Margarita Engle: Author put Fresno on the literary map.

Fresno's best-known children's author is making book news around the world. Actually, Margarita Engle lives in Clovis, but we can proudly claim her on behalf of the area. Since 2006 she has published seven books for young people, many reflecting her family history.

In 1947, Margarita's father, an American artist, read a "National Geographic" article about the city of Trinidad, on Cuba's southern coast. He went there to paint and met a beautiful Cuban artist. Neither spoke the other's language, but art and love conquered differences and they were married. Their daughter Margarita grew up in Los Angeles, but spent summers with her mother's large family in Cuba. Later, travel restrictions kept them apart, but by that time, childhood memories and a curiosity about Cuban history were deeply ingrained.

In college, Margarita gave up writing to study agronomy and botany. After teaching agronomy at Cal State Pomona, she returned to writing with an enhanced perspective and a new mentor, Chicano author Tomás Rivera.

Her novels in verse present vivid pictures of a Cuba filled with tropical birds, fragrant plants, exotic sounds and tastes, and above all with feelings that bring the people and the country to life.

"The Poet Slave of Cuba" tells of Juan Francisco Manzano, born a slave in 1797. Though slaves are forbidden to read and write, he learns how. This intelligent boy is kept as a pet by a rich woman, who makes him recite for guests. His story is almost too sad to read, but Margarita always offers a sense of hope, in this case his adult success as a poet.

Her second book, "The Surrender Tree," set in 1896 during Cuba's revolution against Spain, features a nurse who is an escaped slave. She heals people from both sides using medicinal plants. The book won a Newbery Honor from the American Library Association; Margarita is the first Hispanic author to receive such recognition.

"Tropical Secrets," tells the story of 13-year-old Daniel, who escapes Nazi Germany on a ship filled with Jewish refugees. When the United States turns the boat away, it sails to Havana. There a Cuban girl helps Daniel to learn Spanish and a new way of life.

"The Firefly Letters," my favorite of Margarita's books, is based on the real life of Frederika Bremer, a Swedish biologist who visited Cuba in 1851. A pregnant teenage slave serves as her interpreter, speaking English and Spanish. The third character, a wealthy girl, has less freedom than either of the other two.
"Summer Birds," a picture book, features Maria Merian, born in Germany in 1647. At age 13, she discovered that butterflies grew from caterpillars, rather than springing from mud, as people believed then.
"Hurricane Dancers" describes some Cubans' first encounters with the Spanish, again through the eyes of a bilingual slave.

Margarita's newest heroine, in "The Wild Book," is based on her grandmother, who was dyslexic as a child and who lived to be 103. The author knew her well.

Margarita's books have won Pura Belpré, Jane Addams and Américas awards, to name a few. She has been honored by the International Reading Association, the Library of Congress, and the International Youth Library in Munich, Germany. Next month she will be a featured speaker at the Asian Festival of Children's Content in Singapore.

Her books have universal appeal for all ages. This bilingual author, who receives little notice in her home town, is bringing honor to Fresno. Viva, Margarita!

Valley Voice: Saturday, May. 05, 2012 | 12:00 AM

By Angelica Carpenter, Curator Emerita for the Arne Nixon Center for the Study of Children's Literature, 
Henry Madden Library, California State University, Fresno

Angelica Carpenter's Retirement

At the end of 2011, Angelica Carpenter, curator of the Arne Nixon Center decided to retire. Angelica has been with the Center since its conception and she has worked to make the Arne Nixon Center one of the most significant children's literature research centers in the country.

Below is the last Curator's Corner article that Angelica wrote in The Magic Mirror (Spring 2012). To view the complete newsletter, visit our website.

Greetings from a recent retiree with a new title, Curator Emerita. It was a difficult decision to retire at the end of 2011, as I absolutely loved my job, which I consider to be the best in the world. However it could be tiring (largely because I make it that way) and I was ready for a rest and a change. 

So now when I am at the Library, I’m there as a patron instead of a librarian. I’m writing a new biography for young adults, about Matilda Joslyn Gage, who was L. Frank Baum’s mother-in-law. That’s how she came onto my radar, through my interest in Baum and Oz, but she was a famous feminist and author in her own right. After she was widowed she spent winters with the Baums—her daughter Maud, Maud’s husband Frank, and their four sons. She encouraged Frank to write down the stories he told his sons, and to submit the to a publisher. I don’t think that it is a coincidence that Baum’s Oz is a feminist utopia, ruled by women. 

The Henry Madden Library is a terrific resource for authors. Before moving here, I wrote three books in a Florida city with minimal library resources. In Fresno I wrote two more, a much easier task with access to an outstanding academic library. My habit of writing about Victorians means that I need to read many books published in the Victorian era. It always surprises me how many of these are in the Madden collection. And if they are not, I can get them through Interlibrary Loan. A million books, dazzling databases, and specialist librarians who have helped me to track down all kinds of elusive information (like what year did bustles go out of style?)—research is fun here and wonderfully productive. While writing this book, I will stay involved with the Arne Nixon Center, as a volunteer and a Life Member of ANCA. 

I have also signed up to FERP, as part of the Faculty Early Retirement Program, starting next fall. This program allows retired faculty members to work part-time. My plan is to catalog, or help with exhibitions, or process the papers of authors or illustrators, or to do anything else that is needed. But not full-time and not early in the morning! 

It’s a wonderful job when you get to do anything you can dream of. If anyone had told me, when I was eight years old, that someday I would get to put on a national Oz conference, my daughter says that I would have started planning it right then. 

My plans were not accomplished alone—they involved the help and support of many other people, in and out of the Library. I thank all of you for taking my wild ideas seriously. 

The Library plans a national search to fill my job. In the meantime, the Arne Nixon Center will be led by Jennifer Crow, who is already working on some interesting new projects. My email will still be the same — angelica@csufresno.edu — and I look forward to hearing from friends and colleagues as I continue to work in children’s literature, in a slightly new capacity.

Happy reading!

A few celebratory pictures from Angelica's retirement party in December 2011: