San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
Anti-bullying story seeks to empower youths
Despite anti-bullying legislation and programs focused on prevention and raising awareness, such as Stomp out Bullying’s World Bullying Prevention Month each October, bullies will always exist. That’s why more must be done to transform our culture.
Introducing, “How Not to Get Bullied: Every Kid Should Feel Safe at School,” a new youth graphic novel, beautifully written and illustrated by Debora Kuetzpal Vasquez, a local artist and associate professor and visual arts program head at Our Lady of the Lake University.
In her debut children’s book, Kuetzpal Vasquez introduces Diamantina, aka Diamond, a Mexican American child who not only faces their bullies, but empowers others to do the same.
Diamantina, who is 8, could one day be transgender or gender fluid, but it is never disclosed. While it is not the focus, they sports masculine clothing and a short hairstyle — “She looks like a little dude!” Diamantina’s disapproving dad says of their “stupid haircut.” Like each diverse character in the book, Diamantina is unique. Their favorite food is tacos and they love to read about their cultura, or culture. Their favorite music? Polkitas, cumbias, R&B and reggae.
In developing the theme of empowerment through overcoming bullying in and out of school, Diamantina rallies their primito, or cousin, best friend Itzel, and other youths who have been bullied. Together, they write a list of “10 ways to feel more safe at school.”
The vivid imagery and words written in both English, Spanish and Nahuatl are smoothly translated. Beyond sprinkling the words and images for sabor, or flavor, the combination embraces Mexican American and Indigenous cultures.
The story seeks to inspire and empower youths who may be feeling unsafe due to bullying by peers and, sometimes, parents. Like so many of us, Kuetzpal Vasquez has vivid memories of classmates getting treated as lesser humans because of their circumstances or identity.
Kuetzpal Vasquez said she was also inspired by “The Trials of Gabriel Fernandez,” a docuseries on Netflix about an 8-year-old boy’s brutal 2013
torture and murder in Palmdale, Calif., by his mother and her boyfriend, who sometimes blamed their actions on their belief that Fernandez was gay.
Priced at $9.99, the book is available for purchase on Amazon. For one year, half of the book proceeds will be donated to the San Antonio-based P.E.A.C.E. Initiative to fund a youth preventative arts program.
Anita Exilda Cisneros, a Spanish teacher at Bonham Academy in San Antonio, previewed a copy of the book and recently shared it with about 30 eighth
graders.
Diamantina’s story is one we can all identify with, Cisneros said. “As a teacher and a mother I asked myself, ‘Am I doing enough to protect my daughters and my students from bullies? How can I teach them to become allies that speak up? How can I help? More than a story, it asks us to take action,’ ” she wrote.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or CDC, estimates about 1 in 5 high school students reported being bullied on school property and more than 1 in 6 high school students reported being bullied electronically in the last year.
Some get bullied more than others: Nearly 40 percent of high school students who identify as lesbian, gay, or bisexual, and about 33 percent of those who were not sure of their identity, experienced bullying at school or electronically in the last year, compared with 22 percent of heterosexual high school students, according to the CDC.
In their reflections, thoughtfully written in both English and Spanish, Cisneros’ students kept it real. One student wrote, “bullying is a very serious thing and I wouldn’t wish it on anyone.” Another wrote that the book showed how people are different, “in a good way.”
Remarkably, a student reflected: “I loved the amount of representation there was because there’s rarely any representation of LGBTQ people in media. I also love how no one seemed generic, because this world is far from it.”
Indeed, our world will be a better place when diverse young people — with their unique backgrounds and identities — are more empowered to demand that their peers and society treat them with dignity, just as this book teaches.