Yuyi Morales

Early life

Yuyi Morales was born in the city of Xalapa in the Mexican State of Veracruz in 1968. She is the oldest of four children. As a child she loved drawing, and often paired her pictures with stories. Her mother was a homemaker, “She made all our clothes, coats, hats, underwear. She made the bedspreads, the curtains, the lamps, everything,” Morales recalls. “She taught me to use the sewing machine when I was very little. I crocheted a vest for myself when I was five years old.Despite those nights by the sewing machine, becoming an artist was not a childhood dream for Morales. “That would have been thought of as crazy,” she says. Because she had been a top competitive swimmer in high school, she studied physical education at the Universidad de Xalapa, hoping to teach gym. After graduation, she took a job as a swim coach.”.

Early career

While working as a swimming coach in Mexico, Morales met her husband, Tim, an American citizen, and had a son, Kelly. The new family moved to the United States in 1994. During her first years living in San Francisco, Morales remembers that she had no job, no friends and she barely spoke a few words in English. She was sad because she missed her native country and her family, Morales expresses that she felt like she did not fit in that country. One day her mother in law took her son Kelly to the most amazing and the most transcendental place for her, a public library in the city of San Francisco, she remembers she was so amazed and inspired by the section of children's books. Morales learned English by reading to her son Kelly who did not know or care if she mispronounced some words, and she could always use the illustrations to show something she did not know. Morales felt so inspired by those vivid colors and illustrations from the books that she had been reading to her son, she wondered if she could make picture books like those. She was also influenced by Lloyd Alexander, Susan Cooper, Jim Henson, and J.R.R. Tolkien.

Literary career

Morales bought a set of paints and brushes and enrolled in an extension class at UC Berkeley on writing for children where she met a group of other aspiring authors and illustrators. Morales's first English-language picture book project was Kathleen Krull's text for Harvesting Hope: The Story of Cesar Chavez in 2003. Reviewing Morales's work, School Library Journal contributor Sue Morgan praised her "beautifully rendered earth-tone illustrations," while Traci Todd, writing in Booklist, cited the book's "gorgeous paintings, with their rounded, organic forms and lush, gemstone hues." Morales's first self-illustrated title, Just a Minute, was published in 2003 as well. Morales kept illustrating original works like Niño Wrestles the World and Little Night Nochecita. She has also illustrated books for different authors like Georgia in Hawaii: When Georgia O'Keeffe Painted What She Pleased, Ladder to the Moon, Los Gatos Black en Halloween, My Abuelita, Sand Sister and Floating on Mama's song. She has influenced Cassandra Clare.

Honors awards