The Ancestors and Me is a story about a LatIndigenous child learning how to feel connected to family members who have passed away and how to keep their memory alive. 

While it is likely the first book in the U.S. written by a member of the Charrúa Nation (located in the south of Brazil), its sentiment can be most closely compared to A Land of Books: Dreams of Young Mexihcah Word Painters by Duncan Tonatiuh, specifically in the lines, "With the passing of time, their names will be lost like the smoke of incense when the wind blows. But their spirits shall remain."

The child in my story is led by their mother in celebrating vovô (grandfather) by doing all the things he loved to do when he was alive. On each ancestors' birthday, they do this same practice. Today, they start by packing up the car and heading for the ocean. On the ride there, mother plays música popular brasileira (MPB), his favorite music. At the beach, they kayak and eat avocados. Mother shares memories of her father so that the child will now carry them too, and the child reflects on how they can still feel vovô's presence all around. 

This story offers a new way to mourn that is not typically allowed by Eurocentric customs. It is important for LatIndigenous children to learn about grief in a way that reflects their cultures' ideas of life, death, time, and memory. And it is important for all children to learn new ways to feel at peace with the ever-changing world around them.