New Tucson venture publishes books for Indigenous children

“I didn’t learn to speak English until kindergarten,” he recalls. “My grandparents performed healing ceremonies and cleansing ceremonies as medicine men. I remember the ‘p:it’ ceremonies to bless new babies, the wine ceremony when we started to harvest fruit from the saguaro, the ‘piasts,’ where the whole village would come together at the village Feast House to celebrate special occasions.”

Those days are almost gone now, but Cázares is working hard to make sure they aren’t forgotten.

Together with Books for Classrooms, a nonprofit based in Green Valley, he has launched Desert Ink Press — a new publishing enterprise that will produce quality books for Indigenous children.

The first two Desert Ink books, “Lessons from Hu’ul Ke’ll” and “A Day With Hu’ul” — which were co-authored by Cázares and his wife Kerrie Ann — were released in September.

Five more books are coming soon, and Cázares hopes Desert Ink will soon be hearing from other Native American authors with their own stories to tell.

“If we want children to read, it’s important that they see themselves in their books, and hardly any children’s books have featured our Indigenous kids here in Arizona,” Cázares said. “We’re trying to change that.”

Desert Ink is a unique partnership headed by Books for Classroom, which buys and then donates books to Title I schools here, and Orca Books — Canada’s largest publisher of books for kids.

Books for Classrooms will seek grants and other donations to fund each new project. Cázares will make editorial decisions as publisher of Desert Ink, and Orca will help with production and distribution.

At least half of all books published will be gifted to grade schools on the reservation and other Native American programs across Pima County.

The concept first began taking shape two years ago, when Books for Classrooms was approached by a representative from Freeport McMoRan’s community investment program.

“The first time I talked to her, she asked what I thought about reprinting Husi and Kerrie Ann’s two books,” said Linda Laird, director of Books for Classrooms. “They had self-published ‘Lessons from Hu’ul Ke’ll’ and ‘A Day With Hu’ul’ 10 to 12 years earlier, but the books were out of print. I told her we’d love to do that. I didn’t know how we could do it, but I knew we’d love to.”

Laird quickly enlisted the two authors, who waived their copyright fees and helped write four small grant requests that led to the creation of Desert Ink Press — and the delivery of 10,000 new books in September.

“The reservation has always had a special place in our hearts,” Laird said. “It’s as big as the state of Connecticut, but there is no place to check out a book. There is no place to buy a book. It’s one of the biggest book deserts in the whole country.”

Cázares has good reason to smile at the prospect of seeing so many titles in the hands of so many children.

“Twenty years ago, I had the idea of producing O’odham-language coloring books to help kids on the reservation feel connected to their roots,” he said. “I took my credit card to Kinko’s and printed off 2,000 copies. They were gone before I knew it, and I thought even then there must be a better way.”

Hoping to find one, he and Kerrie Ann co-authored and self-published “Lessons From Hu’ll Ke’ll,” a grade-school story about a young O’odham boy who spent the day with his grandfather. The text is written in English, with O’odham-language words and descriptions peppered throughout.

“We liked it and it did pretty well, but my sisters started to ask when I was going to write about them,” Cázares said.

His sisters, Elisa and Gabby Cázares, the Pima County recorder, were apparently pretty persuasive. “A Day With Hu’ll,” released two years later, is the story of a young O’odham girl and the day she spent with her grandmother.

Self-publishing is a lot of work for people with jobs and children, and Cázares thought he’d left the book business — or the “o’ohana” business — behind.

Now, a man who spends his days working as a speech pathologist with Bayada Home Health spends his nights and weekends worrying about press runs and new tariffs.

Another added complication: the government shutdown has closed the Library of Congress, meaning it is now impossible to obtain needed ISBN numbers for new books.

“There’s a lot of live-and-learn going on,” Cázares confessed.

Laird is hoping the new enterprise will become a community-wide project, and says there are a variety of ways to help. Books may be purchased online at desertinkpress.com.

“If someone would like to sponsor a new book or make a donation,” Laird said, “we’d love to speak with them. And if you’re an Indigenous author with a story to tell, we’d like to hear from you, too.”

Inquiries can be sent to dip@booksforclassrooms.org.

Footnotes

• Former University of Arizona President John Schaefer will discuss his love of art, science and nature this Wednesday evening, Nov. 12, at Tumamoc Hill. The program is being co-sponsored by UA Press, which published Schaefer’s new memoir, “A Chance to Make a Difference.” It will begin at 6 p.m. in the boathouse at the base of Tumamoc Hill. To learn more, visit uapress.arizona.edu/events.
• “Solito” by Tucson author Javier Zamora will be the featured book at the next Tuesday Night Book Club the evening of Nov. 18. Dora Rodriguez and Rev. John Fife will be on hand to share their own immigration experiences. The program will begin at 7 at Crooked Tooth Brewing Co.
• Poets Vievee Francis and Matthew Olzmann will read from their latest collections Thursday night, Nov. 20, beginning at 7 at the UA Poetry Center. To learn more, visit poetry.arizona.edu/events.
• Stacks Book Club in Oro Valley will host two in-person author events on Saturday, Nov. 22. Kim Bussing will be in the store to launch her middle-grade novel, “Rapunzel and the Sea Witch,” at 3:30 p.m. Jill Beissel will discuss her new novel, “Glitter and Gold,” at 7:30 p.m. Both events are free, but reservations are required. To learn more, visit stacksbookclub.com/events.