The Tummy Tales Series
Twenty years ago with a grant from the Colorado Council of the Arts, Elizabeth Fajardo a Jeffco PTA mother of seven and Carl Ruby the media specialist for Thomson Elementary in Arvada, CO, published their first children's book, Holy Mole Guacamole & Other Tummy Tales. The multi-cultural stories in the book highlighted traditional family food tales complete with recipes and a lot of humor. The goal at that time said Fajardo was to “create a book that all children from many different cultural backgrounds could relate to. Family recipes proved to be great commonground.” Ruby and Fajardo gathered the stories and recipes both from their own family traditions and from residents of Denver's numerous ethnic neighborhoods. Foods featured in the book include everything from black-eyed peas and Italian pizzelles to matzo balls and Navajo tacos. Ed Winograd and illustrator Arlette Lucero complemented the team in 2002.
MSU Denver Chicana/o Studies Journey Through Our
Heritage (JTOH) students helped compile this book, and support was provided by
the Chicano Humanities Arts Council and the Colorado Folk Arts Council.