美国国家公共电台 NPR 'My Papi Has A Motorcycle' Pays Loving Tribute To A California Childhood

'My Papi Has A Motorcycle' Pays Loving Tribute To A California Childhood

LEILA FADEL, HOST:

In "My Papi Has A Motorcycle," a little girl named Daisy Ramona waits for her dad to come home so they can ride around their city, Corona¹, Calif., on the back of his motorcycle. They pass a tortilla shop, a raspados shop, her grandparents' house and her dad's construction site. The book is illustrated³ by Zeke Pena and written by Isabel Quintero. It's a love letter to the city and her father.

ISABEL QUINTERO: When I was a kid, my dad would get home from work and he'd put me on the back of his motorcycle and he would drive me around the neighborhood I grew up in, in Corona. And, you know, it was the '80s, so there were no helmets. In the book, obviously there's helmets. But it was a different time. And I really was holding onto that memory and it was so special to me, that relationship between myself and my dad.

FADEL: This summer, we've been asking authors and illustrators how they work together to bring stories to life. They often don't, but illustrator Zeke Pena says his collaboration⁴ with Quintero is represented on every page of the book.

ZEKE PENA: She even was like cool enough to go drive in her car around the neighborhood that she grew up in so I could, you know, physically⁵ see the space and see the turns of the corners, see the trees, the way the homes are built, kind of those things. This shows through in the story, right? Like, there's really specific things that are from Isabel's memory, you know, and I sneak⁶ some things from my own memory in there a little bit as a kid. But there's the specificity and that's what, for me, makes the story so strong is that Isabel has this, like, this personal experience and we're trying to tap into that and illustrate² that and kind of create that spark for other readers, young and old.

QUINTERO: When I was a kid in Corona, there was a tortilleria. In the book it's Tortilleria Estrella, and in real life, it was Tortilleria Don Leon. And those things are pretty specific to where I was at, but I think other people can connect to living in a community where you walk to places like a tortilleria or to Joy's Market. Zeke did such an amazing job with that market that so many people have told me like, I know that market. That markets in my neighborhood, you know, with the pinatas outside and the little gumball machines and the carniceria inside the store. So it is very specific, but it's also, you know, a story that especially Latinx kids in other parts of the country can enjoy or can relate to.

PENA: For me, in the book it's, like, that first page. Daisy Ramona's working on the motorcycle, and she's working with this toolbox. And that was like my dad. Like, that's kind of really what I got from my dad was, you know, learning how to work with my hands, learning how to work hard and stuff. But I think that with Isabel and I it's nice because a lot of our backgrounds as people who identify as Latinx or, you know, identify as Chicanx or Chicanos, there's this really, like, narrow definition of what that is. But the nice thing with my collaboration with Isabel is that we span, like, a spectrum⁷ of that, right? Like, it's a spectrum. There's many different people who identify that way who come from different backgrounds and it doesn't necessarily look just one way. And I hope that, you know, the youth reading our book walk away with a validation⁸ of their own story and where their own family comes from and their heritage and their right to it, you know, their right to express that as they wish.

QUINTERO: Going off the toolbox, you know, my dad also works with his hands. And so that scene, that spread where Daisy Ramona gets to the worksite with her dad is probably one of my favorite scenes in the book because Zeke was able to capture, like, so much emotion of what it's like for a kid like myself - like, when I was a kid, going to work with my dad, and that happiness and that joy of getting to see where my dad worked, you know, hearing the sound of the music, the music in Spanish in the background and the men yelling at each other and cracking jokes. And so when I opened to that spread, I cried because you don't see a lot of celebration of working-class people in children's books, especially not, you know, working-class brown men. And I know there will be a lot of children who'll be able to say, oh, like, that's my dad.

FADEL: We couldn't ignore that while we were talking about Isabel Quintero's love letter to her city and her people, Zeke Pena is from El Paso, and earlier this month, his city suffered an enormous loss - a mass shooting that targeted the Latinx community and took the lives of 22 people.

PENA: It breaks my heart. It breaks my heart to see these people suffering, to see my people suffering, our community. You know, who am I? You know, who am I to be commenting on it, you know. I do have friends and family that were affected⁹ by it and, you know, my love goes out to those people and also my action goes out to those people, right? That's something that we're all going to have to live with for the rest of our lives and we're going to hopefully do something to change it.

FADEL: That was illustrator Zeke Pena and author Isabel Quintero. Their latest book is "My Papi Has A Motorcycle."

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1 corona   

n.日冕

参考例句：

• The corona gains and loses energy continuously.日冕总是不断地获得能量和损失能量。
• The corona is a brilliant,pearly white,filmy light,about as bright as the full moon.光环带是一种灿烂的珠白色朦胧光，几乎像满月一样明亮。

2 illustrate   

v.举例说明，阐明；图解，加插图

参考例句：

• The company's bank statements illustrate its success.这家公司的银行报表说明了它的成功。
• This diagram will illustrate what I mean.这个图表可说明我的意思。

3 illustrated   

adj. 有插图的，列举的 动词illustrate的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• His lecture was illustrated with slides taken during the expedition. 他在讲演中使用了探险时拍摄到的幻灯片。
• The manufacturing Methods: Will be illustrated in the next chapter. 制作方法将在下一章说明。

4 collaboration   

n.合作，协作；勾结

参考例句：

• The two companies are working in close collaboration each other.这两家公司密切合作。
• He was shot for collaboration with the enemy.他因通敌而被枪毙了。

5 physically   

adj.物质上，体格上，身体上，按自然规律

参考例句：

• He was out of sorts physically,as well as disordered mentally.他浑身不舒服，心绪也很乱。
• Every time I think about it I feel physically sick.一想起那件事我就感到极恶心。

6 sneak   

vt.潜行(隐藏,填石缝)；偷偷摸摸做；n.潜行；adj.暗中进行

参考例句：

• He raised his spear and sneak forward.他提起长矛悄悄地前进。
• I saw him sneak away from us.我看见他悄悄地从我们身边走开。

7 spectrum   

n.谱，光谱，频谱；范围，幅度，系列

参考例句：

• This is a kind of atomic spectrum.这是一种原子光谱。
• We have known much of the constitution of the solar spectrum.关于太阳光谱的构成，我们已了解不少。

8 validation   

n.确认

参考例句：

• If the countdown timer ever hits zero, do your validation processing. 处理这种情况的方法是在输入的同时使用递减计时器，每次击键重新计时。如果递减计时器变为零，就开始验证。 来自About Face 3交互设计精髓
• Although the validation control is a very widespread idiom, most such controls can be improved. 虽然确认控件是非常广泛的习惯用法，但还有很多有待改进的地方。 来自About Face 3交互设计精髓

9 affected   

adj.不自然的，假装的

参考例句：

• She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
• His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。