bilingual picture books

[yummy review] La fiesta de las pupusas/The Fiesta of the Pupusas: El Salvador by Jorge Argueta and Gabriela Morán

~ jama ~ 28 Comments

“In El Salvador the full moon is a celestial pupusa.” ~ Francisco X. Alarcón

Right about now, I’m hungry for a warm, savory pupusa. Filling of choice? Pork, beans and melty cheese. Don’t skimp on the salsa roja or curtido! Officially declared the national dish of El Salvador in 2005, pupusas are the ultimate happy-making comfort food and the delectable subject of Jorge Argueta’s new picture book.

As a big fan of his bilingual cooking poem series published by Groundwood Books (Sopa de frijoles/Bean Soup (2009), Arroz con leche/Rice Pudding (2010), Guacamole (2012), Tamalitos (2013), and Salsa (2015)), I was excited to see La fiesta de las pupusas/The Fiesta of the Pupusas: El Salvador (Luna’s Press Books, 2024), charmingly illustrated by Salvadoran artist and graphic designer Gabriela Morán.

This joyful celebration of El Salvador’s favorite food is also a love letter to Argueta’s home country, where his family once owned a restaurant and he grew up with the colors, smells, and sounds of traditional foods being lovingly prepared by his mother and aunts in his own kitchen.

As the story opens, our friendly narrator explains that pupusas are a very popular, magical food in El Salvador, where it’s eaten morning, noon, and night. Pupusas are made from corn or rice flour, were once cooked in clay griddles, but are now made on big metal grills. And they’re round!

Las pupusas son redonditas, 
son como llantitas,
son como la letra O,
son como la luna,
son como el sol.

Pupusas are round, 
like little tires, 
like the letter O, 
like the moon,
like the sun.

Though most pupusas are filled with beans and cheese, some are made with cheese and loroco, a tiny white fragrant flower:

 ¡Qué rico huele el loroco!
Es una flor blanquita como las nubes. 
Picadita, la flor se revuelve con el queso
y se pone en la masa haciéndola una bolita. 
La bolita se aplasta aplaudiendo.
Así se hacen pupusas de loroco.
¡Ayyy, qué loroco, más loco y qué delicioso!

Loroco smells so wonderful!
It’s a little flower, white as clouds.
Chopped-up loroco gets stirred in with the cheese
and kneaded in the corn dough to make a little ball. 
You flatten the ball by clapping.
That’s how you make loroco pupusas.
Ahhh, loroco, it’s loco, and yummy in the tummy!
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nine cool things on a tuesday

~ jama ~ 15 Comments

1. Hello, April! We’re welcoming this brand new month with the colorful, exuberant work of Southern California artist Sharon Nullmeyer (a.k.a., “Nullsie”).

After living in New York for about a decade, Sharon moved back to California, where she enjoys the sunshine, tacos, plentiful flowers and her beautiful coastal town. She paints and draws every day (watercolor, gouache, acrylic, collage) and takes her sketchbook with her everywhere. I was immediately drawn to the fine details, whimsy, and joyful energy in her pieces.

A self-proclaimed “paper scrap hoarder,” Nullsie’s still life paintings reflect her love of flowers, nature, and antiques (she used to sell them in NY). She also loves pattern/surface design: “Sometimes I think I see the world through a secret looking glass that reveals to me fantastic color wheels of wonder & repeating patterns.”

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[review] Tierra, Tierrita/Earth, Little Earth/Tal, Talchin by Jorge Argueta and Felipe Ugalde Alcántara

~ jama ~ 30 Comments

She is the oldest and most beautiful mother of all the elders. At once gentle and powerful, she is mountain, seed, cornfield, flower. Mother Earth. She is all and everything; she is life itself.

In Tierra, Tierrita/Earth, Little Earth (Piñata Books, 2023), Mother Earth introduces herself, detailing her expanse, majesty, and ongoing evolution. The fourth title in Argueta and Alcántara’s award-winning trilingual Madre Tierra/Mother Earth series about the natural world, it follows Agua, Agüita/Water, Little Water; Fuego/Fueguito/Fire, Little Fire; and Viento, Vientito/Wind, Little Wind. All four books illustrate the interconnectedness of all living things and express a deep reverence for our precious planet.

Mi nombre es Tierra
pero todos me conocen por Tierrita.

Yo soy la Madre Tierra
Ilena de todos los colores
y de todos los sabores.

*

My name is Earth
but people call me Little Earth.

I am Mother Earth
full of all the colors
and all the flavors.

Encompassing north, south, east and west, she is the Mother of Water, Fire, and Wind. Though others may call her “planet,” “nature,” or “creation,” she most likes “Mother Earth, Little Earth.” Spinning around the sun since time immemorial, she sings of flora and fauna, and is “the tiniest insect, the juiciest fruit, the most delicious greens you’ve ever tasted.”

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