Review: Mexikid: A Graphic Memoir by Pedro Martín.
Dial Books, August 2022. 320 p. ill. ISBN 9780593462287 (h/c), $24.99.
Reviewed August 2023
by Kat Lewis, Special Projects Curator, University of Washington Libraries Special Collections, katl@uw.edu
Mexikid and Pedro Martín deserve all the accolades received. The memoir follows the childhood adventure of Pedro and his eleven person family to bring his grandfather, Abuelito, to live in California. The art cleverly uses conventional coloring found in strip newspaper comics to chart the emotional journey between the US and Mexico, past and present. Not only is Mexikid laugh out loud funny (Pedro’s gorgeous Vicente Fernández inspired haircut) but expertly deals with the complex issues of identity, generational trauma, and coming of age with the levity and humor unique to Latino-Americans.
The best thing about this book is how it depicts the mundane life of a child of an immigrant. Martín does not moralize the complex experience of the US/Mexico border relations; instead, he shows it the way children who live it do. “Some of us slip and slide between the American style name and the Mexican one,” Martín says on the first page as he introduces himself as Peter/Pedro. This in-between feeling is familiar to those of us whose parents are from a different country, worrying about being enough of one–or both, and longing for heroes who resemble you. As the story unfolds, Pedro, a kid idolizing Marvel crime-fighters and Jedi-masters, finds his very own Mexican hero to look up to and depict within the comic book medium.
Mexikid is reminiscent of the collaborative artist book Codex Espangliensis, which confronts the realities of border tensions between US and Mexico at the turn of the century. Codex, like Mexikid, uses American pop culture figures like Superman to chronicle the reality of those with one foot in each culture. The pairing of these graphic novels would be perfect for a university-level course, and Mexikid can stand alone for middle through high school curriculum. It is an easy addition for all libraries.
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