Saturday, April 24, 2021

Rumpus Interview: Nepantla and Radical Empathy with Sergio Troncoso

“For me, nepantla is about radical empathy.... [R]eading is about that, how when you read, you’re entering somebody’s world, fictionalized or not and that person should open up your mind to some new possibility of existence, to some new way of looking at the world.”


https://therumpus.net/2021/04/the-rumpus-interview-with-sergio-troncoso/

Monday, April 19, 2021

Op-Ed Essay in Houston Chronicle on Nepantla Familias

 On Sunday, April 18, the Houston Chronicle published my Op-Ed essay, which is basically the introduction of the anthology I edited, Nepantla Familias: An Anthology of Mexican American Literature on Families in between Worlds (The Wittliff Literary Series and Texas A&M University Press). I adapted the intro to be a standalone essay for the Chronicle.

"Anyone who has left their home and tried to find a new one in a strange place — at times welcoming and at times hostile — they should find themselves in the work of Mexican American writers exploring nepantla. Anyone who has felt stymied by ancestors and their demands, yet also emboldened by their sacrifices and forgotten values — they should find themselves. Anyone who has forged a self from pieces of many worlds, to fit and not fit in a new home, who has balanced on many beams to understand different sides — yes, they should find themselves. Anyone who has loved another from a different world — they should recognize a version of themselves. And anyone who has crossed any border to create who they are, rather than to take who they are for granted, rather than to assume a place belongs to them — and suffered the consequences for it — they will find their fellow travelers, their kindred spirits."

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/opinion/editorials/article/Essay-Living-between-worlds-Mexican-American-16108886.php 

 

Tuesday, April 13, 2021

Words on a Wire Interviews Sergio Troncoso on Nepantla Familias

On KTEP's Words on a Wire, Daniel Chacon interviews Sergio Troncoso about Nepantla Familias: An Anthology of Mexican American Literature on Families in between Worlds (The Wittliff Literary Series and Texas A&M University Press, 2021). Troncoso talks about editing the anthology and exploring the complexity of Nepantla through essays, poetry, and short stories.