He locks eyes with the fish, much as he and his abuela stare into each other’s eyes seeing each other. He enjoys his body, admires his tail, and does back flips in the water. On the following two-page spread, Julián has transformed into a mermaid with a soft pink and glowing orange tail. His body is blocked below the torso by a cluster of sea creatures. Julián is depicted with long flowing dark curls. Fish begin to swirl around him as his hair miraculously grows longer, and he slips out of his clothes to be more comfortable in the changing, now quite watery, environment that has replaced the subway car. A wave laps at Julián, who soon drops his mermaid book. The next scene brings the reader on a journey into Julian’s dreamscape. One of the three brown-skinned mermaids, finding pleasure in performing femininity, tosses long black hair over her shoulder, another twirls her tail, and the third, a pink haired mermaid, waves at Julián. On the facing page, Julián stares at the mermaids who entered the subway after him. In fact, they hold one each other’s gaze throughout the text, often communicating through eye contact and physical proximity instead of words.Ī book about mermaids sits open in Julián’s lap. Once on the subway, Julián and his abuela sit close and lock eyes.
Julián, his abuela, and the mermaids are introduced to the reader through text that simply states: “This is a boy named Julián. Julián and his abuela are then shown walking towards a subway, while three femme women trail behind in mermaid attire.
The text opens with an image of Julián in a pool with five women one of the women is his abuela. Jessica Love’s Julian is a Mermaid celebrates gender expansive youth, femininity, and Brooklyn’s Mermaid Parade, which was founded by the non-profit arts organization, Coney Island USA, in 1983.
0 kommentar(er)
