DIEGO FUEGO
I’m so happy to welcome Allison and Rafael Rozo to the blog today, to talk about their adorable soon to be published picture book DIEGO FUEGO THE FIREFIGHTING DRAGON. Illustrated by Vanessa Morales and published by Penguin Workshop, this cute book will hit the shelves on July 22, 2025. Just one more month to go!
A bit about DIEGO FUEGO THE FIREFIGHTING DRAGON:
“Our bilingual/Spanish tale is about a tiny dragon living in Tierra del Fuego, South America, who is allergic to smoke. Unfortunately, every time his dragon family roars, he sneezes, creating icy flurries instead of flames. His family tries to help by not breathing fire, but they are dragons after all. When a fire grows out of control, he realizes his weakness is actually his superpower!”
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Now on to our interview:
M. Congratulations on the release of your new book, Allison and Rafael! I love having the chance to publish an interview for you and your book on my blog.
A&R. Thank you Mariana! It’s an honor to be speaking with you!
M. For starters, can you share what inspired you to write this story? Why dragons?
A&R. Rafael has always loved dragons, especially since he was born in the Chinese Year of the Dragon. In fact, one of the first gifts he ever gave me was a statue of a red dragon he brought home for a trip to Hong Kong. Then one morning, in the rush to get ready for school, our three-year-old son said something that sounded like, “A firefighting dragon!” The idea of a dragon who fought fire instead of making it immediately took off.
“His name is Diego Fuego,” I exclaimed.
“Yes, and he lives in Tierra del Fuego!” Rafael cheered.
What’s intriguing about dragons is that they are elusive and magical, and often depicted as loners. But we wanted to create a story that challenges that norm with a big loving dragon family with fiery personalities like our own. Instead of living in far off hidden caves, they live in a dragon community, driving cars and playing “fireball”—the dragon version of fútbol or soccer—with neighbors and friends. We used the dragon folklore we love and gave it a modern twist.
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M. I love that story, so, as a follow up, can you tell us how did you come up with an idea of a dragon that doesn’t breathe fire but ice?
A&R. In the early drafts of DIEGO FUEGO THE FIREFIGHTING DRAGON, Diego was an adult firefighter, but the arc of the story wasn’t coming together. As I imagined a world full of dragons, I thought about how smoky it must be. Then I remembered an incident when my mom accidently burned a pizza. The smoke sent me into an asthma attack. It dawned on me to create Diego as a child with allergies, like myself, struggling to find his place in his fire breathing family. Rafael loved the idea, but we still needed him to be a firefighter. That’s when we had the idea of him being totally opposite than the rest of this family. When they breathe fire, he breathes ice.
The journey of the story is Diego discovering his unique gift, and how being different ultimately saves the day. Once I realized Diego was like me with allergies that prohibit him from doing some of the things his family and friends do, I was able to show more of myself and how I felt growing up not being able to do certain things. Diego expresses himself through drawing, just like me. This feeling of being different also resonates with Rafael as an immigrant to this country with English being his second language. We think on some level most children struggle with feeling different, making Diego very relatable. We also believe that we all have hidden superpowers that are just waiting to be discovered (at any age!)
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M. Adding some details of our own lives to our characters really make them more authentic and relatable, just like with you both and Diego. I love that! Now please tell us how is it for you both to work as a team of creators? Can you share your process? What do you love most about working together?
A&R. The way Rafael and I work together is we come up with a concept then we bounce ideas off of each other. Then, I sit down at my computer and build the stories. In our drafting process, we discuss what is working and what needs tweaking. I take our manuscripts to critique groups and we work through the feedback. I add words from my limited Spanish vocabulary, and he goes through to make sure they have the same meaning, and includes more where he thinks they fit. He weaves in his culture and homeland of Bogotá, Colombia in South America, including words, phrases, and places throughout the text. We often discuss how important it is for our children to feel proud of their Hispanic heritage. We joke that in our family we have adopted a sort of “Spanglish” with a revolving door of various levels of Spanish and English speakers staying at our house. Ultimately, we love being a team and putting pieces of both of us into the stories we write. Our favorite part is how excited our children are to read our books. They talk about the characters like they are members of our family. Our goal is to create worlds where different cultures come together in a loving space. This is what drives us to keep dreaming up new adventures.
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M. That sounds wonderful! I like how you both are able to contribute your own experience, knowledge, and also parts of yourselves into your stories. How fun to be a team! Now regarding the illustrations, can you share how was it for you to meet the characters created by Vanessa Morales? Did you have any input in the illustration process? Did you include art notes in your manuscript?
A&R. The characters Vanessa Morales created are incredible. From the beginning we saw the magical spark only she could give them. She has brought more personality and warmth to the story than we could ever have imagined. In her first round of sketches, she added notes on how she wanted Diego Fuego and his family to be “Western” dragons. She researched dragon archetypes from Central and South America’s indigenous civilizations from the Mayans, Incas, and Aztecs (to name a few). Vanessa imagined Diego himself to resemble a very special salamander we have all grown to know and love, the axolotl, from her hometown of Mexico City, Mexico. Each dragon has a distinct look, but together they are a family. We love the details Vanessa added with their hair, jewelry, and hats. During the revision process, we were able to go back and forth with Vanessa through our wonderful Art Director. All of us have been very happy and open with the process. I wanted the “station dragon” to look like an old wood-sided station wagon, and Vanessa went beyond my imagination with the cutest car with flames coming out the back. My favorite spread is when the Fuego family gathers and agrees to stop breathing fire. In each image Diego’s family tries to keep themselves calm and not break into roars. But they are dragons after all… Mamá stares out at the reader—her eyes saying what I have felt many times as a mother—“This is it. We’ve achieved total chaos.” Rafael and I included art notes, which Vanessa incorporated perfectly with her own creative intuition. We believe everyone on the team connected with the characters and it has been pure joy to see them come to life with Vanessa’s bold and beautiful color choices paired with their endearing expressions.
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M. It really seems that you excel working as a team. How special you got someone like Vanessa to be part of it. Her illustrations are absolutely adorable and I love what you said about the Fuego family being western dragons. Finally, are there any new projects that you’re currently working on that you can share?
A&R. We are excited to share our second bilingual/Spanish picture book, UNIQUE LIKE YOU, based in Bogotá, Colombia, where a young girl named Lina helps her Mamá (with their donkey) collect recyclable treasure along the streets of Bogotá, Colombia. A wall of graffiti inspires her to see her world in a new way, and she discovers unique treasures in everyone she encounters, even in herself. UNIQUE LIKE YOU releases on September 16, 2025, with Beaming Books. We are also on submission with a new picture book series and our first nonfiction picture book. Throughout this journey, we keep creating new adventures together!
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Wow! Congratulations! I can’t wait to hear more about your upcoming projects. Maybe you can come back to the blog to share about Unique Like You, I love the premise. Allison and Rafael, thanks for the wonderful chat, I wish you all the best in the coming months as you promote Diego’s adventure.
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ALLISON AND RAFAEL’S BIO
Allison and Rafael Rozo are authors who write bilingual English and Spanish picture books to weave together their Hispanic and American cultures. They are proud to create books that represent their family—including their two children Vivian and Gianluca. The Rozos began writing when they lived in Chicago, IL, and are currently living in Akron, OH. You can go to rozobooksart.com to learn more about both Allison and Rafael.
Instagram @allisonrozo
X @allison_rozo
Facebook @allison.rozo.books
LinkedIn Allison Rozo
Bluesky https://bsky.app/profile/allisonrozo.bsky.social
* If you’d like to preorder a copy of DIEGO FUEGO click here.
Thanks for reading!
M
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Cover photo by Artem Lysenko.
