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Yesterday we finished our month-long comic book workshop with the Latin American Youth Center (LAYC)/Latino Youth Leadership Council (LYLC). Under the coordination of Shout Mouse Press and their story leaders, Santiago Casares, Liz Laribee, Evan Keeling, and I led a series of nine workshops aimed at teaching first-generation Latinx teenagers how to express themselves through cartooning. The end result of the workshop is a collection of cartoon memoirs about their experiences before and after coming to America. Why they immigrated, the troubles they faced, and what they want their futures to look like.

These teenagers are BRAVE. They told us stories about death, depression, struggle, and hope. They cried. We cried. And they came back every week, ready to continue the process of sharing their stories. 

July 3rd was the first workshop. The teenagers invited us into their house and initiated us into their circle of trust. We each had to get up in front of them and tell them who we’ll be dedicating our work too. We each got up and talked about the people who have had profound influence in our lives and in the lives of our families. We spoke our palabra, and began the process of earning their trust. 

The first week was dedicated to stories. The second week was dedicated to layouts. The third and fourth week had us moving from thumbnails to non-photo blue pencils, inks, and markers. Many of the teens lacked confidence in their drawings, at first. But, by the end, they were proud of the comics that they made. They didn’t worry about every little line, about every bit of perspective. They pushed through their fears and doubts and found ways to express themselves in tiny boxes upon tiny boxes. 

On our last day, we spent about an hour in a circle again. This time, everyone got up and talked about their experiences. Everyone expressed their gratitude. When it was my turn, I looked at these teenagers and I just saw STRENGTH. I told them that I see my cousins in them, that being here feels like family. I told them how proud I was of them. I knew they all saw that I was crying, but I didn’t care. I was overwhelmed by what we accomplished as a team. By what they did week after week.

At the same time, word was coming out that Donald Trump and the GOP were enacting a plan to halve the number of immigrants who are allowed in this country. While our teens were putting final lines and text on their stories of impossible decisions and absolute courage, a handful of men were rolling out policy that would have an extreme negative impact on their lives, on their families lives, and on their friends lives. 

To listen to these 16 teenagers talk about the lives they lived, and what they’ve been through - to listen as their throats became scratchy, at times, and their eyes occasionally welled up in tears - and to understand that they wanted to make their lives better AND this country better - and to hear the talk coming from our current administration yesterday…it was a lot. It was a lot to take.

We’re publishing their memoirs in 2018 through Shout Mouse Press. The book will have their comic memoirs, interviews, and biographies. You will understand their struggles and their dreams the same way we did when we were leading these workshops, and you’ll understand why the policies of the current administration are hurtful and wrong. 

In February of 2015, Kathy Crutcher wrote me on the recommendation of friend and fellow comics editor Matt Dembicki, and asked if I’d like to do a comics workshop at the Gaithersburg Book Festival in exchange for a free table. Kathy’s email signature had her as the founder of Shout Mouse Press, a non-profit publisher that specialized in coaching teen writers, primarily from disenfranchised communities, and publishing their creations. I loved Shout Mouse’s model, and as I was packing up on my table after the book festival, I told Kathy I’d love to work with them in the future.

Later that year, in November of 2015, Kathy wrote me because she just finished reading ARISTS against POLICE BRUTALITY, the anthology I co-edited with Bill Campbell and John Jennings for Rosarium Publishing. Shout Mouse had just published OUR LIVES MATTER, a book where 30 teen authors from Washington DC wrote personal essays about race, inequality, violence, and justice against the backdrop of the #blacklivesmattermovement. Kathy and I had a drink and discussed the similarities between our books and ways that we could work together in the future.

The opportunity came in late 2016, two weeks after the Presidential Election. I just finished sending Colonial Comics: New England, 1750-1775 to my publisher and was planning Civics Tracts when Kathy wrote and asked if I’d be interested in participating in a project where first-generation Latinx teens would speak back to the current political climate by telling their personal stories in comic book form. I was on board from the start and started putting together my comics team.

Liz Laribee and I met with Kathy in December. We brought Evan Keeling and Santiago Casares on shortly after. We found a partner in the Latin American Youth Center (LAYC) and submitted a grant application to the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities. The grant was approved, and starting in July we’ll be running a series of 8 comic-making workshops for a book that will be released in early 2018.

I’m very proud to be working with this team. We all met for the first time last night, and the amount of passion and energy in the room was infectious. We’re all coming together with the mission to help 18 young teenagers, young LEADERS, tell their stories of why they came to America, their hopes and dreams, and the problems they deal with day-to-day.