“Juan the Bear and the Water of Life: La Acequia de Juan del Oso,” by Enrique Lamadrid, Juan Estevan Arellano, and with illustrations by Amy Córdova, was selected by the New Mexico State Library to represent New Mexico at this year’s National Book Festival held recently in Washington, D.C. The book was published by University of New Mexico Press.
Image: “Juan the Bear and the Water of Life: La Acequia de Juan del Oso"
Each year the festival’s organizers ask state participants to choose one children’s or young adult book to represent them at their booth. “Juan the Bear is an ideal choice,” said New Mexico State Library Publications Director Robert Upton. “It is a beautifully illustrated children’s book with bilingual text, a story representing important cultural values and history, and which is published by a New Mexico press.”
The tale, a thoughtful retelling of the celebrated New Mexico legend of the stouthearted man who moved mountains and rivers to create La Acequia del Rito y la Sierra, the most famous traditional irrigation system in New Mexico, is just one of many stories featuring the exploits of Juan the Bear (Juan del Oso) and his superhuman friends that folklorist Enrique Lamadrid, chair, UNM Department of Spanish & Portuguese, and agriculturalist Juan Estevan Arellano grew up hearing.
“The power of Juan del Oso intrigues us all, even the youngest children,” Lamadrid said. “Estevan Arellano and I decided to link Juan’s story to the historic story of the acequias and the culture which they nourish.” Lamadrid also credits the eye-catching illustrations of New Mexico artist Amy Córdova that inevitably draw people to the story. “From the beginning we knew we were on to something everyone could appreciate.”
“I feel honored that ‘Juan the Bear and the Water of Life’ will be recognized as the State Book at the 2009 National Book Festival,” Arellano said. “It’s not only an honor for the authors and the artist, but I feel it’s recognition of what makes New Mexico so unique and wonderful.”
"Juan the Bear and the Water of Life" is the second UNM Press title to be chosen to represent New Mexico at the National Book Festival. In 2008, “The Voyage of the Beetle: A Journey around the World with Charles Darwin and the Search for the Solution to the Mystery of Mysteries, as Narrated by Rosie, an Articulate Beetle,” by Anne Weaver and with illustrations by George Lawrence was featured at the New Mexico State Library booth.
For more information on “Juan the Bear and the Water of Life,” contact Katherine MacGilvray, UNM Press publicity, at 272-7177 or katm@unm.edu.
Media Contact: Carolyn Gonzales, (505) 277-5920; e-mail: cgonzal@unm.edu
Posted by scarr at September 28, 2009 09:57 AM