Guadalupe V. Lopez has high goals for her stories. My mission is to promote harmony across cultures. I write to children in Spanish and in English, and I speak to them as I would my own children, sort of like parables, she said.





Lopez’s journey into language and writing began in the 1960s. She didn’t speak English. I understood more than I dared to say. I was a keen observer, she admits. Lopez had a best friend whose mother was an English teacher. She taught her English with a Southern accent since they were from Alabama. I remember being stumped by the words union and onion, and she said, ‘Look here, baby. Look at my mouth.’ That was the beginning of my fascination with linguistics.





That interest was further nurtured by her English teacher, Mr. Dalton. He encouraged her to write at all times, and she expressed herself best with paper and pen, He gave me a little notebook to carry around and note observations and drawings. He even sent one of my poems to be published, and he wrote a poem for me when I turned 12. I can still see the curve of his penmanship and the color of the ink. Mr. Dalton taught me to love words and the smell of a book when it’s first opened.