Our Story
The philosophy behind Cuento de Luz
Cuento de Luz publishes stories that take the imagination on a journey, help care for our planet, respect differences and promote peace. We are committed to preserve the environment through the integration of sustainable materials in our books and we are using stone paper as of January 2017. It’s a new generation of paper that do not need trees, water or chemicals, saving more than 50% of energy consumed compared to tree based paper.
We are proud to be a certified B Corporation. B Corps meet the highest standards of verified social and environmental performance and public transparency. Collectively, B Corps lead a growing global movement of people using business as a force for good and aspire to use the power of markets to solve social and environmental problems.
Cuento de Luz has received numerous awards in the United States, including the one awarded by The New York Times and the New York Public Library to Ayobami and the names of the animals as Best Illustrated Book of 2018.
How was Cuento de Luz created?
Cuento de Luz, based in Madrid, Spain but with an international outlook, is a publishing company that specializes in children’s literature. It was initially set up in a garage converted into an office, during a period of economic crisis in Spain. Its founder, Ana Eulate, has written stories since she was a child. This was something vocational, a dream that became a reality. Ana previously worked for the Spanish Ministry of the Economy and Finance. She was the Commercial Attaché of the Spanish Embassy at its office in Rio de Janeiro, and a National Expert sent to the European Commission in Brussels, where she worked at the General Directorate of External Relations. Some years later she left her job to create Cuento de Luz.
Prizes and Awards
- In just over ten years, the company has won more than 100 awards for its books in the USA.
- In 2021 The Real Leaders magazine recognized Cuento de Luz as one of the Top 150 Impact companies in the world.
- In 2013 Cuento de Luz was selected by the Dragón Lector Award in Spain as Best Publisher,
- Ana Eulate was acknowledged as one of the 2021 100 Women in Impact, and a Top 100 Women Leaders in Spain for 2013, 2014 and 2015.
- She was also selected together with three Spanish and four US entrepreneurs for the Your®Company program organized by the US Embassy in Spain, consisting of a series of videos to encourage an entrepreneurial spirit amongst young people. These videos are intended to convey to a younger audience four of the most characteristic values of entrepreneurship: motivation, innovation, failure and critical thinking, and corporate social responsibility.
What are the characteristics that define Cuento de Luz?
Universal values
Promoting peace through education
Raising environmental awareness
An international outlook
A multicultural team
Projects with NGOs
Building peace through education
Cuento de Luz believes that stories can help to change or shed a glimmer of hope onto the lives of children who need our help to develop and survive. Children who live in very different situations in parts of the world affected by wars and famine. Some of our stories are dedicated to small foundations led by brave entrepreneurs who use all of their profits for projects for education, nutrition, preserving the environment or helping to promote peace. In keeping with the company’s mission, Ana Eulate is involved in humanitarian projects every year (she is committed to spend a minimum of 5% of her time), taking her stories to parts of the world where children are in disadvantaged situations. For example, she published “The Sky of Afghanistan” in Dari, one of the country’s two official languages, where she then travelled to distribute it together with the Fundación Cometa (Kite Foundation, www.fundacioncometa.org) and “Life is Beautiful”, translated into Swahili and donated to children together with the Vipeika Foundation (www.fundacionvipeika.org). At the same time, Ana had the opportunity to open the Cuento de Luz School in Ponpon, Pokot in Kenya, which has a sign over the entrance in Swahili that reads: “Education is Light.”
Children Luminous Advisory Committee, CLAC
Cuento de Luz has a children advisory group called CLAC. It is formed by four kids: Inés and Maia in Spain, as well as Mateo in Brussels and Hugo in New York. This is a very special group, they all like reading, being in contact with nature and animals, and are very curious about everything. They give us wonderful suggestions and guidance.
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Of course we also have our luminous canine team: Kimba, Foss, Hana and Nora. They are specialists in sniffing and detecting good stories from a distance.
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