Events › TFOB Panel: Once Upon a Cuento

Bring the whole family to a festival session with an incredible group of picture book cuentistas. These authors will share vibrant, poetic, and meaningful multigenerational stories that celebrate heritage, tradition, and amor for familia con mucho corazón.

Authors: María Dolores Águila, Paloma Angelina Lopez, Yuyi Morales, Roni Capin Rivera-Ashford

Moderator: Azucena Bravo

There will be an opportunity to get books signed by authors after the panel.

For more information, visit Tucson Festival of Books 2026.

María Dolores Águila is a Chicana poet and author writing about resistance and resilience. Her award-winning picture book "Barrio Rising" was featured by NPR, Kirkus, and Publishers Weekly. It also won the John and Patricia Beatty Award. "Menudo Sunday" earned starred reviews and praise from The Washington Post. Her novel in verse, "A Sea of Lemon Trees," was longlisted for the National Book Award and a Publisher's Weekly Best Book of 2025.

Paloma Angelina Lopez is a mother, student, and creative writer living in Salina, Oklahoma. She grew up partly in New Mexico and California. She is a dual citizen of the United States and Mexico. "Popo the Xolo" was written during a period of loss and change in Lopez’s life. The writing allowed her to connect with her culture, traditions, and her own Xolo-mix, Huehue. This helped her to create "Popo the Xolo," which is her debut children’s book.

Yuyi Morales was born in Xalapa, Mexico, the city of flowers and springs. After migrating to the United States in 1994, she found comfort in public libraries, where she read children’s books with her son and rediscovered her love of storytelling and art. She is now the award-winning author and illustrator of many acclaimed books, including “Dreamers,” “Viva Frida!,” "Bright Star," and her most recent title, “Little Rebels.” A seven-time winner of the Pura Belpré Medal, she continues to create stories that celebrate Latinx culture and identity.

Roni Capin Rivera-Ashford grew up on the Arizona-Mexico border, in Nogales, AZ where she embraced the languages, cultures and people from infancy. A lifelong bilingual educator, Roni began teaching at 21 yrs. of age after graduating from college, in 3 years with distinction. She now shares the gems of growing up in a multilingual, multicultural environment through her stories.