Undocumented

August 20, 2018
Tonatiuh’s lean and elegant fable plots a memorable map of one man’s immigration experience. Laid out in an accordion-fold format, Tonatiuh’s slim but big-hearted graphic novella is narrated by Juan, a Mixteco-speaking man who crossed from Mexico to America while a teenager. Since then, he has worked with “no papers,” underpaid and unknown (“You don’t know our names but you’ve seen us”), laboring seven days a week and living in miserable poverty. While the experience of undocumented workers in America is most often told via hard-hitting, dry reportage with occasional attempts at melodrama, this comic is both inventive in form and (darkly) humorous. The plot is a staunch, if short, ode to the power of collective labor, as Juan is recruited to and ultimately leads the fight for better wages and visibility for immigrant workers of many different nationalities. The direct and brief narrative reveals Tonatiuh’s background as a picture book creator, with pages formatted much like a child’s read-aloud, but the earth-tone coloring and use of flattened perspectives and long scrolling arcs of action evoke ancient Mixteco codices. While speaking to the current political climate, Tonatiuh’s work is also a timeless reminder of the dignity inherent to labor and the laborer. This is the graphic novella reconfigured as a call to action.

September 1, 2018

The Pura Belpré winner tries his hand at a tale for adults and crafts a gorgeous, timely, and necessary offering about the daily plight of undocumented workers in the United States. Juan grew up in Mexico working in the fields but crosses the border before his 18th birthday with the help of his uncle. He's hired as a busboy at a restaurant where he eventually meets his wife, but he is severely underpaid and works long hours, seven days a week. Though he risks losing his job and being deported right before his wife gives birth to their first child, he joins his fellow undocumented workers in fighting for fair wages and conditions. The matter-of-fact, accessible narrative is sprinkled with Spanish and Spanglish, highlighting the obstacles undocumented immigrants face and their important contributions to our country's economy. The story is told via the ancient Mixtec codex-accordion-fold-format. Through striking mixed-media illustrations, Tonatiuh depicts Juan's exploitative white employer as a large skeleton, giving the tale a mythic but timeless feel. A thoughtful author's note discusses Tonatiuh's inspiration and includes bibliographic information, making this a good start for research or curricular tie-ins. And for libraries that might shy away from the accordion format, the volume comes in an elegant slipcase for easy shelving. VERDICT A relevant and important title for all libraries.-Shelley M. Diaz, School Library Journal

Copyright 2018 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Author and illustrator Tonatiuh (Danza!, 2017, etc.) turns the light of his distinctive style on the plight of undocumented workers.While the origins of undocumented workers are diverse, this story focuses primarily on the experiences of Juan, a Mixteco immigrant from Mexico. When Juan's father passes away, he heads north in hopes of finding work and housing through his uncle who already lives in the United States, making the treacherous journey with the help of a coyote. Juan ultimately finds a job working for a restaurant, where he meets his wife and a new friend from China who helps connect him to a center for workers rights. Through the center he becomes an advocate not only for himself, but other Mixteco immigrants and, indeed, immigrants from around the world, both documented and undocumented. Tonatiuh's illustrations, inspired by the styles of native Mesoamericans, are bound in a folded codex which also harkens to the author's and protagonist's Indigenous Mexican roots and is reminiscent of Jose Manuel Mateo's Migrant (2014). By focusing on the narrative of one immigrant worker, Tonatiuh breaks the mammoth issues of immigration and workers rights into an easy-to-swallow bite, allowing the reader to easily engage with an often intimidating topic. The personal is again political.Highly recommended. (Graphic novel. 8-14)

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Starred review from September 15, 2018
Grades 8-11 *Starred Review* Surviving a life-threatening journey from Mexico to a strange city in the U.S., Juan joins his uncle and three cousins. He owes his low-wage, 12-hours-a-day, 7-days-a-week restaurant job to a boss who insists he's doing [Juan] a favor because [he] had no papers. Although he's married, he agrees to go have the happy hour with the persistent new Chinese waitress. Her interest is hardly amorous, though; she energizes Juan to fight for fair pay and improved conditions. Multiple Pura Belpr� Medal and Honor-awarded Tonatiuh (Diego Rivera?, 2011) channels his interest in the Mixtec codex format to create a superb modern odyssey, stupendously illustrated in his signature contemporary adaptation of pre-Columbian art forms, presented on accordion pages in a handsome slip-case. His often-wordless insertions of border violence, #BlackLivesMatter, gay relationships, even gender preference prove especially resonating. His ending author's note, about his own activism for workers' rights, adds inspiring gravitas: Some people want to kick us out and some act like we don't exist, but we are here, he reminds. By embedding multiple languages (English, Spanish, Mixteco, protest placards in Chinese), Tonatiuh underscores shared experiences, regardless of background: What matters is that we face the same problems �?and one hopes, together, achieve ?similar successes.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)

January 1, 2019
Mexico-native Juan and his fellow undocumented workers in the U.S. are not being paid minimum wage or receiving benefits, although they work grueling hours, so they file a legal complaint for just compensation. This profound and timely human odyssey effectively uses an accordion-folded format inspired by Mixtec codices and employs many sequential and Mixtec art conventions. The direct and conversational text includes a smattering of Spanish words throughout.

(Copyright 2019 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

Starred review from September 1, 2018

The Pura Belpr� winner tries his hand at a tale for adults and crafts a gorgeous, timely, and necessary offering about the daily plight of undocumented workers in the United States. Juan grew up in Mexico working in the fields but crosses the border before his 18th birthday with the help of his uncle. He's hired as a busboy at a restaurant where he eventually meets his wife, but he is severely underpaid and works long hours, seven days a week. Though he risks losing his job and being deported right before his wife gives birth to their first child, he joins his fellow undocumented workers in fighting for fair wages and conditions. The matter-of-fact, accessible narrative is sprinkled with Spanish and Spanglish, highlighting the obstacles undocumented immigrants face and their important contributions to our country's economy. The story is told via the ancient Mixtec codex-accordion-fold-format. Through striking mixed-media illustrations, Tonatiuh depicts Juan's exploitative white employer as a large skeleton, giving the tale a mythic but timeless feel. A thoughtful author's note discusses Tonatiuh's inspiration and includes bibliographic information, making this a good start for research or curricular tie-ins. And for libraries that might shy away from the accordion format, the volume comes in an elegant slipcase for easy shelving. VERDICT A relevant and important title for all libraries.-Shelley M. Diaz, School Library Journal

Copyright 2018 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.