Have you been denied reading a book because it has content from the LGBT+ community? Believe it or not, there is still censorship in the United States.
For many years, the community fought not only for respect for its rightsalso wanted to show the world how complicated it was, through stories, for many to be free and have the same opportunities as others.
Although in the middle of 2024, not only are people fighting to read books by writers like Margaret Atwood or Leo Tolstoy and in California that’s impossible.
“A Day with Dad and Dada”
This is a children’s book that helps not only understand what a girl’s day is like with her Two potatoes.
While one wants Leonora to do things in order, another makes them fun, with extraordinary worlds and incredible characters.
And together with his dog Ofelia, he seeks adventure; Sometimes his garden turns into a gigantic sea or he dreams about octopuses, but the best thing is that he does everything with his two parents and his dog.
Censorship still exists
The nerves are always there, present when José Ignacio Valenzuela “El Chascas” publishes a book, but now has mixed emotions because “my book is censored in Florida.”
“I have a mixture of happiness and indignation at the same time, and neither of them has yet won. It makes me happy that the book is in Mexico, Chile and part of Latin America, but, on the other hand, knowing that, in my house, in the state where I live, it is censored and I find it terrifying,” he explained.
What scares José Ignacio the most is that “there are places, in the world, where people still censor books for their content and its theme, that disturbs me a lot.”
Although in the United States it is recognized as the country “of freedoms”, in Florida it is not so much. The issue here is that both José Valenzuela and his partner have had to fight, but not only against the laws, but also against life itself.
This reminds us that in those years, when they met, there was no law of equality marriage and less homoparental adoption or awareness of diversity.
“We had to fight from getting medical insurance to buying a house. “We know that the world is quite hostile for people like us, families like ours.”
In these years they have learned to fight, shout and not stay silent. Even protesting or addressing Senators or presidents, when the time has come, so it is not new for “El chascas” to face situations of injustice or lack of freedom.
Even so, he hopes that this is not customary and that he does not even have to get used to this situation of inequality and the lack of freedoms.
“Every time there is a lack of freedoms I get outraged, I scream and it hurts me like the first time. The thing is, at this point in my life, I already know how to do it. Part of my superpowers, one of the superpowers is literature.”
José Ignacio knows that he can reach many people with his literature and even “illuminate” areas that are hidden for others, “there are people who don’t really know what the life of a person is.” homoparental family.”
Many are not interested, for others it is aberrant and it is those people who would like to reach with this book and dismantle prejudices.
With this book José Ignacio seeks to show what really happens with homoparental families and that is to show that Leonora feels like the most loved girl in the world, “which I believe is how every child should go to sleep at night and that for me is the definition of family.”
“That cliché of the family that they have tried to impose on us all our lives, at this point, is almost a minority. So, why shouldn’t I be able to tell about these other families?
What she wants is for the children to have fun, learn and laugh with the adventures of this girl and her parents.
“Boys and girls from homoparental families, for the first time, will be able to recognize themselves in a text that looks like them and that is an obligation of literature, to offer a mirror so that others can look at themselves and say; There is a boy or girl similar to me, I am not alone in the world”, he concludes.
