Coquito Ediciones produces handwriting and calligraphy workbooks for students that are among the most favoured in Perú, as well as sold in more than a dozen countries.
Among their publications are three books for preschool called Preescritura, or Pre-writing, that provide tracing exercises and letter recognition lessons, and five books for students aged 7–8 years old called Vamos a escribir ligada, or Lets write joined letters, that feature vertical cursive writing. In addition, they also produce calligraphy books for older children called Caligrafía tipo Palmer, or Palmer style calligraphy, which as the name suggests feature a different handwriting style.
Cover and sample pages from Vamos a escribir ligada 1, Ediciones Coquito
The books are authored by Everardo Zapata Santillana, a primary school teacher, who also created the original Coquito workbook in 1955. As a prospective teacher, he studied at an Escuela Normales, or Normal School, which were teacher-training establishments founded in South America in the 19th century. The books do not mention what typeface is used in letter samples, or any calligraphers who might have created them.
There is no print or pre-cursive style in these books, only an upright continuous cursive style with narrow proportions. The uppercase letters are also cursive, even decorative in some cases, and only join lowercase letters when appropriate. Some distinctive features include the single-loop “f” which connects from its middle bar, the “k” that requires a pen-lift and the “G” that regardless of its verticality derives from the Palmer style.
