Undocumented: A Worker's Fight

by Duncan Tonatiuh

Overview

Award-winning author and illustrator Duncan Tonatiuh’s picture book is “a gorgeous, timely, and necessary offering about the daily plight of undocumented workers in the United States” (Library Journal).

Undocumented: A Worker’s Fight is the story of immigrant workers who have come to the United States without papers. Every day, these men and women join the work force and contribute positively to society. The story is told via the ancient Mixtec codex, accordion-fold format.

Juan grew up in Mexico working in the fields to help provide for his family. Struggling for money, Juan crosses over into the United States and becomes an undocumented worker, living in a poor neighborhood, working hard to survive. Though he is able to get a job as a busboy at a restaurant, he is severely undercompensated—he receives less than half of the minimum wage! Risking his boss reporting him to the authorities for not having proper resident papers, Juan risks everything and stands up for himself and the rest of the community.

“Multiple Pura Belpré Medal and Honor-awarded Tonatiuh channels his interest in the Mixtec codex format to create a superb modern odyssey, stupendously illustrated in his signature contemporary adaptation of Pre-Columbian art forms, presented on accordion pages in a handsome slip-box.” —Booklist (Starred Review)

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781419728549
Publisher:	Abrams ComicArts
Publication date:	08/07/2018
Pages:	26
Product dimensions:	6.80(w) x 11.20(h) x 0.50(d)
Age Range:	14 - 18 Years

About the Author

Duncan Tonatiuh (toh-nah-tee-YOU) is an award-winning author-illustrator. He is both Mexican and American. He grew up in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, and graduated from Parsons School of Design and Eugene Lang College in New York City. His artwork is inspired by pre-Columbian art. His aim is to create images and stories that honor the past but are relevant to today’s people, especially children. His books include A Land of Books, Feathered Serpent and the Five Suns, and Separate Is Never Equal. He currently lives in San Miguel with his family but travels in the United States often.

Editorial Reviews

08/20/2018
Tonatiuh’s lean and elegant fable plots a memorable map of one man’s immigration experience. Laid out in an accordion-fold format, Tonatiuh’s slim but big-hearted graphic novella is narrated by Juan, a Mixteco-speaking man who crossed from Mexico to America while a teenager. Since then, he has worked with “no papers,” underpaid and unknown (“You don’t know our names but you’ve seen us”), laboring seven days a week and living in miserable poverty. While the experience of undocumented workers in America is most often told via hard-hitting, dry reportage with occasional attempts at melodrama, this comic is both inventive in form and (darkly) humorous. The plot is a staunch, if short, ode to the power of collective labor, as Juan is recruited to and ultimately leads the fight for better wages and visibility for immigrant workers of many different nationalities. The direct and brief narrative reveals Tonatiuh’s background as a picture book creator, with pages formatted much like a child’s read-aloud, but the earth-tone coloring and use of flattened perspectives and long scrolling arcs of action evoke ancient Mixteco codices. While speaking to the current political climate, Tonatiuh’s work is also a timeless reminder of the dignity inherent to labor and the laborer. This is the graphic novella reconfigured as a call to action. (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly

Undocumented... is an all-too-real discussion about fair pay and the hostility U.S. citizens often display toward undocumented immigrants."

Shelf Awareness

STARRED REVIEW: “Multiple Pura Belpré Medal and Honor- awarded Tonatiuh (Diego Rivera, 2011) channels his interest in the Mixtec codex format to create a superb modern odyssey, stupendously illustrated in his signature contemporary adaptation of Pre-Columbian art forms, presented on accordion pages in a handsome slip-box.

Booklist

Remarkable…The artwork is deliberately evocative of Mesoamerican logography, with figures and perspectives that feel at once bizarre and totally familiar.

Vulture

From the beginning, the format of this book shows its uniqueness with the codex form used by Mixteco.

The News & Observer

With its explicit political messages, this book is unique in the picture book canon.

NBC online

STARRED REVIEW: “Multiple Pura Belpré Medal and Honor- awarded Tonatiuh (Diego Rivera, 2011) channels his interest in the Mixtec codex format to create a superb modern odyssey, stupendously illustrated in his signature contemporary adaptation of Pre-Columbian art forms, presented on accordion pages in a handsome slip-box.”—Booklist

“Remarkable…The artwork is deliberately evocative of Mesoamerican logography, with figures and perspectives that feel at once bizarre and totally familiar.”—Vulture

“By focusing on the narrative of one immigrant worker, Tonatiuh breaks the mammoth issues of immigration and workers rights into an easy-to-swallow bite, allowing the reader to easily engage with an often intimidating topic. The personal is again political. Highly recommended.”—Kirkus Reviews

“Undocumented... is an all-too-real discussion about fair pay and the hostility U.S. citizens often display toward undocumented immigrants."—Shelf Awareness

"…a gorgeous, timely, and necessary offering about the daily plight of undocumented workers in the United States.”—Library Journal

“With its explicit political messages, this book is unique in the picture book canon.”—NBC online

“From the beginning, the format of this book shows its uniqueness with the codex form used by Mixteco.”—The News & Observer

From the Publisher

STARRED REVIEW: “Multiple Pura Belpré Medal and Honor- awarded Tonatiuh (Diego Rivera, 2011) channels his interest in the Mixtec codex format to create a superb modern odyssey, stupendously illustrated in his signature contemporary adaptation of Pre-Columbian art forms, presented on accordion pages in a handsome slip-box.

Booklist

★ 09/01/2018
The Pura Belpré winner tries his hand at a tale for adults and crafts a gorgeous, timely, and necessary offering about the daily plight of undocumented workers in the United States. Juan grew up in Mexico working in the fields but crosses the border before his 18th birthday with the help of his uncle. He's hired as a busboy at a restaurant where he eventually meets his wife, but he is severely underpaid and works long hours, seven days a week. Though he risks losing his job and being deported right before his wife gives birth to their first child, he joins his fellow undocumented workers in fighting for fair wages and conditions. The matter-of-fact, accessible narrative is sprinkled with Spanish and Spanglish, highlighting the obstacles undocumented immigrants face and their important contributions to our country's economy. The story is told via the ancient Mixtec codex—accordion-fold—format. Through striking mixed-media illustrations, Tonatiuh depicts Juan's exploitative white employer as a large skeleton, giving the tale a mythic but timeless feel. A thoughtful author's note discusses Tonatiuh's inspiration and includes bibliographic information, making this a good start for research or curricular tie-ins. And for libraries that might shy away from the accordion format, the volume comes in an elegant slipcase for easy shelving. VERDICT A relevant and important title for all libraries.—Shelley M. Diaz, School Library Journal

School Library Journal

2018-08-20

Author and illustrator Tonatiuh (Danza!, 2017, etc.) turns the light of his distinctive style on the plight of undocumented workers.

While the origins of undocumented workers are diverse, this story focuses primarily on the experiences of Juan, a Mixteco immigrant from Mexico. When Juan's father passes away, he heads north in hopes of finding work and housing through his uncle who already lives in the United States, making the treacherous journey with the help of a coyote. Juan ultimately finds a job working for a restaurant, where he meets his wife and a new friend from China who helps connect him to a center for workers rights. Through the center he becomes an advocate not only for himself, but other Mixteco immigrants and, indeed, immigrants from around the world, both documented and undocumented. Tonatiuh's illustrations, inspired by the styles of native Mesoamericans, are bound in a folded codex which also harkens to the author's and protagonist's Indigenous Mexican roots and is reminiscent of Jose Manuel Mateo's Migrant (2014). By focusing on the narrative of one immigrant worker, Tonatiuh breaks the mammoth issues of immigration and workers rights into an easy-to-swallow bite, allowing the reader to easily engage with an often intimidating topic. The personal is again political.

Highly recommended. (Graphic novel. 8-14)

Kirkus Reviews

Tim Andrés Pabon narrates this realistic fictional account of Juan, an undocumented worker. Pabon delivers this first-person narrative in a conversational tone, his accented English suggesting Juan's Mixteco background. With an earnest and eager voice, Juan seeks employment to help his family. In the background, listeners hear the sounds of dishwashers, food deliverers, and flower sellers. Juan finds restaurant work and meets a Chinese waitress who introduces him to a group of workers united in their struggle for fair wages and decent working conditions. Music and sound effects help set the mood of family life, meetings, and protests. Regardless of one's political persuasion, this story is valuable for its introduction to an American subculture that many Americans may not know or understand. L.T. © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine

DECEMBER 2018 - AudioFile