Diversity in Children’s Books: My Motivation by Alex Paramo
Community Publishing was founded on a dollar and a dream, or something like that. Well, not exactly. There were two main motivating factors, equally as important: equity for artists of all mediums and the lack of diversity found in children’s books. I will not delve into the former here, suffice to say that it is still a primary motivator.
As it concerns diversity in children’s books, or lack thereof, I have previously written on this topic and will avoid covering the same ground. I must reemphasize the dearth of people of color in children’s books in every facet of the industry: Authors, Illustrators, Protagonists.
Whet Moser’s article, Diversity in Children’s Books Is Hard to Find—But Important, got me thinking about a point I overlooked in my first article which is the fact that, “Picture books are among the first representations of the broader world that we see. And they are introduced at a critical time.” Indeed folks in the publishing industry know the importance and value of a cover.
Independent Bookstores
Community Publishing recently teamed up with the independent bookstore, Bookworks Albuquerque for a celebration of Samuel’s Story, our latest multimedia children’s book featuring an African American Author (Hakim Bellamy), Illustrator (Melvin Mayes), Music Producer (Roscoe Floyd aka DJ Flo Fader) and protagonist (Samuel). As my daughter Marisol (voice of Princess Marisol of Princess Marisol & the Moon Thieves) browsed around the bookstore, I wondered if she see saw lots of faces on the books that looked like hers? Probably not, but this is part of our team – and here is our plan:
Princess Marisol & the Moon Thieves written by yours truly (latino/mestizo) featuring a Native American/Chicana/Latina main character with Juancho, Mato, the Wise Woman and Metzli the moon rounding out the multicultural cast. Narrated by Jackie Zamora (Peru) and Music by Matias Pizzaro (Chile) and Juan Carlos Ramirez (El Salvador).
Fiona the Funkadelic Freckle Fairy features a female Author (Alayna Roche), with an all female cast of characters.
Samuel’s Story features an all African American creative production team, an African American protagonist and multicultural characters in an urban setting.
The forthcoming Janie & the Hummingbird written by Artist/Musician/Educator Seth Hoffman is a bilingual story about a Hummingbird stuck inside a school library.
The forthcoming Bella the Caterpillar is bilingual and was written by a 7 year old girl (Native American/Chicana/Latina). It is set in the Carribean, narrated by Raquel Rivera (Puerto Rico) and including children voice actors, with music by Christian Orellana (Peru).
The forthcoming Places I’ve Been was written by Educator Alexandra Villegas (Latina) and features wildlife from the various states that Ms. Villegas has lived in.
The forthcoming Princess Marisol & the Portal is the sequel to Princess Marisol & the Moon Thieves. features the characters mentioned above and includes Keith Sanchez as the Music Director.
Overall the publishing industry itself is terribly underrepresented. At Community Publishing we pride ourselves in the diversity, our Founder’s are myself and Yvette Sandoval (Chicana), as well as our creative talent and books! Please consider our books, available in digital and print. Together we can make books more colorful/culturally diverse and therefore more reflective of the country and world at-large. Find our books here.
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Alex Paramo
Alex Paramo is a native New Yorker of Colombian descent. He is an Author and Co-Founder of Community Publishing. He currently resides in Albuquerque, NM. Read More about him here.
Community Publishing brings local artists of all mediums together in creative collaborations for distribution as Multimedia Books while promoting literacy in our 
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weight that I gave them. I breathed through it, while the clangs of tUnE-yArDs and the crash of lightning in the grey set the tone for a very dramatic road trip. This was my first visit to New Orleans. It felt exciting and heavy; maybe the heaviness had something to do with the humidity? No, it’s not just that, it is a place of density, a place of magic and a place where you can create and recreate yourself over and over. You can weave yourself into a delicate tapestry and unravel it around you for others to see, or maybe just for your own personal enjoyment. 
dinner are huge portions of steamy white rice and vegetables, many grown on the farm. The company is a mishmash of volunteers from around the world, the US , France, Italy, England yet we all have something in common in the way that we have found ourselves here, in a post dinner trance, hot tea in hand playing a card game called 
got out and walked in the direction I knew the beach would be. But, after about a half a mile of scrambling over boulders while dodging a questionable smelling stream of black goo all with my big backpack on, it occurred to me that this might be wrong. I feel like an idiot now that I even walked that far knowing somewhere, in the back of mind, that there should be a dirt road or something. There was no way the volunteers were making this walk multiple times a week. Turns out, no one was making this walk, ever. I was nowhere. I confess, when I realized I was truly far from my real destination,there were tears, but only a few panicked ones that barely left my eyes. 
I made it back to the road just as the sun dropped behind some misty, green slopes near the pavement and I stuck out my thumb. It was nearly night and I was not at jihuay. In fact, I had not even begun the 30 minute walk to the farm yet. I had only had a very real detour. I was picked up by a nice couple who looked at me with a mixture of concern and fear as they asked where I was going and where I was from. I could barely answer there questions I was so relieved to be in a car for a moment. They dropped me at the Santa Rosa stop about 3 hundred yards up the road. I could have walked. I was so close and yet had gotten so very much off track. So close and yet, still at the top of a hill at night with the fact that my destination was down somewhere at the bottom. So I took out my light and walked. My feet were killing me and it was chilly. At this point I had already thanked my friend who gave me the bright orange, down coat I had been wearing that evening a dozen times. But it was still cold, probably from the thin veil of sweat that had appeared all over my body when I had to hustle back to the road and hitchhike, for the first time mind you. 
leveled off at the bottom and rounded a bend to find a large wooden gate off to the right. I had made it. “Fundo Jihuay” was written on the white plaster wall so I reached up and pulled the rope for the bell. I was quickly greeted by 2 huge ride guan ridgeback dogs and a smaller, silver mastiff puppy. These dogs would eventually be my friends but right now I was a stranger in the dark. At that point though, nothing could scare me, I was so numb with relief at arriving.
