Silenced Voices Wins Americas Award

The 2026 Américas Award committee selected Silenced Voices: Reclaiming Memories from the Guatemalan Genocide by Pablo Leon for their top award.

They noted,

This year’s winners invite readers into worlds not often seen in children’s and young adult literature.

[Silenced Voices] is a searing intergenerational reckoning with the Guatemalan genocide.

[It reminds] us that storytelling is an act of remembrance and healing.

This timely graphic novel for middle school describes the terror of the U.S.-backed dictatorship in Guatemala that forced so many families to flee north, many to the United States.

The history is revealed when two teenage boys in Maryland ask their mother why she fled. For years she had wanted to protect them from the pain of that era. But the trial of Guatemalan dictator Rios Montt opens the door for the intergenerational conversation.

Leon, as writer and illustrator, has made this a gripping, painfully honest, and yet also hopeful story. As immigrants are being attacked by the administration, this book reminds us why many Central Americans are in the United States and how they deserve reparations, not deportations. 

Teaching for Change hosted a book talk by Pablo Leon in Washington, D.C. in September of 2025.