BARRIO RISING/EL BARRIO SE LEVANTA is now available for preorder!
Release Date: June 18, 2024
BARRIO RISING, a picture book written by María Dolores Águila and illustrated by Magdalena Mora, will be published by Dial Books for Young Readers/Penguin Random House. BARRIO RISING will also be simultaneously published in Spanish as EL BARRIO SE LEVANTA, translated by David Bowles.
BARRIO RISING is a vivid historical fiction account of the community activism behind San Diego’s Chicano Park—home to the largest outdoor mural collection in the U.S.—and just one example of the Mexican American community’s rich history of resistance and resilience.
Barrio Logan, one of San Diego’s oldest Chicane neighborhoods, once brimmed with families and stretched all the way to the glorious San Diego Bay. But in the decades after WWII, the community lost their beach and bayfront to factories, junkyards, and an interstate that divided the neighborhood and forced around 5,000 people out of their homes. Then on April 22, 1970, residents discovered that the construction crew they believed was building a park—one the city had promised them years ago—was actually breaking ground for a police station. That’s when they knew it was time to make their voices heard. Barrio Rising invites readers to join a courageous young activist and her neighbors in their successful twelve-day land occupation and beyond, when Barrio Logan banned together and built the colorful park that would become the corazón of San Diego’s Chicane community.
PREORDER LINK (ENGLISH EDITION)
PREORDER LINK (SPANISH EDITION)
MENUDO SUNDAY, a picture book written by María Dolores Águila and illustrated by Erika Meza, will be published 2025 by Dial Books For Young Readers/Penguin Random House.
Stay tuned for the official annoucement of María’s debut middle grade novel!
Follow María on social media to stay up to date.
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