About Us
Multicultural books for multicultural children and the world that treasures them.™
Multicultural books for multicultural children and the world that treasures them.™
La Joya Press, established in 2020, is a multicultural children’s book publishing company based in La Jolla, CA and Washington, DC.
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Our mission is to publish books that tell every child’s precious and diverse story, honoring them, and opening a world of hearts and minds, too.
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The idea of La Joya Press was born in 2020 during walks along the ocean in La Jolla, CA during the pandemic. Mom and teacher Juliana Hernandez Anthony would take daily outings with her three young boys to step away for fresh air during distance learning. A lifelong public-school teacher, she had taken some time off to raise her children and began home schooling them full time when COVID-19 hit. During her walks she started to feel a strong need to do something more to contribute to her and other children’s love of reading, culture and learning. She dreamed of creating a children’s multicultural book publishing company after years of experience as a teacher always on the hunt for quality cultural stories, a mom who yearned for more multicultural books, and a homeschooling teacher who confirmed there are still not enough diverse children’s books being published.
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Juliana invited her best friend and former reporter, Elena Gaona, to join her in starting the company. Elena shared Juliana’s desire to see more empowering multicultural children’s books. As a reporter she had focused on telling diverse stories, and as a mother of two young girls, she was also always searching for books that represented her daughters. She had also already written a children’s book on tortillas but had not been able to get it published. Helping start a diverse publishing company with her best friend was a perfect fit.
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Together, we are friends, small business partners, storytellers, moms, educators, writers and full of hope for all of our children! We plan to publish personal, representative, cultural stories that empower all children – they are our true “Joyas” – our Jewels! We also hope that our kids’ books will open new worlds for readers of all ages, sending knowledge, cultural appreciation, unity and positivity into our ever-changing complex, beautiful world.