The Book
Bien Juntitos centers around the creation of a book by the community, about the community, and for the community. The elders have been asking me to make a book about Manitos since I first met them in 2019 and this project is an opportunity to make their wish a reality. For them, the most important part of the book is a collection of life stories of group members. The process of collecting the stories is a delicate and time consuming task as it requires one-on-one interviews with each elder in their native Spanish language. The book features over 50 biographies of Manitos members.
The book also features archival materials such as articles and photographs from the group’s 25-year trajectory, photographs from members’ personal collections, and poems by Marcelino Íñiguez, Manitos resident poet. The result is a high-quality, full color art book that serves as a historical document to memorialize the group’s existence. The book is bilingual in Spanish and English for wide accessibility.
Behind the scenes images of production of Bien Juntitos book.