Grandma and Me at the Flea: Los Meros Meros Remateros

Bilingual English/Spanish. Every Sunday, Juanito helps his grandmother sell old clothes beneath the rainbow-colored tents at the remate, the flea market.

Every Sunday Juanito helps his grandmother sell old clothes beneth the rainbow-colored tents at the remate, the flea market. There, Juanito and his friends romp from booth to booth, fulfilling Grandma’s vision of the remate as a sharing community of friendly give-and-take.

Juanito gallops to the jewelry-man, who gives Juanito a copper bracelet and a watch for Grandma in exchange for her help sending money orders home to Mexico. Señora Vela gratefully accepts a bundle of Grandma’s healing herbs in return for sacks of ruby red chiles. With every exchange Juanito learns firsthand what it means to be a true rematero - a fleamarketeer - and understands that the value of community can never be measured in dollars.

Juan Herrera is an acclaimed poet and children’s book author. His first children’s book, Calling the Doves, won the prestigious Ezra Jack Keats Award, and another book, The Upside Down Boy, was made into a musical for young audiences in 2004. He teaches at California State University, Fresno. Anita De Lucio-Brock was born in Hidalgo, Mexico, and grew up in Southern California. A graduate of Stanford and the University of California, Berkeley, Anita began making art while in graduate school. Anita paints on wood and canvas, and also creates altars for el Día de los Muertos, the Mexican Day of the Dead. She lives in San Francisco, California.