The Children of The Sun

Text: Micaela Chirif
Illustrations: Juan Palomino
Pontevedra: Kalandraka, 2023
ISBN: 978-84-1343-243-4

A magnificently illustrated album to learn about one of the founding myths of the Inca culture through a text that preserves the legacy of oral tradition. The Children of the Sun is a free version of the legend of Manco Cápac and Mama Ocllo, a story that goes back to the beginnings of the Inca civilization transmitted orally from generation to generation and later compiled by the Inca Garcilaso de the Vega. It narrates how the Sun sent a boy and a girl to Earth to found the first city, Cusco, and gather its inhabitants there to teach them everything they did not yet know: speak, plant, wash, comb their hair, tame cattle, knitting, cooking. Micaela Chirif’s text masterfully maintains the pulse of oral tradition narratives with clear prose and a poetic tone. Juan Palomino’s illustrations evoke, in a certain way, the first artistic manifestations of humanity.