BILIJ: A Children's Literature Interactive Space from the Global South

Abstract

BILIJ:A Children's Literature Interactive Space from the Global South María José Dulcic (bio), Valentina Rivera (bio), and Constanza Mekis (bio) The Interactive Latin American Library for Children and Youth (hereafter BILIJ, the acronym for its Spanish name, Biblioteca Interactiva Latinoamericana Infantil y Juvenil) opened its doors for the first time on January 8, 2022, in Santiago, Chile. This space was born out of a collective dream that began four years ago in Chile, where Latin American children's literature was at the heart of the discussion. A vast and diverse territory comprising twenty countries with their own heritage and cultural richness, Latin America is often talked about as one homogenous region. Naturally, this misrepresentation makes its way into literary discussions, where distinguishing Latin American identities can become troublesome and their depictions can appear as deficient or incomplete. Luckily, writers, illustrators, and publishers of children's literature have skillfully made efforts to put at the center of their works topics that affect Latin American childhood and have offered creative means to do so, achieving aesthetically and thematically engaging books. Although it is impossible to portray—or even discuss—Latin America as one uniform, unvaried region, it is still possible to find the common threads weaving this extensive identity while giving visibility to each territory. Furthermore, the mostly white and anglophonic exposure within children's literature in the area for many decades has resulted in a lack of mirrors (using Rudine Sims Bishop's useful analogy) and a lack of openings to understand their experiences and to be seen. Needless to say, this affects not only Latin American children, but also all the minority groups outside dominant social groups. All of those experiences, feelings, cultural differences, and knowledges that were, for the most part, suppressed or ignored in children's traditional literature have made their way into a recent trend in publishing and research, where efforts are being made to stray away from ethnocentric ways to read the world through children's books. This challenge instills the urgency for a regional library that could bring together the work of creators of the region and strengthen the sense of belonging to a common culture and identity. It started with the creation of Fundación Palabra, a nonprofit reading-promotion organization aiming to reinforce the bond between young people and reading, culture, science, and art through dialogue and enjoyment with books and cultural objects from Latin America and the world. Within four years, the foundation started BILIJ—a lively space driven by interactivity and the Latin American spirit. The interactivity is fostered through engagement [End Page 69] with different expressions, allowing readers active participation in their reading. Through this interdisciplinary reading space, readers can freely and autonomously explore reading as a wider practice. BILIJ also seeks to highlight the Latin American spirit by means of catalog, artifacts, and encounters with music, art, dance, storytelling, and creative writing. To date, BILIJ has registered 776 members and 5,204 book loans within its first year of operation. Latin America: Its (In)visibility within Children's Books As challenging as it might be, our committed work in and toward BILIJ has led us to identify some commonalities in current Latin American's children's literature, topics and issues that go beyond the mythification and exotification of the territory, which for so long have resulted in reducing Latin American culture to ancestral Indigenousness. In turn, recent publications have brought attention to trends and matters concerned with what Latin America actually faces in the current time. More representation has been given to migration, relationships with the environment and nature, scarcity of resources, and local flora and fauna, and has even delved into political and social crises, present and past. In order to show a wide picture of its state of art, we deem it important to highlight some authors and illustrators, considering the positive reaction from our young readers and their families, along with their ability to portray different current issues. Intra-regional migration and commercial and cultural exchanges have shaped Latin America's characteristics for most of its history. Recent political and social crises have contributed to more significant migration waves, as displacement, labor and...