Exploring Cultural Diversity & Family Love: An Interview with Children's Book Author, Nadine Fonseca

Only a Trenza Away- A Tale of Trust and Strength, by Nadine Fonesca; Illustrated by Camila Carrossine

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 Fonesca. 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. But it was this opportunity, not only to bring some Spanish into some children who may not otherwise have that vocabulary, but then also it, just as a real-world reflection of you know, households where Spanish is the norm and to be unapologetic about it, and normalize that. These are some households that are more multi-generational, some are multicultural, some are multi-religious, some are multilingual, And so just having the opportunity to just kind of normalize like, yes, Spanish is a regular thing, and a lot of, you know, biracial homes or Latino homes.

Lizeth: If you were to write a spin-off about any of the side characters like mamá or papá, which one would you pick, and why? 

Nadine: Hmm!  It's a good question. I think it would be fun to see papá. We get a little glimpse of Papá's back story, and how he learned to be braid from his older sisters. My dad grew up in Guatemala and came here as a teenager to the States. And so I've always been very curious about what his upbringing looked like, or how it was very, very different from my own. So I think itdl be fun to explore some of those stories from his perspective and see where we can find the whimsy and the fun and the fantasy in some of those. It would be an interesting opportunity to explore a little piece of my family history through him and see what stories might come from that.

Lizeth: That’s adorable! I love that! I was curious about a prequel because we got a glimpse of papá and we didn’t really hear much about mamá, so I thought to myself, “There must be a story here.” 

Nadine: You know it's interesting. I've started to see feedback as reviews come in and people are reading the book a little bit more as it starts to hit the markets and a lot of people have a question of like, “Well, why didn’t the Mom help braid her hair?” You know the night that Xia was struggling, and papá wasn't home to take care of that for her. Many people ask, “Like why didn't she Youtube it”, or…”Why couldn't she just step in and like handle that, but it was a deliberate choice. I think maybe there were a few little missed opportunities in the text to explain that a little bit better. But my own mom, growing up, didn't braid my hair. She didn't know how, and I also think that there was respect for the fact that it was a special time for my father and me. And so, while it wasn't perhaps as eloquently laid out in this particular story, I do think that there was this element of mom that was like, “You know what, I think Xiomara can handle these big emotions. I think she's resilient. I think it's okay for her to have kind of twisty feelings for the night and to come out on top, and not just come and rescue every moment a child's struggling.” That might be, an interesting story in and of itself is her being immersed into a culture with, you know papá, that's new to her, and how she navigates that as a co-parent.

Lizeth: Are there any authors and books that you would recommend for families and kids that really enjoy your book?

Nadine:  A friend of mine and an incredible, incredible author is Joanna Ho! She has come out with a number of books over the last few years. And just it's been thrilling and wonderful to watch her accomplishments. But also her stories involve topics like self-worth and cultural empowerment. Her New York Times bestseller, Eyes That Kiss in the Corners is a story that is geared toward young Asian girls, and what typically is stigmatizing or stereotyping negatively and owning that piece of yourself and loving it for a million reasons. She also has Eyes that Speak to the Stars for young boys. But I would say she was a lot of inspiration around owning culture, owning traditions, owning and reframing stereotypes into something that's positive. She's definitely one of my favorites.

Lizeth: We're obviously big fans of yours now, and we wonder if there are any other books of yours that we should be keeping an eye out for in the future?

Nadine: Yes, so it's just barely in the works. Hopefully, around September of next year I'll have another children's picture book coming out. I guess I'll just have to keep you posted, because, as I learn more, you can learn more, but it's still in its really early stages. It will still be connected to Latinx culture. It'll be a social-emotional learning book for kids, so a nice blending of those two. There will be opportunities to get some Spanish, some culture, and also some life lessons hopefully in there somewhere. But yeah, that'll be September of next year.

Lizeth: That is so exciting! I’m excited to see what’s coming. Thank you so much for your time today. It was a pleasure meeting you and chatting about your new book, Only a Trenza Away! 

Only a Trenza Away was released on August 8th of this year. You can pick up a copy at your local bookstore, library, or online. 

Bookstore: https://www.bookpeople.com/ 

Library: https://library.austintexas.gov/ 

Online: https://bookshop.org/ 

By Lizeth Lizarraga