The Interview

If you are comfortable sharing, can you share with us an instance that helped inspire the story of My Teacher Has Tattoos?

I think the moment I knew I had to share this story was one day in recess after the incident in the book, one of the students saw some people outside of the playground and said “Ew! Those tattoos make them so ugly. They must be evil.” And I was like, didn’t we just have a long conversation about this topic? But sometimes it takes constant reminders to undo years of being told something is bad. 

Do you have the same tattoos as Mr. Mendoza? If not, can you describe to us an example of one of your tattoos?

I do have the same tattoos as Mr. Mendoza, but I will share two more of my favourites: one is of the 1956 Topps baseball card of my hero, Roberto Clemente who was a Puerto Rican humanitarian and also an amazing baseball player. Also, my whole back is a Japanese-style body suit of a Samurai defeating an Oni demon wearing his samurai armor. I designed it based on a Buddhist quote “A (hu)man who conquers themselves is greater than a (hu)man that conquers a thousand men in battle.” 

Writing a children’s book can be very different from writing a traditional novel and comes with its own set of challenges and rewards. What do you think was the most challenging part of telling this story? What was the most rewarding?

The most challenging part of telling this story was learning that not all the details need to be said in words because the illustrations also help tell the story. As a storyteller, I am used to being very descriptive with everything so a visual is created in the reader’s mind, but picture books help with illustrations. The most rewarding part of this journey was that Soaring Kite Books and I kept it as authentic as possible, capturing the essence of everything.

The illustrations in My Teacher Has Tattoos are beautiful and add to the charm of the story. Can you give us some insight into how children’s books get illustrated?

I usually like to create the storyboard myself along with the story. With this particular book, I was able to assist the team at Soaring Kite with personal photos of some of my adventures and tattoos which covered a lot of the cultural elements discussed in the book. The production team, illustrator, and I had great communication and we were able to be very accurate in matching the story to the illustrations. It was an awesome and exciting experience.

With a few titles under your belt, what inspired you to become a writer, particularly one of children’s books?

I always loved telling stories and as an elementary school teacher, I noticed the lack of representation in the stories the children read. So I challenged myself by trying to break into the school’s libraries with different types of stories that aren’t your cookie-cutter subjects. Try to add a little sazón to our libraries. 

There is a lot that children can take away from this book regarding stereotyping, but what do you hope adults, especially teachers, are able to take away from this book?

I think it’s a great conversation starter with children to get a little insight into their teachers’ lives. Connecting with my students is what I do best. When a student feels they know a little bit about you outside of who you are in the classroom, it helps them feel more at ease in the classroom, more comfortable in failing which in turn becomes learning. Building relationships through personal connections is something a lot of teachers fail to do which unfortunately results in disinterested students and low achievement.