Martin’s parents and five children immigrated to the US from Mexico to work the strawberry fields of California. Once here, the family expanded with four more children born in the US. The family jokingly considers the oldest five siblings, born in Mexico, as “somewhat American” and the four younger kids, born in the US, as “somewhat Mexican.”

At an early age, Martin displayed a talent for music, art, and storytelling. Despite his father’s pleas to join a mariachi band or become a priest for the extra weekend earnings, he graduated from San Jose State University with a graphic design degree. His first job took him to Kansas City, where he worked for 27 years as an artist for Hallmark Greetings, eventually becoming a manager there and a Master Artist.

While working for Hallmark, he collected funny and touching stories of his childhood and recorded them in graphic form on note cards that he filed away in an old Batman school lunchbox. After retiring, those cards became “Mexikid Stories,” a series of online graphic adventures about his life as a Mexican American. They can be found on Instagram, Facebook, and Gocomics.com.

From there, it seemed like a natural progression to produce a book, which Martin both wrote and illustrated. Program attendees were treated to photos of his home office during the book’s development, including his collection of action figures, a wall covered in post-it notes that recorded his thought processes, and the “pet cat” in the ceiling — actually a possum that seemed to think that was his home!

Martin

The book provides a hilarious look into the life of his family, in general, but also focuses on a 2,000 mile trip to Mexico with the entire family in a 1972 Winnebago. The goal was to bring their paternal grandfather to live with them in the US.

This was met with varying degrees of enthusiasm from young Martin and his eight siblings. After all, how could Martin explain his love of Star Wars or adequately describe Chewbacca to an elderly Spanish-speaking grandfather he hardly knew? And how could they possibly fit one more person into a house already jam-packed with a family of eleven?

Ultimately, the story is a warmly funny, deeply personal, and very touching look at family history and inter-generational relationships amid cultural differences. It appeals to both young, teen, and adult readers.

“Mexikid” has won numerous awards, including a Newbery award and “Best Book of the Year” designations from NPR, the New York Times, Booklist, Publisher’s Weekly, Amazon, and the New York and Chicago Public Libraries, and more.

Friends of the Marshalltown Public Library sponsored Martin’s two-day visit to Marshalltown, which included visits with students from Lenihan and Miller Middle Schools and Marshalltown High School. Copies of his book were made available to participants in the programs, and Martin was happy to autograph them.