Indigenous Children’s Literature from Latin America

This is largely a contemporary collection as, until recently, there were not many examples available. Penn Libraries has long collected Indigenous language dictionaries, primers, and other works related to linguistic studies. However, the birth of Indigenous-language presses, interested in the preservation and dissemination of Indigenous-language materials for heritage speakers, led to the production of Indigenous and bilingual (usually with Spanish) poetry, oral histories and testimonies, and other narrative forms. Children’s and juvenile literatures are a small subset of these more recent publications, but are important representations of both Indigenous languages and popular renditions of traditional and contemporary Indigenous stories. Most are bilingual with Spanish text alongside to help language learners. Within Penn Libraries’ collection, Mayan languages (specifically Poptí/Jakaltek, Cakchiquel/Kaqchikel, and Quiché) are most strongly represented, with some additional materials in Quechua, Nahuatl, and Zapotec.