Anita De Lucio-Brock, the illustrator of "Grandma and Me at the Flea," began her art career by painting folk-art objects. Sacramento Bee/Michael A. Jones

Herrera's mother and father were campesinos, migrant farmworkers.

"I grew up as a gypsy child," Herrera said during a recent phone interview. "You're under the sky. You're always moving. You don't really worry about having too many things. You just hang out, stay light ... in nature. It was beautiful."

Herrera, a history teacher at California State University, Fresno, has written about his campesino upbringing in three award-winning, bilingual children's books, including "Calling the Doves/El Canto de las Palomas" (Children's Book Press, $15.95) and "The Upside Down Boy/ El Nino de Cabeza" (Children's Book Press, $15.95).

On Sunday, he will be in Sacramento as the featured speaker of The Bee Book Club to discuss his latest book, "Grandma and Me at the Flea/Los Meros Meros Remateros" (Children's Book Press, $15.95) alongside the book's illustrator, Anita De Lucio-Brock.

The book, in which young Juanito learns the true meaning of community, reflects the "gift-giving and reciprocity" that filled Herrera's youth; it also gives him the chance to reinvent his childhood.

"If I'm writing a sociology paper, then I'll write about pesticides, labor and wages, but I'm telling the story from a point of view of a child," he said from Fresno, where he lives with his wife, Margarita Luna Robles (who is also a writer), and their children, Robert and Marlene. "It's like having memories without judgment."

In "Grandma and Me at the Flea," Herrera writes:

"Esperanza is my Grandmother's name. Esperanza means hope. I think of Senora Vela, Senor Raya, the belt man, and the jewelry man, and how Grandma Esperanza gave them hope to survive, to heal, to smile. My heart fills up with Esperanza like an accordion."

In reality, Herrera never knew his grandmother. She died before he was born.

"With writing, I can sort of create a family that I didn't have," he said.

Surprisingly, when the founder of Children's Book Press first approached him with the idea of writing about his childhood, Herrera was at a loss for ideas.

"I told her, 'You've got to be kidding. I don't know how to write for children.' "

Yet he was drawn to the idea of a bilingual children's book.

"Being a Chicano poet, especially being part of the '60s generation, the whole impetus was to create bilingual poetics," he said.

Within two weeks, he had written a draft of "Calling the Doves." The book went on to receive numerous awards, including the Ezra Jack Keats Award for the most promising new children's book author, and has sold more than 32,000 copies.

Herrera, who received degrees from UCLA, Stanford and the Iowa Writers' Workshop, has published nearly 20 books of poetry. Also, he has combined his passions for the arts and social activism by founding bilingual magazines -- as well as bilingual theater, art, dance and poetry groups -- around the United States for more than 30 years.

Herrera said his love of words began with his mother and father "telling stories and singing songs." "I was an only child, so our family was a really tight little group. I was always listening, always observing."

In "Calling the Doves," he writes:

"Sometimes my mother would surprise us at dinner by reciting poetry. Over a plate of guisado (a spicy tomato stew) and a hard flour tortilla, she would rise to her feet with her hands up as if asking for rain. Rhyming words would pour out of her mouth, and for a moment the world would stop spinning."

Those childhood memories come fresh to Herrera's mind when he conducts writing workshops for the children of migrant workers.

"The schools are literally in the middle of thousands of acres of grape vineyards," he said. "I meet the families, the children. They tell their stories and put their writings up on the wall. They remind me of my parents, of when I was a child.

"Writing for children is the other side of paradise," Herrera said. "When I write for children, I can say the same things with fewer words, with words made out of corn and river water. Basic, real stuff, from the ground."

Like Herrera's text, Anita De Lucio-Brock's illustrations are simple, beautiful and highly expressive.

"I liked the (children's books) where the artists had as strong a voice as the text," she said.

A self-taught artist, De Lucio-Brock drew from her childhood memories of the San Fernando flea market to create the vibrant images. She painted Herrera's grandmother with her own in mind.

"My grandmother used to sell stuff at the flea market in Los Angeles," she said from her office in San Francisco, where she lives with her husband, Jeff De Lucio-Brock. "It was not just about going shopping. The flea market was a destination. The Latina ladies were wearing these really nice, fancy dresses and high heels that would be sinking into the dirt floor."

Though "Grandma and Me at the Flea" is the first book De Lucio-Brock has illustrated, she has long been involved with the arts.

While studying at Stanford, where she earned her bachelor's degree in Spanish and Chicano studies, De Lucio-Brock founded a musical trio of Latinas and for several years danced ballet folklorico. Also, for several years, she painted boxes and altars for the Mexican Day of the Dead (el Dia de los Muertos), "for friends and family."

"But I had never identified myself as an artist before," she said.

Then she brought some of her artwork to a class on Chicana and Latina artists she was taking at the University of California, Berkeley, where she earned her master's in public health.

"People really liked my stuff," she said.

De Lucio-Brock began submitting her work -- painted boxes and other Oaxacan-inspired folk art -- to local galleries. Since then, her art has appeared in various shows, including a recent solo exhibit.

She now paints altars, as well as on wood and canvas, when she isn't working part time as a public health consultant. Her interest in ethnic art, she said, ties to her "need to expose the beauty of Mexican culture."