Sitting in the living room at her Southwest-side home in 蜜柚直播 watching Sunday鈥檚 Oscars, Roni Capin Rivera-Ashford took in the news that 鈥淐oco鈥 won for best animated feature and best original song.
She and her husband, Daniel, watched the television screen together in amazement.
Then the texts and messages full of excitement and congratulations from relatives and friends began pouring in, said Capin Rivera-Ashford, a retired educator and award-winning bilingual children鈥檚 book author. She translated the read-along with CD for 鈥淐oco鈥 into Spanish.
Capin Rivera-Ashford collaborated on the 鈥淐oco鈥 book with her son, Aar贸n Rivera-Ashford of Los Angeles. He was given the script and had to reduce it from 120 pages to 32 pages, using as much dialogue as possible.
鈥淐oco鈥 is a film about 12-year-old Miguel Rivera, a Mexican boy who dreams of becoming an accomplished musician and his adventures into the Land of the Dead on D铆a de los Muertos. He is on a mission to discover the history of his family and why he is forbidden 鈥 like generations before him 鈥 to stay away from music.
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Capin Rivera-Ashford and her son also worked on her latest book, 鈥淢iguel and the Amazing Alebrijes,鈥 which is a related adventure book for 鈥淐oco.鈥
Now, Capin Rivera-Ashford and her husband, also a retired educator, co-authored a second 鈥淐oco鈥-related adventure book that is nearly complete.
鈥淚t is about Dante 鈥 the dog in 鈥淐oco鈥 鈥 from when he was a puppy,鈥 she said. 鈥淒ante arrives in the town of Santa Cecilia in Oaxaca and grows up and meets Miguel,鈥 said the author, explaining that the 24-page book needs to now be colorfully illustrated in Disney style.
Since the Oscar news about 鈥淐oco,鈥 Capin Rivera-Ashford said, 鈥淚 feel as though I am floating in the clouds. I am very excited. I think this is a beautiful, long awaited, needed honor to not only the genre of film but for the people it is representing and bringing together.鈥
鈥淚t is just wonderful. The film is uniting cultures and people of all colors and all languages all over the world. It is just like it was expressed at the Oscars by the film鈥檚 director Lee Unkrich that this is a time of inclusion,鈥 said Capin Rivera-Ashford.
