Duncan Tonatiuh ’03’s Award-Winning Book Becomes Opera

The bilingual opera “Pancho Rabbit and the Coyote” premieres this Saturday, January 17 at 7 p.m. at the Southwestern College Performing Arts Center in Chula Vista, California, with a second performance on Sunday, January 18 at 4 p.m. The production will then travel to La Casa de Cultura in Tijuana, Mexico, for a performance at 7 p.m. on Saturday, January 31.

The opera is based on a children’s book written and illustrated by Buxton alumnus Duncan Tonatiuh Smith Hernández ’03 and composed by Pulitzer Prize winner, GRAMMY-nominated, and Opera Hall of Fame composer Anthony Davis. Free tickets for K-12 students are available by contacting bodhitreeconcerts@gmail.com.

About Duncan Tonatiuh ’03

Duncan Tonatiuh Smith Hernández is an award-winning author and illustrator of children’s books whose work explores Mexican and Mexican-American culture, history, and social justice themes. Here, Duncan shares how his work has evolved from the page to the opera stage and how Buxton helped shape the path that led him there.

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On January 17, a bilingual opera named “Pancho Rabbit and the Coyote” will premiere at the Southwestern College Performing Arts Center in Chula Vista, California, with a second debut at La Casa de Cultura in Tijuana, Mexico, a couple of weeks later. The opera was composed by Pulitzer Prize winner, GRAMMY-nominated, and Opera Hall of Fame and Metropolitan Opera composer, Anthony Davis, and is based on a children’s book of the same name that I wrote and illustrated.

The story follows a young rabbit named Pancho who travels north in search of his father. Along the way, Pancho meets a coyote who helps him overcome different dangers—riding on top of a train, crossing a river, and walking through the desert. But every time the coyote helps him, Pancho has to give him some of the food he is carrying in his mochila. When there is no food left, the coyote decides that he is going to eat him!

The story is a fable, similar to Little Red Riding Hood, but it is also an allegory of the harrowing journey undocumented immigrants often undertake to reach the US. I think it is especially poignant given the current political climate and the hostility towards immigrant communities.

I have been writing and illustrating children’s books for the past 15 years, and most have been published by Abrams Books. Buxton had a tremendous influence on my career path. While at Buxton, I spent a lot of time in the art studio and darkroom, read great books, and took creative writing and poetry classes.

But at Buxton, I also became interested in social justice. I remember my sophomore year when we had a class called Freedom and Social Order. We read about racism, sexism, global warming, and lots of other issues I had not thought about until then. My interest in art, as well as in social studies, continued throughout my junior and senior years and later into college. Now, drawing, writing, and learning about issues affecting our society is what I do for a living.

If any alumni in the area would like to attend the opera, please visit panchorabbit.org, and please check out my books and illustrations at DuncanTonatiuh.com