WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.960 align:middle line:84% But I'm going to leave that book now to show you just some 00:00:05.960 --> 00:00:06.890 align:middle line:90% of my picture books. 00:00:06.890 --> 00:00:10.910 align:middle line:84% Summer Birds is about Maria Merian, one of the first women 00:00:10.910 --> 00:00:16.190 align:middle line:84% scientists, explorers, and scientific illustrators. 00:00:16.190 --> 00:00:17.900 align:middle line:84% Mountain Dog and When You Wander-- 00:00:17.900 --> 00:00:19.130 align:middle line:90% Mountain Dog's middle grade. 00:00:19.130 --> 00:00:21.710 align:middle line:84% When You Wander is a picture book for younger children 00:00:21.710 --> 00:00:23.240 align:middle line:90% about search and rescue dogs. 00:00:23.240 --> 00:00:27.410 align:middle line:84% My husband is a volunteer search and rescue dog trainer 00:00:27.410 --> 00:00:30.200 align:middle line:84% and handler, so our dogs at home go out 00:00:30.200 --> 00:00:35.390 align:middle line:84% to find lost hikers in the Sierra Nevada mountains. 00:00:35.390 --> 00:00:38.000 align:middle line:84% And Tiny Rabbit's Big Wish is a Cuban folktale 00:00:38.000 --> 00:00:40.700 align:middle line:84% that just came out on time for Easter, 00:00:40.700 --> 00:00:44.259 align:middle line:84% and he's a little rabbit who wants to be big. 00:00:44.259 --> 00:00:44.759 align:middle line:90% Aw. 00:00:44.759 --> 00:00:46.980 align:middle line:90% 00:00:46.980 --> 00:00:50.550 align:middle line:84% I love to share the story of the search and rescue dogs 00:00:50.550 --> 00:00:52.590 align:middle line:90% with children. 00:00:52.590 --> 00:00:55.740 align:middle line:84% It's so much fun to have them all raise their hands 00:00:55.740 --> 00:00:57.630 align:middle line:84% and tell me that they have a dog, too, 00:00:57.630 --> 00:00:59.460 align:middle line:84% and then we can trade dog stories. 00:00:59.460 --> 00:01:03.600 align:middle line:84% But this shows just the selection and training 00:01:03.600 --> 00:01:04.980 align:middle line:90% of search and rescue dogs. 00:01:04.980 --> 00:01:09.030 align:middle line:84% What you look for in a search and rescue dog is play drive. 00:01:09.030 --> 00:01:11.580 align:middle line:84% This is from my daily life in California. 00:01:11.580 --> 00:01:16.440 align:middle line:84% We've left Cuba behind, obviously not historical, 00:01:16.440 --> 00:01:19.740 align:middle line:84% but it was really fun to write Mountain Dog 00:01:19.740 --> 00:01:25.200 align:middle line:90% in a modern California setting. 00:01:25.200 --> 00:01:28.470 align:middle line:84% The child's voice in that book is Latino, 00:01:28.470 --> 00:01:32.190 align:middle line:84% but it's not a Latino history topic. 00:01:32.190 --> 00:01:38.220 align:middle line:84% It's just about discovering wilderness and learning 00:01:38.220 --> 00:01:41.610 align:middle line:84% from dogs and learning kindness to animals because he's 00:01:41.610 --> 00:01:46.530 align:middle line:84% a city kid who was not raised in an atmosphere of kindness 00:01:46.530 --> 00:01:49.110 align:middle line:84% to animals but in an atmosphere of dog fighting. 00:01:49.110 --> 00:01:51.750 align:middle line:90% 00:01:51.750 --> 00:01:54.300 align:middle line:84% My job with our search and rescue dogs 00:01:54.300 --> 00:01:57.090 align:middle line:84% is officially titled volunteer victim. 00:01:57.090 --> 00:02:02.820 align:middle line:84% I hide in the forest so that the dogs can practice finding. 00:02:02.820 --> 00:02:05.620 align:middle line:90% This is true. 00:02:05.620 --> 00:02:08.280 align:middle line:90% I mean, I have paperwork. 00:02:08.280 --> 00:02:10.830 align:middle line:90% I had to go through-- 00:02:10.830 --> 00:02:15.660 align:middle line:84% I'm FEMA approved for hiding for search and rescue dogs 00:02:15.660 --> 00:02:19.560 align:middle line:84% so that they can practice finding someone. 00:02:19.560 --> 00:02:24.510 align:middle line:84% And there's a lot of science to the dog nose 00:02:24.510 --> 00:02:26.310 align:middle line:84% that's fun to share with children, 00:02:26.310 --> 00:02:29.850 align:middle line:84% but the most important thing in choosing a search and rescue 00:02:29.850 --> 00:02:33.450 align:middle line:84% dog is playfulness because the dog's play drive can be 00:02:33.450 --> 00:02:36.030 align:middle line:90% trained to become a work drive. 00:02:36.030 --> 00:02:38.280 align:middle line:84% Dogs don't distinguish between work and play. 00:02:38.280 --> 00:02:39.600 align:middle line:90% It's all fun. 00:02:39.600 --> 00:02:42.060 align:middle line:84% They each have their own favorite reward. 00:02:42.060 --> 00:02:44.130 align:middle line:90% Chance likes round things. 00:02:44.130 --> 00:02:47.040 align:middle line:84% He likes to chase balls, and if you take him for a walk 00:02:47.040 --> 00:02:49.020 align:middle line:84% and forget to bring a ball with you, 00:02:49.020 --> 00:02:50.880 align:middle line:84% he'll pick one off an orange tree. 00:02:50.880 --> 00:02:54.480 align:middle line:90% 00:02:54.480 --> 00:02:59.400 align:middle line:84% When I talk about my books about Cuba 00:02:59.400 --> 00:03:01.960 align:middle line:84% not just to children but also to adults, 00:03:01.960 --> 00:03:04.440 align:middle line:84% I feel like I have to show a map and some pictures 00:03:04.440 --> 00:03:10.580 align:middle line:84% because the children definitely don't know where Cuba is. 00:03:10.580 --> 00:03:14.040 align:middle line:84% The two countries have been isolated from each other 00:03:14.040 --> 00:03:21.720 align:middle line:84% for so long that it's easy to forget that we're neighbors. 00:03:21.720 --> 00:03:26.220 align:middle line:84% My mother's hometown of Trinidad is a World Heritage site 00:03:26.220 --> 00:03:30.240 align:middle line:84% with the colonial architecture restored and preserved 00:03:30.240 --> 00:03:31.410 align:middle line:90% by UNESCO. 00:03:31.410 --> 00:03:34.200 align:middle line:90% It's a very beautiful town. 00:03:34.200 --> 00:03:36.990 align:middle line:84% It's a popular tourist destination 00:03:36.990 --> 00:03:38.720 align:middle line:90% for Canadians and Europeans. 00:03:38.720 --> 00:03:44.660 align:middle line:90% 00:03:44.660 --> 00:03:47.150 align:middle line:84% This is the town square where my parents met 00:03:47.150 --> 00:03:51.380 align:middle line:84% on the terrace of a colonial palace on Valentine's Day 00:03:51.380 --> 00:03:56.030 align:middle line:84% after my father saw those National Geographic pictures. 00:03:56.030 --> 00:03:58.340 align:middle line:84% The photograph is actually taken from the terrace 00:03:58.340 --> 00:04:00.950 align:middle line:90% where they met. 00:04:00.950 --> 00:04:04.730 align:middle line:84% And these are the typical streets with the cobblestones 00:04:04.730 --> 00:04:06.140 align:middle line:90% and the tall windows. 00:04:06.140 --> 00:04:10.130 align:middle line:84% Those bars are actually called celosias, jealousies, 00:04:10.130 --> 00:04:13.400 align:middle line:84% and they're the only place where a father would 00:04:13.400 --> 00:04:17.510 align:middle line:84% allow a daughter to flirt, was through that window. 00:04:17.510 --> 00:04:20.570 align:middle line:84% There were two ways in traditional Cuban society, 00:04:20.570 --> 00:04:24.350 align:middle line:84% pre-revolutionary Cuban society, so pre-1959 00:04:24.350 --> 00:04:26.000 align:middle line:90% where girls could flirt. 00:04:26.000 --> 00:04:28.040 align:middle line:84% They could flirt through these windows 00:04:28.040 --> 00:04:33.380 align:middle line:84% or during a paseo when, say, on Sunday evening 00:04:33.380 --> 00:04:36.980 align:middle line:84% after church, the girls walked one direction around the town 00:04:36.980 --> 00:04:39.140 align:middle line:84% square, and the boys walked the other direction. 00:04:39.140 --> 00:04:40.610 align:middle line:90% The girls had a chaperone. 00:04:40.610 --> 00:04:44.210 align:middle line:84% Even in my mother's youth, the girls had a chaperone, 00:04:44.210 --> 00:04:47.825 align:middle line:84% and if you made eye contact, that was getting serious. 00:04:47.825 --> 00:04:50.510 align:middle line:90% 00:04:50.510 --> 00:04:55.490 align:middle line:84% But the landscape outside of the town, the farmland, 00:04:55.490 --> 00:04:58.430 align:middle line:90% and the wilderness was really-- 00:04:58.430 --> 00:05:03.530 align:middle line:84% as a child, I fell in love with because I lived in the city, 00:05:03.530 --> 00:05:09.590 align:middle line:84% and I didn't have the chance to run around 00:05:09.590 --> 00:05:14.810 align:middle line:84% tropical nature like this except during summers. 00:05:14.810 --> 00:05:16.490 align:middle line:84% Here's my parents right after they met, 00:05:16.490 --> 00:05:20.570 align:middle line:84% and this is the earliest picture I have of me as a child on one 00:05:20.570 --> 00:05:22.760 align:middle line:90% of those summer visits in Cuba. 00:05:22.760 --> 00:05:27.980 align:middle line:84% The family farm was a small cattle ranch, a dairy farm, 00:05:27.980 --> 00:05:30.350 align:middle line:84% and it was actually purchased with pirate gold 00:05:30.350 --> 00:05:32.690 align:middle line:84% because one of my ancestors was a pirate. 00:05:32.690 --> 00:05:35.060 align:middle line:84% And he's the reason that I became 00:05:35.060 --> 00:05:37.100 align:middle line:84% interested in writing Hurricane Dancers, 00:05:37.100 --> 00:05:39.540 align:middle line:84% but I couldn't get enough information about him. 00:05:39.540 --> 00:05:43.310 align:middle line:84% And I got sidetracked to write about a different pirate, 00:05:43.310 --> 00:05:46.640 align:middle line:84% so the research process is unpredictable. 00:05:46.640 --> 00:05:51.050 align:middle line:84% My favorite part of summers in Cuba was horses. 00:05:51.050 --> 00:05:52.610 align:middle line:84% That's another thing I didn't have 00:05:52.610 --> 00:05:56.270 align:middle line:84% in the city of Los Angeles, the chance to try-- 00:05:56.270 --> 00:06:01.160 align:middle line:84% you can see that I am not a great rider, and my older 00:06:01.160 --> 00:06:02.930 align:middle line:90% cousin there doing rope tricks. 00:06:02.930 --> 00:06:04.560 align:middle line:84% He's not really trying to hang me, 00:06:04.560 --> 00:06:07.520 align:middle line:84% but I was just so envious of the cousins 00:06:07.520 --> 00:06:10.580 align:middle line:84% who got to stay in Cuba and ride horses year round. 00:06:10.580 --> 00:06:15.110 align:middle line:84% And I thought I could ride a horse because I 00:06:15.110 --> 00:06:17.012 align:middle line:90% had read The Black Stallion. 00:06:17.012 --> 00:06:19.970 align:middle line:90% 00:06:19.970 --> 00:06:23.300 align:middle line:84% You can tell from my posture that you can't learn everything 00:06:23.300 --> 00:06:26.060 align:middle line:90% from a book. 00:06:26.060 --> 00:06:28.910 align:middle line:84% This is my great-grandmother with her favorite donkey 00:06:28.910 --> 00:06:34.550 align:middle line:84% and my grandmother who a dove happened to land on her head. 00:06:34.550 --> 00:06:37.700 align:middle line:84% A large family group from when my mother was young-- 00:06:37.700 --> 00:06:41.420 align:middle line:84% she's the one with the big bow on her head, 00:06:41.420 --> 00:06:44.050 align:middle line:84% and it just shows the size of Cuban families. 00:06:44.050 --> 00:06:49.160 align:middle line:84% This is just a handful of her 200 first cousins gathered 00:06:49.160 --> 00:06:51.407 align:middle line:84% together and some uncles and aunts. 00:06:51.407 --> 00:06:54.270 align:middle line:90% 00:06:54.270 --> 00:06:56.820 align:middle line:84% An antique book fair in Havana, one 00:06:56.820 --> 00:07:01.665 align:middle line:84% of my sources of research materials, 00:07:01.665 --> 00:07:05.340 align:middle line:84% a traditional colonial mailbox where you put the letter 00:07:05.340 --> 00:07:06.585 align:middle line:90% through the monster's mouth. 00:07:06.585 --> 00:07:10.480 align:middle line:90% 00:07:10.480 --> 00:07:16.530 align:middle line:84% And one of the things that I've loved in returning as an adult 00:07:16.530 --> 00:07:20.640 align:middle line:84% has been reconnecting with family, some of the younger 00:07:20.640 --> 00:07:27.780 align:middle line:84% family members, and also seeing the source of storytelling 00:07:27.780 --> 00:07:29.400 align:middle line:90% in Cuban society. 00:07:29.400 --> 00:07:32.610 align:middle line:84% These children are very obviously sitting on a dog, 00:07:32.610 --> 00:07:34.860 align:middle line:90% but they call it a caballito. 00:07:34.860 --> 00:07:37.440 align:middle line:84% And if they want to call it a horse, they can. 00:07:37.440 --> 00:07:38.220 align:middle line:90% Why not? 00:07:38.220 --> 00:07:41.360 align:middle line:84% That's the power of storytelling.