Pictured: The temple of Quetzalcoatl at Teotihuacan, Mexico. Note: the book is set in the Yucatan Peninsula, not Central Mexico although Quetzalcoatl is a deity with presence across Mesoamerica under various names.
It is no secret that we are huge fans of David Bowles and that our readers are as well. The first book in the Tales of the Feathered Serpent: Rise of the Halfling King/El Acenso del Rey Enano is a favorite amongst our third and fourth grade crowd so we were SUPER excited to get early access to Book #2 in the Tales of the Feathered Serpent series. Even better: early access came with an opportunity to interview author David Bowles! {Insert squealing here-- sounds like the road to happiness for this Anthropology/Latin American Studies/Book nerd!}
We will share the full interview below but we will answer critical questions first: YES. The book is available for purchase! The Hero Twins and the Magic of Song will also be available in Spanish in April 2025. Shop our complete collection of David Bowles titles on our website.
You are such a prolific writer, reaching humans across the life span through your picture books, graphic novels, poetry and fiction. What inspired you to write for such a diverse set of audiences?
In my late teens and early twenties, I imagined myself becoming “the Chicano Ernest Hemingway.” But then I became a middle-school English teacher. Working with twelve- and thirteen-year-olds in my South Texas community who were struggling to connect with the state-adopted textbook made me dip back into the folk tales and legends I had heard from family members like my grandmother Marie Garza and my uncle Joe Casas. To center my students’ experiences and lives, I retold those often spooky fables as short stories. They loved them! It was then that I realized that in addition to adults, I wanted to write for kids. Everyone deserves to have access to books that reflect the real world, in which Mexican Americans play a vital role in US society. So I share that reality with all ages.
A through-line in your writing are themes of life in the borderlands and Mesoamerican worldviews. What piqued your interest in Mesoamerican culture and language?
As the first in my family to go to college, I learned in my classes that Mexican American culture in South Texas was deeply rooted in Mexico, and Mexican culture was partly woven from pre-Spanish Invasion Mesoamerican ways of being. I was saddened that I hadn’t been exposed to the sacred stories and language of those Native beliefs and traditions, but I discovered strands of them interwoven in my community’s practices and vocabulary. So I began digging deeper to understand those connections better. And now I share what I have learned as broadly as I can.
If your interest in these cultures began at an early age, what role, if any, did your learning play in your identity development?
Unfortunately, by the time my grandparents (Manuel and Marie) were in school, both Mexico and the US had relegated Indigenous Mexican history and culture to just a footnote in their learning, so there was no express understanding or memory of our family’s partly Indigenous origins. But I would later learn that many of the unique stories we told, food we ate, and words we used came from the Nahuatl spoken by Tlaxcaltecah families who helped settle the area that we call home some 250 years ago. And those unique features, though I didn’t know them as Indigenous when young, did indeed shape my identity.
The Hero Twins and the Magic of Song is a retelling of Maya texts. How much time did you invest in researching and interpreting historical records in preparation for your own work?
Keep in mind that this graphic novel is a partial adaptation of the Hero Twins chapter from my book Feathered Serpent, Dark Heart of Sky: Myths of Mexico, which in turn was a fresh translation of mine of the relevant sections of the Maya epic the Popol Vuh. By the time I worked with the original K’iche’ Mayan text, I had been studying Classical Nahuatl and several varieties of Mayan for a decade. I had also traveled widely throughout Southern Mexico to visit archeological sites and to spend time with modern Maya people. So there are a couple of decades of learning behind The Hero Twins and the Magic of Song.
What do you hope young readers will take away from The Hero Twins or Rise of the Halfling King?
At the most basic level, to quote my collaborator and daughter Charlene, “Maya legends are cool.” That, of course, is part of the bigger goal—to help an English-speaking readership learn about and appreciate the stories and lives of Indigenous people across the Americas (both those living now and the ancestors that we Mestizo folk share with them). Not just for curiosity’s sake, but because there are lessons about how to be better human beings embedded in those tales.
Books #3 & #4 in this series are already in the works. What can your readers expect in the next two installments?
We will wrap up the main adventures of the Hero Twins in book 3, sending them to the Underworld to rescue their father and restore balance to the cosmos. Then we’ll turn to what is now Michoacán, Mexico, and retell a lovely legend of the Purépecha people about the very important Lake Pátzcuaro in book 4.
Many of our readers are seeking bilingual and Spanish texts for their homes and classrooms. Many of your books are available in both languages. Do you consider language access within your writing and professional practice?
Yes, absolutely. Having grown up bilingual and having raised bilingual children, I have a personal preference for seeing my books in both Spanish and English. Beyond that, however, I also see a great need for bilingual titles throughout the Latine community. If we are going to have family conversations about important texts, we need for all our relatives to have access to them in the right vernacular.
About the book:
In this graphic novel retelling of an Indigenous Mexican tale, demigod twins must use their magic of song to rescue their father and uncle from the perilous Land of the Dead. A supreme middle-grade adventure!
In the age when Maya demigods lived among us, two carefree brothers, One Hunahpu and Seven Hunahpu, are foolishly lured to Xibalba, the Land of the Dead, to play a game. Unfortunately, it was a one-way trip. Unable to return to the sea-ringed world above, One Hunahpu's firstborn sons must be raised by their grandmother.
Yet all hope is not lost. Down in Xibalba, One Hunahpu meets the rebellious Lady Blood, and their love leads to another set of twin sons, destined to save their father and uncle and restore balance to the cosmos. But won't be easy! Lady Blood is shunned in the world above, and the twins are taunted by their half-brothers' cruel pranks. If they choose to use a little trickster magic, maybe... just maybe... they might succeed.
Adapted from author David Bowles's retellings and translations of essential pre-Columbian texts like the Popol Vuh, the Tales of the Feathered Serpent series bring Indigenous Mesoamerican stories alive for young readers!
About the Author & Illustrator
David Bowles is a Mexican American author and translator from South Texas, where he teaches literature and Nahuatl at the University of Texas Río Grande Valley. Among his thirty published books are the multiple-award-winning They Call Me Güero, as well as the series Garza Twins, 13th Street, and Clockwork Curandera. He is the current vice president of the Texas Institute of Letters.
Charlene Bowles is a Mexican American comic artist and illustrator from South Texas. In addition to the Tales of the Feathered Serpent series, she has illustrated several readers for educational programs and designed the covers of multiple books, including the Garza Twins series. She is presently writing her first children's book and graphic novel.
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