| Angela Dominguez | |
| Birth Date: | 1982 |
| Birth Place: | Mexico City, Mexico |
| Occupation: | Artist, illustrator |
| Language: | English, Spanish |
| Nationality: | American |
Angela Dominguez (b. 1982) is an American children’s book author and illustrator. Her books use a diverse mix of Hispanic and Latino characters. She is author of the Stella Díaz series and worked with Sonia Sotomayor on the book Just Help! How to Build a Better World in 2016.[1]
Angela Dominguez was born in Mexico City in 1982. She recalls very little of her time there as she moved to North Texas in 1984. Growing up in Texas, Dominguez described her childhood self as a "shy little girl" who was "caught between two worlds, two languages" (Mexican heritage and American culture). Her American English teachers told Dominguez it would be easier if she only learned English, rather than learn two languages at the same time. Speaking only English, Dominguez struggled to communicate with her only Spanish-speaking family. She learned she was able to communicate through her writing and drawings, always loving to draw on everything as a child. She decided she wanted to learn Spanish so she took Spanish classes and is now bilingual.
Dominguez attended Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) on a scholarship and graduated with a BFA in illustration. She then gained an MFA in illustration at the Academy of Art University. She began teaching children’s book illustration there two years later.[2]
In her time at SCAD, she wrote Mary Had a Little Llama, her own cultural take on the folk story Mary Had a Little Lamb which received the Pura Belpré Award in 2014.[3] In a 2017 TedTalk by Dominguez, she explains that while this book may seem like a foreign world to the main American children audience, it provides minority groups within the chicanx realm the opportunity to see a familiar latinx world depicted, something that is not often seen in American children's books. Writing Mary Had a Little Llama sparked Dominguez’s career in writing and illustrating children’s books. She has continued to illustrate and write children’s books, such as the Stella Diaz Series which revolves around a character named Stella whose challenges Dominguez personally identified with in her childhood.
She has worked with authors such as Marsha Diane Arnold and Sonia Sotomayor to represent Latino/Hispanic characters and their overall culture with the intent of diversity and inclusivity in American children's books. In her collaboration with Sonia Sotomayor on their book titled Just Help, Dominguez's illustrations and Sotomayor's authoring received the Pura Belpré Award in 2016.
Dominguez is currently a professor at the Academy of Art University. She is a member of Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators and PEN America.[4]