Mi Familia Calaca : A Mexican Folk Art Family in English and Spanish

Welcome to the family! It's just like yours: father, mother, sister, brother, abuelita, gato, even a great-great grandmother.

Well, but there's something just a little bit different about this particular family.

Maybe it's those clothes they wear . . . just a little bit fashion backward. And the colors! So vibrant and . . . lively. Maybe that's what it is. They are just so full of life while looking almost other worldly. !Bienvenidos a la familia! Es justo como la tuya: papa, mama, hermana, hermano, abuelita, gato, hasta un a vis-abuela.

Pero hay algo un poco diferente sobre esta familia. Tal vez es la su ropa...es un poco anticuada. Y los colores! Tan vibrantes y...vivos. Tal vez eso es, solo estan llenos de vida, al mismo tiempo pareciendo de otro mundo. Cynthia Weill's bilingual collaboration with artist Jesus Canseco Zarate teaches young readers basic information about relationships, while also celebrating the colorful tradition of Mexico's Day of the Dead.

Canseco Zarate long-limbed sculptures are a playful twist on traditional Mexican iconography of the skeleton that stretches back through the country's art history to Jose Guadalupe Posada's engravings and Aztec sculpture. La colaboracion bilingue entre autora Cynthia Weill y artista Jesus Cnaseco Zarate le ensena a lectores jovenes informacion basica sobre familias, al mismo tiempo celebrando la tradicion colorida del Dia de Muertos.

Las esculturas de brazos largos de Canseco Zarate le dan un toque jugueton a la iconografia Mexicana tradicional del esqueleto, que se ve a lo largo de la historia artistica del pais, hasta los grabados de Jose Guadalupe Posada, y las esculturas Aztecas. Cynthia Weill holds a master's degree from Wesleyan University in Art History and a Doctorate in Education from Teachers College Columbia.

While working on her dissertation at Columbia, Cynthia collaborated with artisans in Oaxaca, Mexico to create the folk art pieces that became the successful First Concepts in Mexican Folk Art series. She is currently the director of the Center for Children's Literature at the Bank Street College of Education. Cythia Weill tiene una maestria de Historia del Arte de Wesleyan University, y un doctorado de Educacion del Colegio de Maestros de Columbia University.

Durante su tiempo trabajando en su tesis en Columbia, Cynthia colaboro con artesanos y artesanas de Oaxaca, Mexico, para crear las piezas que se fueron despues presentadas en la exitosa serie, Primeros Conceptos en Artesania Mexicana.

Actualmente es la directora del Centro para Literatura Infantil en el Colegio de Educacion Bank Street..Jesus Canseco Zarate is a young Oaxacan folk artist whose medium of choice is paper mache.

In 2008 he won first prize in the Friends of Oaxacan Folk Art completion for young artists. Jesus Canseco Zarate es un artesano de Oaxaca conocido por sus complejas calacas de papel mache.

En el 2008, gano el primer premio en la competicion de Amigos de Artesania de Oaxaca para artistas jovenes.