Javier Martínez Pedro
Javier Martínez Pedro (* 1963 in Xalitla near Iguala , Guerrero State , Mexico ) is a Mexican artist. The book he illustrated Migrar (2011; German Migrar , 2015) about Mexican migrants was described by the international press as “breathtaking” (Kirkus Reviews), “impressive” ( Publishers Weekly ) and “a work of art” ( Deutschlandradio Kultur ). It has also won various awards, including the Bologna Ragazzi Award at the Bologna Children's Book Fair in 2012 . Pedro lives and works in his native city of Xalitla.
life and work
Javier Martínez Pedro is one of the most important artists of illustration on tree bark paper, which he also produces himself. He has received various national and international awards for his work with this artistic technique. Typical motifs of his artistic work are scenes from everyday rural life such as the daily work of farmers, weddings or pageants.
Pedro's picture book Migrar is his debut as an illustrator of books. The story is based on a text by the Mexican poet José Manuel Mateo. Migrar is already a specialty in terms of bookbinding. It is not leafed through from left to right like a classic book, but read as a fanfold book with a single, nine-fold, one-sided printed page vertically from top to bottom. Correspondingly, the text flow is from top to bottom and not from left to right. Pedro's detailed, exclusively black and white illustrations form a single elongated, 23 centimeter wide and 139 centimeter long picture, which is unfolded like an accordion and which is flanked on the left by the text of the picture book. The illustration of the book was made on traditional Amatl , a kind of tree bark paper. The book cover and the back of the book are made of linen, with the exception of the cover illustration itself. The book Migrar stands in the tradition of the Aztec Codices , an illuminated manuscript that was used by the Aztecs from the 14th to the 16th century.
Migrar tells the story of a family's journey from a Mexican village in a rural idyll to Los Angeles . The narrator is a little boy. The story begins with the boy telling of the changes that are happening in his village as many men leave the village to find work in the United States until the whole village is made up of women and children. The boy's father also fled to the United States to work and send money to his family. When the money ran out and the boy's mother couldn't find a job in the village either, the rest of the family had to flee. The boy, his sister and his mother jump on a train to also flee to the United States. They want to make money and find the father. As illegal immigrants, they eventually arrive in Los Angeles. There they can find a job in the cleaning industry, but their future remains uncertain. They haven't found their father at the end of the book either.
The original edition of Migrar was published in 2011 in Mexico in Spanish by Ediciónes Tecolote. This was followed by editions in France (2011) by Rue du monde under the title Au pays de mon ballon rouge , in Spain (2012) by Kalandraka under the title Migrar , in Italy (2013) by Gallucci under the title Migranti , in Poland (2013 ) at Wydawnictwo Widnokrąg under the title Emigracja , in Brazil (2014) at Pallas Editora under the title Migrar and in the USA (2014) at Abrams Books under the title Migrant - The Journey of a Mexican Worker . A special feature of the American version is that it was published in English and Spanish. A special feature of the French version is that, in contrast to the original edition, it is partially colored and, moreover, was not published in leporello format, but as a regular book, in which the entire illustration was divided between the book pages. The German edition of the book, which is bilingual Spanish-German, was published by Edition Orient in 2015 .
Pedro is also a refugee himself, once fled to the United States to earn money, but now lives again in Xalitla near Iguala in the Mexican state of Guerrero . In September 2015 he performed for the first time in Germany and presented his book Migrar at the children's and youth program at the 15th Berlin International Literature Festival.
bibliography
- Migrar. José Manuel Mateo (text). Javier Martínez Pedro (illustration). Ediciónes Tecolote, Mexico City 2011, ISBN 978-84-15250-38-8 ; German-Spanish edition: Edition Orient , translation from Spanish: Ilse Layer, Berlin 2015, published in August 2015
Migrar is the only book so far that Pedro has illustrated.
Nominations, awards and other honors
| date | Book / artwork | Nomination / award |
|---|---|---|
| 2007 | Illustration on tree bark paper on the theme of "Birth of Colors" | Honorable mention at the 14th Concurso Nacional de Nacimientos Mexicanos |
| 2009 | colored illustration on bark paper entitled Historia de la vida de Miguel Hidalgo | 2nd prize in the Pintura Popular Bicentenario category at the 34th Concurso Nacional Gran Premio de Arte Popular, endowed with 12,000 Mexican dollars |
| March 2012 | Migrar | Bologna Ragazzi Award in the New Horizons category at the Bologna Children's Book Fair |
| 09/27/2012 | Migrar | Antonio García Cubas Prize, presented at the 24th Feria del Libro de Antropología e Historia in Mexico City |
| 2012 | Migrar | White Raven of the International Youth Library |
| 03/17/2014 | Migrar | Starred Review from Kirkus Reviews |
| 04/28/2014 | Migrar | Starred Review from Publishers Weekly |
| 2014 | Migrar | Inclusion in the list Libros recomendados para niños y jóvenes 2014 (List of Recommended Books for Children and Young People ) from IBBY in Mexico |
| 2014 | Migrar | Inclusion in the list Great Kid Books 2014 the Huffington Post |
| 2014 | Migrar | In the Kirkus Review 's Best Children's Books of 2014 list |
| 2014 | Migrar | Inclusion on Kirkus Review's Best Picture Books of 2014 that celebrate Diversity list |
| 2014 | Migrar | In the list of Best Picture Books of 2014 that confound expectations by Kirkus Reviews |
| March 30 - April 2, 2015 | Migrar | Presentation in the exhibition 50 Years Bologna Ragazzi Award at the Bologna Children's Book Fair |
| 2015 | Migrar | In the list of Outstanding International Books 2015 of the United States Board on Books for Young People |
| 2015 | Migrar | Inclusion on the 2015 Notable Children's Books in the English Language Arts list of the Children's Literature Assembly |
| February 2016 | Migrar | Donkey of the month from dog-eared magazine |
Press review
Migrar (2011)
"The readers are offered a breath-taking panorama of a landscape cluttered with innumerable figures and objects. It simultaneously shows all parts of the story and depicts the protagonists on their odyssey as small and somehow lost. This gorgeous, exceptional book is pitch-perfect from its initial idea down to its careful and attractive production. "
"Its touching message is rendered with an illustration technique whose tightly packed, crowded images hark back to the still mysterious format of the cave painting. We are presented with everything altogether, the entire story and all its characters. Afterwards sits alongside Before… However, no child will feel any sense of bewilderment, understanding implicitly how the system works. "
"Almost more of a work of art than a book."
“A family's desperate journey from Mexico to Los Angeles unfolds through a boy's first-person narration in this striking bilingual, codex-style book, with accordion-style pages to be read vertically. [...] The dangers involved, hope required, and uncertain future that awaits this family and others like it are viscerally felt. "
“A family's arduous journey from a farm in Mexico to a crowded dwelling in Los Angeles unfolds, literally, as a ribbon is untied and accordion-style pages open to reveal one continuous, aesthetically astonishing scene. The densely packed black-and-white composition painted on traditional amate (tree bark) paper conjures both the mystery and stylization of pre-Columbian codices and the imagery and political overtones of a Diego Rivera mural. [...] Content and design coalesce in a handsome presentation that invites readers to decode intriguing images in a pastoral setting suggestive of folklore - and in the process, arouses empathy for the all-too-real risks surrounding migrants. Breathtaking. "
“In a straightforward first-person narration, Migrant […] recounts a child's memories of his migration from Mexico to Los Angeles. The dramatic journey includes jumping a train, scaling a wall, and being chased by dogs. Javier Martínez Pedro's intricately detailed black-and-white artwork is presented as one long vertical image with an accordion fold, in the style of ancient Mayan codices. ”
“Even though the Leporello Migrar is celebrating its German premiere in the Children's and Youth Literature category at the Berlin International Literature Festival : Javier Martínez Pedro has also drawn it for adults and hopes that they will enjoy it. This is supported by the fact that the Leporello is not only a work of art in terms of drawing, but also in terms of bookbinding - in fine cardboard and black linen. "
“What is told is as unusual as the format of this picture book [...]. The events of the trip flow into one another as a calm narrative stream, while the picture unites all stages on an arc. In German, the term hidden object was coined for this overcrowded and naive style. Here it is surpassed - as if one had shouted to the crowd that they should move together again so that the border fences, refugees, police cars and trains fit into the picture, which only comes to an end in front of the palm trees and highways of Los Angeles. "
“Seemingly childlike and naive and without taking proportions or perspectives into account, one full-blown picture follows the next. However, the design of the pictures, reminiscent of hidden object books for small children, and the simple text do not hide the depth that the story has in store for older readers at second glance [...]. "
“ Migrar is an unusual book. It is a landscape format, a leporello bound in a black linen cover, which - when unfolded - results in a single coherent hidden object picture. The impressive, three-dimensional black and white scenes cite the Mexican murales [...]. "
"A successful all-age work of art."
Festival participation
- September 2015: Children's and youth program at the 15th Berlin International Literature Festival
Web links
- Report on the book (in Spanish)
- Biography of the Berlin International Literature Festival about Javier Martínez Pedro
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c MIGRANT by Jos Manuel Mateo, Javier Martínez Pedro. In: kirkusreviews.com. Retrieved June 16, 2015 .
- ↑ a b c Children's Book Review: Migrant by José Manuel Matteo. In: publishersweekly.com. Retrieved June 16, 2015 .
- ↑ deutschlandradiokultur.de
- ↑ Premian en Concurso Nacional de Nacimientos a 9 guerrerenses. Retrieved June 16, 2015 .
- ^ Concursos de Arte Popular. (PDF) Retrieved June 16, 2015 .
- ↑ a b People. In: wrfestival.de. Retrieved June 16, 2015 .
- ↑ Guía de libros recomendados para niños y jóvenes 2014. (PDF) Retrieved on June 16, 2015 .
- ↑ 10 (or so) Great 2014 Kid Books for Gift-Giving. Retrieved June 16, 2015 .
- ↑ Best Children's Books of 2014. Retrieved June 16, 2015 .
- ↑ Best Picture Books of 2014 That Celebrate Diversity. Retrieved June 16, 2015 .
- ↑ Best Children's Books of 2014 (p. 9). Retrieved June 16, 2015 .
- ^ Bolognaragazzi Award: The Winners of the 50th Edition - With a new section dedicated to Expo2015, Books & Seeds. Retrieved June 16, 2015 .
- ↑ 2015 USBBY Outstanding International Books. (PDF) Retrieved June 16, 2015 .
- ↑ eselsohr-leseablebnis.de
- ^ BolognaRagazzi Winners Hail from Europe, Mexico, Lebanon. In: publishingperspectives.com. Retrieved June 16, 2015 .
- ↑ The fabulous world of diversity
- ↑ Recommended reading on "the circuit"
- ↑ deutschlandradiokultur.de
- ↑ sueddeutsche.de
- ↑ eselsohr-leseablebnis.de
- ↑ Everything is connected . In: Die Zeit , No. 13/2016, p. 16.
- ↑ nzz.ch
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Pedro, Javier Martínez |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Mexican-American painter and illustrator |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1963 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Xalitla, Mexico |