Illustration in Latin American Children’s Literature

Latin American illustration has become vitally important as a holistic image of the construction of the cultural imaginary of Latin America in globalisation, thanks to the initiatives of some local writers and illustrators who contribute with their stories rooted in a non-colonial past, in a memory of indigenous peoples, Afro-decendencies, mixed races and all those socio-cultural forms that build an idiosyncratic Latin Americanness. The analysis will first focus on the communicative, aesthetic and epistemological nature of illustration, in order to demonstrate its graphic importance. We will begin by approaching the subject with literary and graphic authors of the past and present, in order to reflect on the importance of joint progress between writers and illustrators in the construction or reconstruction of cultural memory and Latin American identity, driven by children’s literature.