Portland State alumna Kathryn López Resto, left, and A. Isabelle Amezcua, a current PSU history graduate student, collaborated on a children's book, Soy Auténtica.
When Portland State alumna Kathryn López Resto moved from Puerto Rico to Oregon as a young girl, she was teased by classmates for being different. Those experiences — and the affirmations from her parents that helped lift her up — inspired her to write Soy Auténtica, a children's book about courage, cultural identity and self-love. She partnered with artist A. Isabelle Amezcua, a current PSU history graduate student, to bring the story to life.
The book follows Isabela, a young girl who learns to embrace her authentic self through the power of affirmations. López Resto set out to give children the words and courage she once needed herself.
"Affirmations are really powerful and it's scientifically proven that what you tell yourself is who you become," she said. "I wanted kids to tell themselves that they're brave, smart and wonderful because they are no matter what other people try to tell them."
Amezcua was López Resto's first choice for illustrator, but knowing she was balancing a full graduate course load and three jobs as a high school substitute teacher, library specialist and an editorial assistant, she initially worked with another artist. When that collaboration fell through ahead of a looming launch event, she turned to Amezcua with a near-impossible ask: Could she illustrate the book in just one month?
With a break from classes over the summer, Amezcua took on the challenge.
"I had full creative freedom to do whatever I want," she said. "I got to take Kathryn's words, and bounce ideas off her."
Throughout the book, Amezcua was able to create a visual storyline to supplement López Resto’s story, inspired by the kinds of details she noticed in children's books before she could read. A stuffie of a coquí frog — a national symbol of Puerto Rico — appears on each page, while Isabela's hair bow becomes more colorful and detailed as her confidence grows. Amezcua also drew from childhood photos of López Resto to shape Isabela's appearance.
"An important part of creating this story was to help normalize the idea that a little Latina girl could speak Spanish, run, read, draw, do all of the typical kid-stuff and to have kids just think, 'Wow, that is a cool kid,'" Amezcua said. "The representation exists just in having this visibility in a protagonist."
Both López Resto and Amezcua say it took them until adulthood to finally embrace their authentic selves — something they hope to make easier for the next generation with the book.
"From the moment I moved here at eight years old until now, I carried years of self-hatred, rooted in the shame I felt about my identity," López Resto said. "I was hiding a lot of the parts that made me Latina, and I wanted this book to be about self-love, being fully OK and in love with your cultural side. Don't dim who you are or where you come from. Your roots shape your voice, your purpose and your ability to create change. The world needs your uniqueness."
That belief has carried into her work beyond the book. López Resto co-founded the nonprofit Empower Youth Latinx, which uplifts Latinx youth through bilingual literacy, leadership development and culturally rooted education. She also launched LeLo Consulting, a business strategy and marketing firm. A conflict resolution major, López Resto says her coursework and capstone experience gave her the tools to build community and launch grassroots initiatives.
"It was an eye-opening experience that deepened my understanding of global challenges and the responsibility we carry as both individuals and leaders," she said. "It reinforced that each of us has the power to make a meaningful difference."
For Amezcua, now in her second year of PSU's history graduate program, her art and academics are closely connected. Serving as an editorial assistant for the PSU-housed journal Women and Social Movements in the United States since 1600, she has been able to decorate the office with her own artwork as well as illustrate the cover art for the spring issue. With support from López Resto, she also launched an art website, with print sales helping fund her education.
Amezcua's research focuses on the troubling history of forced sterilization and eugenics. She plans to pursue a Ph.D. in medical history, aiming to reduce bias in medicine, all while continuing to connect research, storytelling and visual art in her work.
Soy Auténtica is available online and is currently in the running for two awards from the Independent Book Publishers Association: Latina/o/e Communities and Best New Voice: Children's Young Adult.