Hello. My name is Lulu Delacre, and I would like to share with you a little bit of “The Storyteller’s Candle/La velita de los cuentos.
“That evening, the family sat down to eat together. ‘Bendito,’ Mamá Nanita said with a sigh. ‘How I miss the soft breeze of December nights on our little island.’ ‘Ahh,’ said Tío Pedro, Santiago’s father. ‘I miss the delicious pasteles and the smell of roasting pork everywhere. I remember the parrandas and aguinaldos, when family and neighbors came to visit, sing, dance, and eat!” said Titi Maria, Santiago’s mother, closing her eyes and humming.”
”’El Dia de los Reyes, Three Kings’ Day, was the best day of the year,’ Santiago chimed in. ‘Do the kings travel this far?’ asked Hildamar. ‘Will they come this year?’”
So I want to share with you now how, in illustrating this book, I extended the text by adding these bits of newspaper collaged that you see over the book. And the newspaper comes from an issue of The New York Times, of the sixth of January of 1930.
That’s why you see this yellowish color. And I found this wonderful article that talks about the tradition of Three Kings’ Day in the island of Puerto Rico.
It says, “According to a beautiful tradition here, it has been customary for centuries for children to place little baskets or boxes filled with greens in suitable places in their homes or out, and put into them messages to the wise men from the East, suggesting what toys they want on the morning of Kings’ Day.” And that’s a tradition very cherished in Puerto Rico, and in Latin America. Thank you.