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Grandma and Me at the Flea / Los Meros Meros Remateros celebrates the creativity, generosity of spirit, and strength of California's Mexican American community. When young Juanito spends the day with his grandmother at the remate, or local flea market, he learns how the various members of his community support one another. With his friends, Juanito visits booths selling crafts such as Mexican wool blankets, leather boots, and decorated belts, and necessities such as vegetables and hardware. At each booth, items are exchanged and gifts are given as community members care for each other in the thriving local economy of the Sunday flea market.
Author Juan Felipe Herrera and artist Anita De Lucio-Brock offer vivid testimony to the resourcefulness of a community that has transplanted itself from the pueblos and cities of Mexico to the fields and towns of California's Central Valley. The community may be short on brand-new material goods, but, in letting nothing go to waste, it proves that through reusing and recycling with a little ingenuity, the old can indeed be new again. Juan Felipe's words reflect the everyday joys of community and culture. Anita's artistic style, based heavily on the folk art techniques of Mexican artesanía, and her use of details specific to Mexican American culture and experience bring the story to life.
As students share in Juanito's explorations, they too will learn about the strength of family bonds, the importance of communal effort, and the value of remembering lessons passed down between generations of community. The discoveries made in reading Grandma and Me at the Flea / Los Meros Meros Remateros provide students with entry points into studies of their own communities, Mexican American culture, and the various values of things both old and new.
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Mexican American
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Community Structure:
Community helpers; Vocations and Occupations;
Collectivity and Community-building
Local Economies:
Flea Markets; Barter; Exchange of Goods and Services
Mexican American Communities:
Popular Culture; Art; Crafts; Traditional Knowledge
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Juan Felipe Herrera is the author of several books for children, including Calling the Doves, winner of the Ezra Jack Keats Award for New Writing, and The Upside Down Boy. He has also written several volumes of poetry for adults. In addition to being a renowned poet, Juan Felipe Herrera is also a dedicated educator. He is a popular professor at California State University at Fresno, in the Chicano Studies Department. He also shares his many talents with young students, adult learners, and other teachers through Children's Book Press-sponsored workshops. In his writing workshops, Juan Felipe's philosophy is that the best poetry comes from the magic of everyday life.
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Anita De Lucio-Brock began her career as an artist while pursuing her masters degree in Public Health at UC Berkeley. A self-taught artist, Anita began painting wooden boxes and objects with Mexican folk art motifs and techniques. She still paints on wood as well as on canvas, and in addition to painting, she also creates altars for el Día de los Muertos (Mexican Day of the Dead). Grandma and Me at the Flea is the first book she has illustrated for children.
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