Angela Dominguez
Angela Dominguez at a book reading in 2022
Born	1982 Mexico City, Mexico
Occupation	Artist, illustrator
Language	English, Spanish
Nationality	American
Website
https://www.angeladominguezbooks.com

Angela Dominguez (b. 1982) is an American children’s book author and illustrator. Her books use a diverse mix of hispanic and latino characters. She is author of the Stella Díaz series and worked with Sonia Sotomayor on the book Just Help! How to Build a Better World in 2016.^[1]

Early life and education

Angela Dominguez was born in Mexico City in 1982. She recalls very little of her time there as she moved to North Texas in 1984. Growing up in Texas, Dominguez described her childhood self as a "shy little girl" who was "caught between two worlds, two languages"^[2] (Mexican heritage and American culture). Her American English teachers told Dominguez it would be easier if she only learned English, rather than learn two languages at the same time. Speaking only English, Dominguez struggled to communicate with her only Spanish speaking family. She learned she was able to communicate through her writing and drawings, always loving to draw on everything as a child. She decided she wanted to learn Spanish so she took Spanish classes and is now bilingual.

Dominguez attended Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) on a scholarship and graduated with a BFA in illustration. She then gained an MFA in illustration at the Academy of Art University. She began teaching children’s book illustration there two years later.^[3]

Career

In her time at SCAD, she wrote Mary Had a Little Llama, her own cultural take on the folk story Mary Had a Little Lamb which received the Pura Belpré Award in 2014.^[4] In a 2017 TedTalk by Dominguez, she explains that while this book may seem like a foreign world to the main American children audience, it provides minority groups within the chicanx realm the opportunity to see a familiar latinx world depicted, something that is not often seen in American children's books. Writing Mary Had a Little Llama sparked Dominguez’s career in writing and illustrating children’s books. She has continued to illustrate and write children’s books, such as the Stella Diaz Series which revolves around a character named Stella whose challenges Dominguez personally identified with in her childhood.

She has worked with authors such as Marsha Diane Arnold and Sonia Sotomayor to represent latino/hispanic characters and their overall culture with the intent of diversity and inclusivity in American children's books. In her collaboration with Sonia Sotomayor on their book titled Just Help, Dominguez's illustrations and Sotomayor's authoring received the Pura Belpré Award in 2016.

Dominguez is currently a professor at the Academy of Art University. She is a member of Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators and PEN America.^[5]

Awards and honours

• Mary had a Little Llama was a 2014 ALA Notable Children’s Book, won the 2014 Pura Belpré Illustration Honor, was a Bank Street College Best Children’s Books of the Year and a Junior Library Guild Selection

• Marta Big and Small was a 2016 School Library Journal Top Latinx Book, a 2017 CCBC Choices and a 2017-2018 Read on, Wisconsin! selection

• Mango, Abuela and Me won the 2016 Pura Belpré Author Honor Book, the 2016 Pura Belpré Illustration Honor Book, it was a Junior Library Guild Selection and a 2016 ALSC Notable Book

• Stella Díaz Has Something To Say was a New York Public Library pick for Best Books for Kids 2018,^[6] a Chicago Public Library Best Fiction for Younger Readers of 2018,^[7] a Sid Fleischman Award winner^[8] and an American Library Association Notable book for 2019.^[9]

• Sing, Don't Cry was Virginia Reader’s Choice 2019-2020

References

Further reading

• Dominguez, Angela. “Fixing the Future: Diversity Shouldn’t Need Its Own Shelf.” Angela Dominguez: Fixing the Future: Diversity Shouldn’t Need Its Own Shelf | TED Talk, TED Conferences, Nov. 2017, www.ted.com/talks/angela_dominguez_fixing_the_future_diversity_shouldn_t_need_its_own_shelf
• Murphy, Patricia J. “Q & A with Angela Dominguez.” PublishersWeekly.Com, Publishers Weekly, 21 Dec. 2020, www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/childrens/childrens-authors/article/85181-q-a-with-angela-https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/childrens/childrens-authors/article/85181-q-a-with-angela-dominguez.html
• Gribble, Julie. “Storymakers: Angela Dominguez.” KidLit TV, New York Media Works, 5 May 2020, www.kidlit.tv/2016/01/storymakers-angela-dominguez/