Leo Politi

"'It was during the depression, and many a night my wife sat patiently at my side as I did water colors in front of the El Paseo Cafe. I might sketch the woman making tortillas in the puesto across from us, or the three Mexican musicians singing near us, or the little urchins running up and down the street. Sometimes, with just a knife, I carved on discarded blocks of wood I found. And many a cold night we waited for customers who never came.'"

 

"Leo Politi won the Caldecott Medal in 1950 for his book Song of the Swallow, which tells about the annual return of the swallows to the mission of San Juan Capistrano in southern California. He also received Caldecott Award nominations for Pedro, the Angel of Olvera Street (1946) and Juanita (1949). Politi studied at the National Art Institute in Milan, Italy before returning to California and settling in Los Angeles," where he fell in love with illustrating the people of Hispanic heritage. (from Biography Resource Center)