Pepito Has a Doll / Pepito Tiene una Muneca tells the story of a young boy and his doll Lola. This new children’s book covers Pepito navigating his life among people that sometimes don’t understand his love for a doll.
Openly gay author Jesus Canchola Sanchez has written since the early age of seven for his Chicago elementary school newspaper, but this is first children’s book.
Bittersweet Waters had him traveling to screenings around the world. He talked about his projects over coffee recently in Chicago.
JCS: (Jesus Canchola Sanchez) I did. I was born and raised here on the North Side of Chicago. My family is Mexican, so I went to Mexico quite a bit over the years, which is why the book is bilingual. I grew up speaking both languages at home. I thought it was important to represent that in this children’s story because there are so many families that are multilingual.