Read the Room: Exploring Cultural Diversity & Family Love- An interview with children’s book author Nadine Fonseca
Only A Trenza Away is such a sweet story about the bond between Xiomara and her papá. Papá and Xia connect through a nightly routine of papá braiding her hair. While Xia is getting her trenzas done, she goes on an imaginary adventure with her trenza and her papá. During one instance, Xia even imagined being in the jungle with her papá! The nightly trenza routine teaches Xia with papá different life virtues, such as patience and strength. The entire book is filled with beautiful illustrations that perfectly capture the tenderness of the story.
Read the Room had the opportunity to chat with the author of the book, Nadine Fonseca. We are excited to share with you all the details of our heartwarming conversation.
Lizeth: Only a Trenza Away is such a fun book that is filled with so many feel-good moments. And I'm curious, what inspired you to write this book?
Nadine: When I was a little girl, my dad was the one who braided my hair when I was a kid. I had one older sister, and he would braid both of our hair, and I think this story kind of stems from that experience, although we've taken it in a whole new direction. But I think it came from remembering the tenderness of my father taking the time to do that, and it wasn't always as fun as it appeared in the book, you know. Like most, some girls don't love their hair being brushed, you know, like the knots, and all those kinds of things. So it wasn't always the most enjoyable experience. But I do have a fondness, for the time that my dad took to not just sit down and take care of our hair because he really cared about us. Not waking up the next morning with a bunch of knots and tangles, and you know, frustrations. And so that's a lot of where the book comes from is having a fond memory of my dad having that kind of patience and bonding time for better, for worse to take care of my sister and me.
Lizeth: I love the fact that you didn’t translate trenza to braid in your book. I’m wondering if there was a particular reason why you decided to keep trenza in the text?
Nadine: I think for me there's a little part of me that misses the fact that I grew up with Spanish, and being, mostly bilingual as a young child, and then losing that a piece of my identity, what my parents have thought was for my safety right? Being careful not to be made fun of, or be different at school, or you know that the whole kind of assimilation business, if you will…
