No Pierdas el Tino.”
And all the kids, you know, if they're, if they have Mexican family, Latino family, they'll start singing the song, you know, so then they feel like you can sense a joy, you know, that they, that it's just familiar and that they connect with it.
BRODIE: How do you try to put your own sort of artistic vision on some of this very ancient type artwork?
TONATIUH: Yeah, I mean, you know, for viewers, I mean for listeners, if, if they haven't had a chance to see the books, you know, the part that is very reminiscent of Meso-American art is that, you know, the people that I draw are always in profile, their ears look a little bit like a number 3. It's very stylized, their nails are very white and round. So that's the kind of part that looks very, it's very much inspired by Meso-American Art.
But one thing that I do a little differently is that I use a lot of textures. And so hopefully that's an interesting combination of something that feels, you know, kind of reminiscent of this ancient art, but hopefully a little bit more modern and, and, you know, kind of interesting to, to readers, to viewers nowadays, too.
EDITOR'S NOTE: This story has been updated to correct the spelling of Duncan Tonatiuh's name.
