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Young Juanito accompanies his grandmother to the local flea market where she sells old clothes.
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Juanito gallops to the jewelry-man, who gives Juanito a copper bracelet
and a watch with big numbers for Grandma to help send money orders home
to Mexico. He zooms over to Señora Vela, who gratefully accepts
a bundle of Grandma's healing herbs in return for sacks of ruby red chiles.
With every exchange he learns firsthand what it means to be a true rematero
- a fleamarketeer - and understands that the value of community can never
be measured in dollars.
Award-winning Mexican American author Juan Felipe Herrera brings his
boyhood memories of the remate to life with his lively bilingual
prose, and Anita De Lucio-Brock's vibrant artwork draws us in to the warm,
caring world of the flea market. Together these artists show - beautifully
- what it means to give and to receive.
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Poet Herrera "offers up a slice of autobiography
in an inviting bilingual picture book. Anita De Lucio Brock's colorful
illustrations, inspired by Mexican folk art, are well suited to the
story. . . As the story proceeds, it becomes clear that Grandma is .
. . an integral member of the community-in fact, she embodies the generosity
and support that bind it together . . . The problems answered by thoughtful
gestures and gifts at Herrera's flea market are those of people working
hard but still living in poverty . . . But in this community, as in
others, what makes the difference is hope. Fittingly, the remate
is held on the former grounds of the Esperanza Gardens Drive-In Theater.
And Esperanza-the Spanish word for hope-;is Grandma's given name."
—Riverbank Review
"As brightly colored as an Oaxacan carving, this sweet bilingual book pays homage to the flea markets (remates) that Herrera grew up with in California's San Juaquin Valley."
"There is a pervasive atmosphere of celebration in the small things of life, as well as a firm grounding in time and place that will reach and touch readers. De Lucio-Brock's primitive illustrations in deep-toned hues enhance the poems perfectly, and help meld all of them into a unified story of a day spent in a place much loved. . . Remateros is an appealing addition to poetry collections."
"The overt messages about giving, receiving, and reuse (there's no money exchanged) are balanced by the lyrical bilingual text (both languages on each spread) that celebrates the energy and warmth of the "soft city of tents and woolly walls." 
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Grandma and Me at the Flea
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Calling the Doves / El canto de las palomas Super Cilantro Girl / La NiŅa del Cilantro The Upside Down Boy / El niŅo de cabeza Other Books with Intergenerational Themes Going Back Home
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Full-color illustrations 
Other Books Written by Juan Felipe Herrera