My name is María de la Luz Posada Gazca and I have been a volunteer reading promoter of the National Reading Rooms program since 2008, in Saltillo, Coahuila, Mexico. I started my reading room called “The Bird of the Seven Colors” with children, and the group has now grown to include people in vulnerable situations, such as individuals with vision impairment and the elderly, and more recently with migrants.
Now I would like to share what the picturebook has meant for me and my reading public.
My reading group in Casa del Migrante was in response to a request to develop my final project to complete my degree in Community Development, in October 2016.
Fortunately for me, my coordinator invited me to participate in an IBBY seminar, where we were introduced to the picturebook, taught by Maribel Cuevas, I don’t remember precisely the year.
In 2018, Maribel led another course for us, called Reading with Migrants, and a few months later, as a representative of Coahuila, I had the honor of attending the International Meeting of Reading with Migrants, held in the city of Chihuahua, Chihuahua.
Great presenters joined our sessions, including Evelyn Arizpe who showed us great picturebooks which have transformed our sessions every week, with children and especially in the Casa del Migrante. The picturebook is great because anyone can read (interpret) it, regardless of their age and language. They are really amazing, especially those that have drawings and letters that complement the dialogue of the story and the images.
In each session where the books are read, we chat and listen to the migrants, and the same book facilitates the interactions that emerge, be they via drawing or other types of writing.
