Mr. Mendoza's Paintbrush

Be careful growing up in the green, wet, mango-sweet Mexican village of Rosario, where dead corpses rise up out of cathedral walls; where vast silver mines beneath the town occasionally collapse, causing a whole section of the village to drop out of sight; where Mr. Mendoza wields his paintbrush as the town’s self-appointed conscience.

Magic realism, you say to yourself. Luis Alberto Urrea says, “No, NOT magical realism. It’s simply how kids grow up in Mexico. Especially if you’re a boy.” And the part about Mr. Mendoza is really true: He brandishes his magical paintbrush everywhere, painting graffiti to singe the hearts and souls of trouble-making boys (especially if he catches a boy peeping at the girls bathing in the river). He’ll steal the villain’s pants and paint PERVERT on his naked buttocks. And, finally, one day Mr. Mendoza’s paintbrush creates a miraculous event that no one in Rosario ever forgets!

Luis Alberto Urrea is the author of the widely acclaimed novel The Hummingbird’s Daughter and a 2005 Pulitzer Prize finalist for nonfiction for The Devil’s Highway. Inducted into the Latino Literature Hall of Fame, Urrea was born in Tijuana, Mexico, to a Mexican father and an American mother. This is his first graphic novel and another great book, like Vatos, that even reluctant readers will love.

Christopher Cardinale is a muralist and artist with a social message. His large-scale murals against globalization and war can be seen in New York, Italy, Greece, and Mexico. He lives in Brooklyn.