It seems so surreal at the moment but we finally did it!!! We reached $13,000!!! Seriously. Thank you all for your help!! Y'all been incredible, hyping it up & giving us Latinxs a chance to have this book made!
A special shout out to supporters and those helping spread the word. Without you and our wonderful contributors, this project would be nothing!
La Raza Anthology: Unidos y Fuertes - An unique anthology filled with comics, illustrations, poems and short stories celebrating & analyzing Latin American heritage. - http://kck.st/2bV7S3P
LESS THAN 46 HOURS TO GO TO FULLY FUND OUR BOOK?!? Please help spread the word! We need a project like this to represent marginalized creators! Every contribution counts :)
“My name is Carrroleena, not Carolina. The rolling of the “r” adds a prevalent Spanish accent, unlike the pronunciation of “North Carolina”.
It seemed odd for me to explain how my name is pronounced, considering I am one of at least twenty-five Carrroleena’s in my high school. But “How do you say your name?” became a commonly asked question when I stepped out of the Miami bubble by attending summer programs and traveling to far-off destinations.
The question usually presents itself on a sticky summer day, when my lips are dry and the beating sun tints my skin a shade darker. I puff up my chest and with a smile on my face, I respond, “It’s Carrroleena. You just gotta roll the r,”
Each syllable in my name carries the weight of my Cuban heritage. I was born from the children of Cuban exiles, who fled Castro’s communist regime to give their children and future generations a better life and a foundation in the land of opportunity.
Not one ounce of my explanation is in vain. I keep alive the story of how my abuelos came to the U.S. with solely the clothes on their backs and the pesos in their pockets. The story of how my abuelo’s company was ripped from his hands by Castro, leaving him with no choice other than to pump gas for forty-nine cents an hour. Their sacrifice and strife is in each stressed vowel, in each consonant of my name…”
A sample of her piece shown above, we’re honored to have Carolina’s work presented in La Raza Anthology. She’s one of our many promising young Latinxs with powerful messages in their works. We hope her work can inspire you as much as it did for us <3
“Carolina Dalia Gonzalez is a Cuban-American girl who hails from Miami, Florida. She began her own non-profit organization, Deferred Action for Dreamers, in 2012 with the mission to help the undocumented youth of her community. Deferred Action for Dreamers has helped over 2,000 undocumented immigrants since its inception and continues to carry out this mission. Carolina will be a freshman at Barnard College in New York City this coming fall and is very interested in the prospect of becoming the first latina president.”
In addition to paying contributors, a portion of our book sales goes directly to several non-profit organizations helping undocumented Latino families receive legal help and obtain skills that would help ease their transition into the States.
From experience we know how difficult life can be for immigrants iour n the U.S. due to language barriers, lack of financial resources, lack of information, not knowing our rights and even fear of deportation.
We want to give back to our community as much as we can. And you can help too!
By backing our Kickstarter, we’ll be able to make books that will help benefit few great non-profit organizations:
(If you have any recommendations we would love to hear them!)
Because we’re part of a marginalized group of creators in the comics industry, we hope you can help us in spreading the word about our project while helping shape lives <3
We want to clarify that the money we hope to raise with our Kickstarter will go directly to printing the books, paying contributors, rewards, Kickstarter fees, etc. But because Kickstarter has a rule that we can’t contribute to directly to charities with our goal money, we think it would be best to STILL donate money to these charities from our book sales instead.
Born in 1996 in Chile, A.C is currently studying 3d Animation. The artist is heavily inspired by SouthAmerican culture and young artists from all over the world and portrays their perception and personality through different characters. Interested in every art form, wants the art and animation industry to grow in South America as an important contribution to the different countries.
Where is your family from?
My family is composed by two nationalities. My mother is Russian and my father is Chilean. They met because my father was exiled from Chile during the dictatorship. My mother was (and is) really interested in South American culture, our language, history, etc. My father was giving a talk at her university about Chile’s political status at the moment. They then started talking more and more about those kind of topics and after many many difficult situations they ended up marrying and moving back to Chile where I grew up and study right now.
What are some of your influences/inspirations?
At the moment my influences are the beautiful sketches by Daniela Strijleva and Chris Chua. South American artists that I like are Illustrators like Catabu, Hugustrador, Liniers and painters like Maliki and Decur, which I take reference from, among many others. What I look in their art is their message, the storytelling, that every piece of art that these people create has a strong meaning and such passion. I learn from them every day, and I keep looking for more growing artists that give such feelings.
Can you tell us about your piece for La Raza?
My piece for LA RAZA is called “Mito y Tradición” its a mixed media illustration that uses the description showed by the internet of those two characters when in reality they are bigger and more than that.
What inspired you to draw these legendary figures?
When I choose to draw “El diablo” from “La diablada” celebrated on the north of Chile and of course countries like Perú and Bolivia I wanted to portrait a character that is very well known around here but maybe unknown most of the people who know very little about South America. “La diablada” is a really colorful and fun celebration that unites families and preserves traditions in a very powerful way, using loud music and delicious food. On the other hand, there is “La Pincoya” a local and very popular myth of the south of Chile, a beautiful woman that helps lost fishermen return to land.
With this design in particular I wanted to fight the usual representation that artists give her. She is usually seen as a stereotypically “perfect” woman, showing that most of the times people wont go for a different character design, a more interesting and unique than the usual that already exists, specially on women. And again, with the design I present I’d like to welcome those artists or anyone who starts to design something from a story to go further than the popular representation and to love our characters more to give them a unique life.
Do you have any projects coming up?
Right now i’m working as a visual developer on a animated shortfilm called “El Último” set in a futuristic Chile. Some personal projects that i’m working on the scripts of two webcomics called “Confetti” and “Amigo” that I hope to start sharing at the end of this year or at the beggining of the next one.
Be on the lookout for “Mito y Tradición” in our bookLa Raza Anthology: Unidos y Fuertes. Check out Ale’s blog for more of their awesome work!
In addition to paying contributors, a portion of our book sales goes directly to several non-profit organizations helping undocumented Latino families receive legal help and obtain skills that would help ease their transition into the States.
From experience we know how difficult life can be for immigrants iour n the U.S. due to language barriers, lack of financial resources, lack of information, not knowing our rights and even fear of deportation.
We want to give back to our community as much as we can. And you can help too!
By backing our Kickstarter, we’ll be able to make books that will help benefit few great non-profit organizations:
(If you have any recommendations we would love to hear them!)
Because we’re part of a marginalized group of creators in the comics industry, we hope you can help us in spreading the word about our project while helping shape lives <3
Eric Alexander Arroyo is a Miami-born Cuban-American cartoonist who obsesses over flowing scarves. He studied cartooning at the School of Visual Arts and currently lives in Brooklyn. He is a co-editor of Boy, I Love You, a comics anthology of stories inspired by the Boys’ Love genre. He is definitely drawing giant robots while listening to ABBA.
Our goal for La Raza Anthologyis to present stories that are considered uncommon to those outside the Latinx community. We enjoy reading our contributors’ stories especially if we can learn new things from other Latinx cultures.
For example, Collaresby Eric A. Arroyo is a comic about his relationship with the strongest cultural link to his Cuban heritage: Santería. Because of a falling out with certain members in his community, as an adolescent and into adulthood, his relationship with Santería became tenuous. That is, until he realized the importance of his religion as it shapes his spiritual faith and identity.
Because there is much mystery and misconceptions surrounding Santería, Eric provides a wonderful insight into the religion without giving the impression that his experiences as a Santero are universal. (fyi: Collares is a reference to Elekes or Santería bead necklaces)
Here’s a sample of Collares:
You can read the rest of Collaresin our Anthology book which we’re trying to fund with our current Kickstarterso we can support more marginalized Latinx artists like Eric <3
We highly recommend reading more of Eric’s comics and even follow his tumblr!
Giulia Zielasko is a young brazilian artist who is studying Game Art & Design in the UK and who gets very excited every time she gets to speak Portuguese and eat Brazilian food. She dreams of working to help the game, animation and comic industry grow in South America, because there is so much potential artists there. Also, she dreams about owning a farm too (for some weird reason).
We’re excited to display Giulia’s contribution for La Raza Anthology. Her comic is a beautiful love letter to her diverse homeland Brazil:
La Raza Anthology: Unidos y Fuertesis a collection of works celebrating and analyzing our experiences with cultures from Latin America.
Tired of the very little Latinx representation in the art scene, we created La Raza Anthology as a way to give creators proper recognition & chance to address important issues that matter to us.
In Spanish, la raza literally translates as “the race”, a term stemmed from Mexican scholar José Vasconcelos’s phrase, La Raza Cósmica (“the cosmic race”). Because Latin America is a mixture of different races & cultures (Latinx= an ethnicity not a race), we use La Raza as a term define our community by celebrating our roots. Which is what we hope to do with our anthology!
Cover by Kat Fajardo
By backing our Kickstarter you can help us in getting La Raza printed, a 120 paged book of full color comics, illustrations and stories, as well as receiving a bundle of fun prizes that emulate our beautiful cultura.And we need your help!!
William Keops Ibañez was seeded in Mexico and harvested in the soils of the United States in 1982. He moved to New York City from Texas in 2001 to attend the School of Visual Arts from which he got a B.F.A in cartooning and illustration. In 2007 he attended the Art Institute of New York and earned his Associates in graphic design. He currently writes and draws his comic book series Blazing Quantum, True Tales from La Frontera.
Tell us about yourself! When did you start making comics?
I started making comics as early as sixth grade. I would get a bunch of sheets together folded and stapled and then just draw in that. I realized that’s all comic books were. Sheets of paper folded and stapled. It’s sounds so simple, but I remember thinking how magical that discovery seemed to me. Like that’s it?! I can get typing paper and staples from my Mom’s desk! I just did them for myself and didn’t even think about photocopying them until I got into HighSchool. At that point I had discovered underground/alternative comics and had heard of what mini comics were. I did my first mini comic on bathroom humor and printed about ten copies. I sold one for a quarter to a kid in the morning and by the end of the day another kid handed it to me in the cafeteria saying “You gotta check this out! It’s hilarious!” I was like hey that’s my comic! Turns out they were passing it around classes.
Where is your family from?
My Mom and Dad are both from the State of Puebla in the Country of Mexico. My Dad is from a Village named Huatlatlauca and my Mom is from a Village named Hueytlalpan in which the main language is Totonaco. Everyone on my Moms side Speaks it along with Spanish. Unfortunately it wasn’t passed down to me as no one else spoke it in the city I was born in, Laredo Texas USA. We spoke only Spanish at home, and English at School. To this day both my parents don’t know a word of English, but it evens out I guess. My mom has her Spanish and Totonaco and I have English and Spanish. So we’re both still bilingual lol!
Can you tell us about your Blazing Quantum series? Do you have a set goal for each issue?
The comic in a nutshell is about the dichotomy of growing up Chicanx (Mexican American) in the border town of Laredo Texas. It’s focus is on how the history of both Mexico and the United States came to shape the populations of our people for better or worse. Every single person alive right now is the result of larger histories than ourselves that go back hundreds of years. It’s something I like to explore in my comics. It’s been slow in coming, but I did lots of research of not just my families history, but of Mexico’s and South Texas’s as well. I’m only now working on issue Three, but I’ve discovered things about myself and family I didn’t know before. It’s interesting to see the thread that ties The Spanish Conquest, The Mexican Revolution, Anarchism, my parents’ immigration to the states, Totonaco and Punk Rock together. All stories for my comic are connected, but I always try to make them work as stand alone vignettes.
How do you decide the stories for each issue?
I usually thumbnail a whole story before any penciling is done with dialogue written on side notes. It’s usually tough to decide what story to put in each issue but I take into account how that story will fit in the lager narrative I’m building. I like to think of it as tapestry or one of Diego Rivera’s Murals: There’s lots of interesting action up close. People working on machines, people laboring, fighting etc. But when you step back all that detail comes together to communicate an event in history.
What are some of your influences/inspirations?
My parents are my first inspiration. For art and comics I was greatly influenced first by Humberto Ramos who drew Impulse for DC comics. I then gravitated towards Robert Crumb, Jaime Crespo, later the Hernandez Brothers and eventually the rest of the 90’s alternative comics scene. In art school they had a huge comics library, and it was here I would discover whom I consider to be comics gods. Harvey Kurtzman and Wallace Wood. So thats’ inspiration in terms of comics. For writing, I was greatly moved by these latin american writers more than anything: Isabel Allende from Peru/Chile, Octavio Paz from Mexico, and Eduardo Galeano from Uruguay.
Like your comic La Sierra, most of your work involves stories with believable Latinx characters not to mention pride of your Latindad. Did you ever feel doubt or pressure to change your stories. If so, how?
Of course! One story in particular I debated so much about changing was the first story (Proletariat) from Blazing Quantum no.1. The opening scene has an actual conversation that took place with me and a coworker. It was extremely vulgar, crass, and machista, but when I was drawing it I wanted it to be as accurate as possible. When I re-read it I realized how horrible we sounded, but the point of the story was that here are these two teenage kids trying to act tough and macho, but at the end of the day it’s a Latina Woman who is bossing them around and in command of the place they work at. I felt that censoring the dialogue would have taken away from the point I was trying to make, which is that behind many of the great things in our cultura there has always been a powerful woman. Whether it be the Soldaderas who supported the Mexican Revolution, or artists Such as Maria Felix who greatly contributed to and influenced Mexican Cinema.
To your point about writing believable characters, I decided against censoring the vulgar dialogue as I didn’t want to make one dimensional characters. If you want people to believe your stories, you have to include not just your character’s positive traits, but also their flaws. Especially if you’re doing auto bio comics. You have to include things you may have regretted doing or saying in the past. Our culture has lots of positive things. I learned empathy from my Mother, and inherited my Father’s work ethic, But censoring negative things about our culture like Machismo won’t get us anywhere. They’re issues that need to be addressed in our community.
In your opinion what do you think makes a Latinx comic?
Great question. It’s tricky for me as I was raised first on Mainstream Super Hero comics before I gravitated towards works like Love and RocketsorNarcolepsy Dreams. Humberto Ramos is from Mexico and drew Impulse for DC comics, but I don’t think that a Flash spin off character could hardly be called a work of Latinx Literature lol. I think the thing I have noticed in works that I consider Latinx Comics is that they are brutally honest and sincere and that the authors are people with convictions. I can see those traits at work in The Hernandez Bros’ Love and Rockets, your own comics Kat such as in Gringa!, and I would say in the work of our fellow contributors too.
Do you have any projects coming up?
Wrapping up Blazing Quantum#3 soon, and keeping my fingers crossed that I get accepted into Comics Art Brooklyn this November. If I happen to find out that I didn’t get to table by the time this is up, people can still get my mini comics on my site at keopsibanez.com and see more of my work in the the soon to be La Raza Anthology! I’m glad to be in great company!
Be on the lookout for La Sierra William’s comic for La Raza Anthology: Unidos y Fuertes. Check out his blog for more of his work!
Carolina Fernandez was born in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. She moved to the Dominican Republic at two years old and then moved back to Brooklyn when she was seven. She decided she wanted to major in English as a junior in High School after keeping a journal for 5 years and spending a lot of time at her local library, which became a haven of sorts. Today, she is working on her Bachelor’s degree in Creative Writing at SUNY Geneseo—her preferred genre is poetry. One of Carolina’s favorite books is East of Eden by John Steinbeck.
We received several inspiring short stories for La RazaAnthology by many colorful voices.One of them being Carolina Fernandez, who submitted a short non-fiction story about her childhood in the Dominican Republic and her life as an immigrant in the U.S.
Here’s an excerpt from Carolina’s piece A Tribute to our Youth:
“On the plane I had to fight for the window seat so I could eagerly look down toward new ground and the legendary America. This is it! My excitement was pouring over and I felt like a Disney princess desperately waiting for Prince Charming. I stuck my nose to the glass of the window, trying to get closer to the dream. After landing, I took a look around and the excitement deflated, my metaphorical prince was a frog. I did not feel a sense of rightness; there were no palm trees and the air as you stepped outside did not hug you with its warm embrace. This is it.
My vision had not been fulfilled. I wondered then why my family back home wished to leave their exotic and tropical island for a place that failed to take my breath away. The airport bustled with an air of importance, people did not care to know you or ask you if you needed help. It was different; in my country people were amiable, kind. They welcomed you from your journey with fruits, feasts, and family ambushes.”
“We waited for my father to come. We waited to be ambushed. We had arrived as the sun was at its highest point and waited until dark; our hearts and hopes correlating with the sun’s path. No one was there to claim us. I was in a strange country. My mother only had pesos. I do not know to this day who to blame for our abandonment, but I can tell you that it would be the first of many…”
We’re excited for you to read the rest of Carolina’s story in our upcoming anthology La Raza Anthology: Unidos y Fuertes. Check out her blog for more inspiration!!
Alexandra Barboza is a student at Ringling College of Art and Design working towards being a character animator. She loves cartoons, napping and cuddling puppies every chance she gets. She grew up in Miami, Florida to two incredible Peruvian parents and plans on visiting more of South America after graduation.
We’re so proud to see many young aspiring Latinx artists like Alexandra on our anthology roster, it seriously gives us hope for more representation in the art industry!
In our book La Raza Anthology: Unidos y Fuertes we’ll be featuring Alexandra’s comic “Thin Air”, a touching story about growing up as the oldest daughter of two hardworking Peruvian parents and the struggles she wished she knew she’d face alone.
We’re very excited for “Thin Air” and we highly recommend checking out Alexandra’s artwork at: http://anomalexie.tumblr.com/
Stay tuned for more information on our anthology and for more of La Raza’s Artist Spotlights! :)
Although we featured 2/3 of the content that will be in our anthology La Raza: Unidos y Fuertes!, we were happy to share their amazing work for one night at The Living Gallery in Brooklyn. A huge thanks to our contributors for their awesome work and to our volunteers Iasmin&ilana for their help putting everything together <3
We’ll be launching a Kickstarter for the book soon which will hopefully give you a chance to grab a copy & look at all of the contributors’ work!
Stay tuned for more details. Check out our contributors page to know more about the creators.
Alexandra Martinez is a southern California born and bred Chicana getting bread in NYC. She is somewhere in between a professional dabbler and a renaissance woman, though most of her work is focused around writing and photography. When she’s not working, you can most definitely find her reading a book, drinking coffee, or doing both.
ForLa Raza Anthology we’ve received so many powerful pieces from talented voices from many places, including one short story by a nyc local Chicana Alexandra Martinez!
Here’s an excerpt from Alexandra’s piece Canta Y No Llores:
[trigger warning: suicide]
“Driving through the Mexican desert of Los Altos de Jalisco, my cousin looks at me and asks me, “Did you hear about Tio Rafa?” I say no. I remember him years ago on the farm, milking cows and talking to me about school and where I was going to college and what for. I remember it like it’s a photograph and I’m holding it. I remember his smile.
My cousin keeps talking, wakes me out of it. I know something bad is coming. He says a year ago he jumped off a fourth floor balcony.
What was this man who barely leaves his farm doing on a fourth floor anyway? Where was he?
He says after that attempt to kill himself failed, Tio Rafa stabbed himself in the neck. That one failed too, when his brother found his bloodied body under the giant mesquite everyone believes is haunted. I think so too.
Why does he want to disappear so badly?
We arrive at my grandparents’ home. Ladrillera 43. Teocaltiche, Jalisco. Bigger than I remember it. Towns become cities so quickly.
Tomorrow Tio Rafa will be here. And I cannot forget the image of him talking to me, smiling. The twinkle in his eyes that everybody on my grandmother’s side of the family has. I’ve seen it in my dad. I’ve seen it my aunts. Probably even seen it in myself.”
You can read the rest of Alexandra’s short story Canta Y No Llores in our upcoming anthology La Raza: Unidos y Fuertes. Check out her blog for more inspiration!
Susana Isabel is a seventeen year old student and daughter of an immigrant living in California. She has loved writing in her native Spanish and in English from a very young age. She graduated from high school in 2015 and will begin college in the fall. She has enjoyed dancing competitively and participating in the dramatic arts for most of her life. She also dedicates time to working in rural neighborhoods in Mexico and advocating at school and in certain organizations for social justice, with an emphasis on the lives of Mexican immigrants.
Aside from receiving great illustrations and comics from artists around the world, we’ve also received several inspiring and chilling poems from great minds like Susana Isabel.
Here is a preview from one of Susana’s poems Plastic Book:
“They set up a colony in my history book and called it a nation
They drove out the small letters and polished the pages with bleach
They sectioned off everyone else’s stories into paragraphs
Territories of their new countries
Decolonize the facts
Tell them to pack up their camps and let me move back into my home
Tell them this section of history is taken
Tell them to stop scrubbing away everyone else’s words
They are not graffiti
Those words were here first
What do colonies mean to them?
They are hungry for letters
My letters, your letters, our letters, no!
The hunger comes from fear of not having enough
But where does that fear come from when you own the whole book
I will rip out the threads that hold my history book together
Pull pages out one by one
Destroy the structure, build a new text
Where everyone gets
All the paragraphs they deserve.”
You can read Susana’s poems Plastic Book andLa Gente in our upcoming anthology La Raza: Unidos y Fuertes. Check out her blog for more inspiration!
Stay tuned for more information on our anthology and for more Latin American Artist Spotlights!
Alejandro Bruzzese is a Montevideo-born, New York City-based cartoonist and graphic designer. His personal work includes self-published comics Leave This Bright World and THRST, and his animated web comic Proxy. His work has also been featured in God Hates Astronauts, The Legend of Luther Strode, Dracula: Son of the Dragon, Feral NYC, and Bartkira.
Latinxs are taking over outer space!! Or at least they are in Alejandro Bruzzese’s work. Get ready to get swept into a dreamlike world of aliens, robots and space adventurers!
His comic Proxy paves way for innovative webcomics with beautifully animated panels that form a captivating story. Having a great eye for dramatic compositions and shading, Alejandro does an excellent job creating a suspenseful story that transitions well into a sci-fi movie. We highly recommend reading it!
Featured in La Raza anthology is Alejandro’s comic Extranjero, a touching story dedicated to his father’s struggle immigrating to the U.S. with a mythic exaggerated twist.
We believe his story will reach out to those who have experienced immigration in a similar way or know someone who has…
We look forward to more inspiring works by Alejandro. Check out his stuff at: alejandrobruzzese.com
Stay tuned for more information on our anthology and for more Latin American Artist Spotlights!
Join us for a night of celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month as we present artwork by talented Latin Americans that will be featured in our upcoming anthology LA RAZA: UNIDOS Y FUERTES. The show will take place Saturday October 10th held at The Living Gallery located at 1094 Broadway, Brooklyn, New York 11221 from 7pm-11pm!
Featuring over 30 creators from all over the world, LA RAZA anthology is filled with works celebrating and analyzing the vibrant cultures of Latin America. Our goal is to give creators the proper recognition and the chance to address important issues such as assimilation, racism, self identity, and cultural pride. (In a way It’s a love letter to our people with an emphasis on self-acceptance!)
We hope this show would give both Latinx & non-Latinx audience a chance to connect and understand where we come from! And of course a Latin party would be nothing without free food, cervezas, and festive music!
So join us for a fun night, bring your amigitos too!!
Gracias ♥
Contributors:
Alberto Larrañaga ‘Bort’, Alejandro Bruzzese, Ale Carrasco Lepijina, Alexandra Barboza, Alexandra Martinez, Andrea Esquivel Dávalos, Andrea Zambrano, Brianna Valdez, Carmen Pizarro, Carolina Fernandez, Carolina Gonzalez , Constanza Taboada, Cynthia J. Zapata, Daisy Ruiz, Daniela Iglesias, Eric Arroyo, Estephanie Morales, Gabriela Morales, Giulia Zielasko, Ismael Flores Ruvalcaba, Joamette Gil, Jordan R. Marco, Juliette Lopez, Kat Fajardo, Kim Morales, Luisa Gabriela Rivera Reza, Luis Roldan, Dante Luiz, Melissa Ayala Estrada, Mirelle Ortega, Myra Lara, Pablo A. Castro, Paola Klug, Stephanie Bailey, Stephanie Rodriguez, Susana Isabel, Tiffany Rodriguez, Todd Gastelum, Vivian Martinez, William Keops Ibañez and Xavier Lorié!
