Reading Latinx and LGBTQ+ Perspectives: Maya Christina Gonzalez and Equity Minded Models at Play

Abstract

Through an equity-minded model, this essay addresses the work of Maya Christina Gonzalez and the new visions of gender she offers in children’s literature with My Colors, My World (2007). This essay frames the presence of Chicana/Latina feminist non-conforming perspectives on gender as chillante aesthetics and analyzes Gonzalez’s advancement of Latinx and LGBTQ+ standpoints in the following texts Call Me Tree/Llámale árbol (2014), I Am Free to Be Me: Gender Now Activity Book (2011) and Claiming Face: Self-empowerment Through Self-Portraiture: An Educator's Guide to Building the Powerful Link between Creativity and a Sense of Self (2010).