"Paper White" Characters and the Desire for Homogeneity in Spanish-Language Picturebooks

Abstract:In this article, we examine a corpus of recommended Spanish-language picturebooks published in Spain and Latin America between 2012–2018. We examine a corpus of fifty-six books that have received awards or are highlighted by reading-promotion institutions inquiring into how race and ethnicity are narrated in them. We first notice a predominant whiteness in these picturebooks: often characters are "paper white," as their faces take the white of the default color of the paper. We undertake a critical content analysis informed by intersectionality and decolonial thinking to show how ethnicity is absent, erased, or folklorized in these recommended picturebooks.