Nepantla Familias on Texas Public Radio

I recently did an interview on the anthology I edited, NEPANTLA FAMILIAS: AN ANTHOLOGY OF MEXICAN AMERICAN LITERATURE ON FAMILIES IN BETWEEN WORLDS, for Fronteras on Texas Public Radio. I've included the link below. It's probably one of the best radio/podcast interviews I've given on this book and the concepts behind my work. It's 28 minutes and discusses the anthology, works in it, and the ideas and complexities I tried to achieve by choosing the work. I hope you enjoy it. 

"A deeply meaningful collection that navigates important nuances of identity."   —Kirkus Reviews, starred review

https://www.tpr.org/podcast/fronteras/2024-11-15/fronteras-nepantla-familias-explores-identity-hybridity-of-the-mexican-american-experience

Nepantla Familias Wins IPPY Award

The anthology I edited, NEPANTLA FAMILIAS: AN ANTHOLOGY OF MEXICAN AMERICAN LITERATURE ON FAMILIES IN BETWEEN WORLDS (Texas A&M University Press), wins the Bronze Award for Anthologies in the Independent Publisher Book Awards! I'm grateful for the awards and recognition this anthology keeps receiving.

Kirkus Reviews, starred review: "'The either/or proposition that forces you to choose between your community and, say, your country has never been true,' Troncoso writes in the introduction. 'The very skills we learn to cross borders within ourselves help us to cross borders toward others outside our community.' A deeply meaningful collection that navigates important nuances of identity."

https://ippyawards.com/169/medalists/2023-medalists-1-54

Nepantla Familias Wins Award for Cover Artwork

So proud that Antonio Castro H., the cover artist for the anthology I edited, NEPANTLA FAMILIAS, is one of the winners of the Da Vinci Eye from the Eric Hoffer Book Awards for "books with superior cover artwork." For many years, I have loved Antonio's cover art: he also created the covers for my books A PECULIAR KIND OF IMMIGRANT'S SON and NOBODY'S PILGRIMS. Antonio is head of graphics design program at the University of Texas at El Paso. Thank you, too, for Texas A&M University Press for believing in this unique anthology, which also received a starred review from Kirkus Reviews: "A deeply meaningful collection that navigates important nuances of identity."

https://www.hofferaward.com/da-Vinci-Eye.html#.ZDVdGBXMLG8

Words on a Wire Interviews Sergio Troncoso on Nobody's Pilgrims

On KTEP's Words on a Wire, Sergio Troncoso talks about the ideas behind NOBODY'S PILGRIMS, how he inadvertently predicted the pandemic, and questions of love, belonging, and how Mexican Americans should claim their home even far away from the border.

"I want to challenge, if you want to call it, the Chicano literary imagination. I believe Chicanos should conquer not just places like Austin, not just places like Califas and Los Angeles, but places like Connecticut, places like Massachusetts, places where we are not there traditionally. So, I believe we have to expand our literary imagination and our ambition. We are deeply part of this country, as immigrants, as writers, as people challenging the norms."

 

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/storytelling-and-the-writing-craft-with-sergio-troncoso/id269774230

Somos En Escrito Interviews Sergio Troncoso

The editors of Somos En Escrito --Armando Rendon, Jenny Irizary, and Scott Duncan Fernandez--
interview Sergio Troncoso about his trajectory as a writer, Chicano literature and the morphing of its readership, changing organizations like the Texas Institute of Letters, and his new novel, Nobody's Pilgrims (Lee & Low Books: Cinco Puntos Press).

Sergio Troncoso: "The novel is about the grit and intelligence and luck of these three teenagers, Turi, Arnulfo, and Molly. They are all people who are ignored, los de abajo. They are working class, or even worse. They find each other, and they don't belong anywhere else. They belong with each other, but not with anyone else. And as things start falling apart, they have to find solutions.... The novel is about creating that togetherness within this small group that maybe we don't have or are losing in this country, how we belong together when we go through very difficult trials."

 

 https://youtu.be/OYBeJLhzyrk

 

Book Riot and Nepantla Familias

Thank you Minerva Laveaga Luna and Book Riot for featuring Nepantla Familias: 

"The book asks readers from any background, whether they are Mexican American or not, 'to see these writers as individuals, to see the characters they have created not as caricatures, but as complex characters. This book is a call to action to open your minds, to take the time to open your hearts, and to meet in the complex and ever-questioning middle ground of Nepantla.'"

 https://bookriot.com/anthologies-cultural-representation/

Diverse Voices Book Review and Nepantla Familias

Nepantla Familias makes the top five 2021 books on race and ethnicity by Diverse Voices Book Review! Thank you, Hopeton Hay! What a great way to start the year.

https://twitter.com/diversebookshay/status/1477412025538068480

 

Austin American-Statesman and Nepantla Familias

Thank you Michael Barnes and the Austin American-Statesman for the extensive interview about Nepantla Familias (Texas A&M University Press and The Wittliff Literary Series), "a fantastic anthology of Mexican American literature." This is what I said, among other things:

Austin American Statesman: How can those groups encourage, train and promote fantastic writers like the ones represented in your book?

 

Sergio Troncoso: "By paying attention to them. By reading their work. By promoting them and putting them in positions of power. It's not that complicated.

 

Many literary institutions in Texas, and beyond, have ignored or stereotyped Mexican American writers. "Nepantla Familias" shows the literary talent we have in our community, talent that is winning national and international awards and fellowships, that is selling hundreds of thousands of books, that is being published in places from the New Yorker to Ploughshares to the Yale Review."

 

https://www.statesman.com/story/news/history/2021/12/21/between-two-worlds-new-anthology-mexican-american-literature/8897245002/

 

 

Humanities Texas and Nepantla Familias

Thank you Humanities Texas for including Nepantla Familias: An Anthology of Mexican American Literature on Families in Between Worlds in your November/December Season's Readings. Here's what I wrote about the anthology I edited:

"I think one of the benefits that Nepantla Familias will have for all readers is to break apart any preconceptions about Mexican American literature and Mexican American authors. What you will find in this anthology is variety, experimentation, metaphysical questions, real-world complexity, tragedy, and comedy.... I think this anthology will stand the test of time for readers across the country and will open their eyes to appreciate that Mexican Americans deserve an essential and important place in American literature."

https://www.humanitiestexas.org/news/articles/seasons-readings

 

 

Nepantla Familias: Texas Book Festival's April Book Club

The Texas Book Festival featured Nepantla Familias: An Anthology of Mexican American Literature on Families in between Worlds (Wittliff Literary Series and Texas A&M University Press) for the month of April 2021. Sergio Troncoso moderated a panel with three contributors, including Francisco Cantu, Diana Lopez, and Jose Antonio Rodriguez.

"A deeply meaningful collection that navigates important nuances of identity." —Kirkus Reviews, starred review
 

 

 https://youtu.be/HSeF23Lk65w

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 

 

Nepantla Familias: Video Interview with Sergio Troncoso

The Wittliff's literary curator, Steve Davis talks to author Sergio Troncoso about his new book, Nepantla Familias (Texas A&M Press and The Wittliff Collections), an anthology of Mexican American authors writing on the topic of families living in between cultures and how their experiences can help us all have more empathy for one another.

Sergio Troncoso, David Dorado Romo, Reyna Grande, Stephanie Elizondo Griest, Francisco Cantú, Rigoberto González, Alex Espinoza, Domingo Martinez, Oscar Cásares, Lorraine M. López, David Dominguez, Stephanie Li, Sheryl Luna, José Antonio Rodríguez, Deborah Paredez, Octavio Quintanilla, Sandra Cisneros, Diana Marie Delgado, Diana López, Severo Perez, Octavio Solis, ire'ne lara silva, Rubén Degollado, Helena María Viramontes, Daniel Chacón, Matt Mendez.

 

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xAJ2ytvbZs

Nepantla Familias Receives Starred Review from Kirkus Reviews

The anthology I edited, Nepantla Familias (Texas A&M Press and The Wittliff Collections), receives a Starred Review from Kirkus Reviews!

"A deeply meaningful collection that navigates important nuances of identity."
 

Thank you to all the contributors: David Dorado Romo, Reyna Grande, Stephanie Elizondo Griest, Francisco Cantu, Rigoberto Gonzalez, Alex Espinoza, Domingo Martinez, Oscar Casares, Lorraine Lopez, David Dominguez, Stephanie Li, Sheryl Luna, Jose Antonio Rodriguez, Deborah Paredez, Octavio Quintanilla, Sandra Cisneros, Diana Marie Delgado, Diana Lopez, Severo Perez, Octavio Solis, ire'ne lara silva, Ruben Degollado, Helena Maria Viramontes, Daniel Chacon, and Matt Mendez.

https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/sergio-troncoso/nepantla-familias/

Nepantla Familias: An Anthology of Mexican American Literature on Families in between Worlds

I am the editor of a great new anthology forthcoming in 2021, Nepantla Familias: An Anthology of Mexican American Literature on Families in between Worlds (Texas A&M Press and the Wittliff Collections). Twenty-five of the thirty works in this collection are unpublished, from Sandra Cisneros, Reyna Grande, Jose Antonio Rodriguez, Rigoberto Gonzalez, ire'ne lara silva, Matt Mendez, Diana Lopez, Alex Espinoza, Daniel Chacon, Helena Maria Viramontes, Stephanie Elizondo Griest, Deborah Paredez, David Romo, Francisco Cantu, Domingo Martinez, Oscar Casares, Lorraine Lopez, David Dominguez, Stephanie Li, Sheryl Luna, Octavio Quintanilla, Diana Marie Delgado, Octavio Solis, Severo Perez, and Ruben Degollado! Here's the terrific cover by Antonio Castro and a blurb from Juan Felipe Herrera.

"Such a window, such an ax, into the hard, human struggles of writers, sisters and brothers here — resolving, harmonizing and perhaps, simply just telling their Nepantlas. These lives in-between bridges of culture, of gender, of memory and presence, invisibility and courage, of raped bodies on the precipice of healing and wholeness, of speaking versus silence, of shame in-between wholeness, of big time university life then riding back to Segundo Barrio DNA. And of mothers drifting and daughters blazing in the Now. Each page, a revelation. Each story, a valley of tears and a mountain of triumph. This Nepantla Familia will tear your heart open. You will finally get to feel like a human being. You will have humanity in your hands. One of a kind, I thank Troncoso for this anthology — I bow before these writers of truth and love. A mega-ground-crackling and life expanding house of diamonds."

—Juan Felipe Herrera, Poet Laureate of the USA, Emeritus

 

To pre-order your copy, visit Texas A&M University Press: 

https://www.tamupress.com/book/9781623499631/nepantla-familias/

Midwest Book Review: A Peculiar Kind of Immigrant's Son

A great review of A Peculiar Kind of Immigrant’s Son (Cinco Puntos Press) from the Midwest Book Review. Thank you.

“An inherently fascinating and compelling read from first page to last, A Peculiar Kind of Immigrant's Son is an extraordinary and deftly written collection, and one that is especially and unreservedly recommended for both community and academic library Hispanic American Literature & Fiction collections.”

http://midwestbookreview.com/wbw/feb_20.htm#GeneralFiction

Texas Monthly: Reinventing the Canon

Texas Monthly: "Born and raised in El Paso, Sergio Troncoso is a prolific short story writer, novelist, and essayist. In From This Wicked Patch of Dust, Pilar and Cuauhtémoc Martínez are raising their four children in Ysleta, a border town. The novel unspools over four decades, and spans from Ysleta to New York City to Tehran in the aftermath of September 11, as the physical, ideological, and religious borders between the family members threaten to separate them for good."

 https://www.texasmonthly.com/the-culture/latinx-texan-literature/

Journal of Alta Californa on A Peculiar Kind of Immigrant's Son

From The Journal of Alta California on A Peculiar Kind of Immigrant's Son:


"Chicano literature began with the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, when a sizable Latino population was separated from its land and heritage. Sergio Troncoso has written brilliantly of this disruption and its pull. In his new book of stories, he is sharp in 'Rosary on the Border,' where a New Yorker returns to the El Paso–area village of Ysleta for his father’s funeral, and 'New Englander,' in which an intellectual Chicano must fight a redneck"

https://altaonline.com/fiction-thats-not-for-the-faint-of-heart/

Gabi, a Girl in Pieces

Isabel Quintero’s Gabi, a Girl in Pieces (Cinco Puntos Press) is a hilarious and powerful young adult novel with an unforgettable character in Gabi, la gordita, seeking to be true to her independence and integrity while she navigates the disasters and dramas of her senior year in high school. Quintero has created a voice that will resonate for many years to come. I hope this book will find the legions of readers it deserves, students, parents, teachers, and beyond.

Gabriela Hernandez starts a journal right before senior year, and it is this taboo-breaking, gut-spilling text where Gabi is true to herself, where she chronicles her confusions and declarations about being “a bastard child,” teenage sex and pregnancy, being too Mexican or not Mexican enough, her love of food, especially Hot-Cheetos, and society’s hypocritical expectations and pressures on young women, especially Chicanas. Gabi’s journal writing is profane, funny, revealing, and wise, but her experiences and decisions during her last year in high school will keep the reader riveted to the story.

Gabi struggles with her weight and self-image, yet she finds an outlet in writing when a teacher, Ms. Abernard, nurtures her poetry, recommends “secret reading lists” to Gabi and her classmates, and encourages them to read their poetry at a coffeehouse, The Grind Effect. Gabi has early crushes on Joshua Moore and Eric Ramirez, and has never been kissed. But she will change that soon enough, with the aroma of Hot-Cheetos on her “soft luscious lips.”

Meanwhile, Gabi’s two best friends have dramas of their own. Sebastian reveals to Gabi that he’s gay, which goes well, but when Sebastian reveals this to his father the son is kicked out of the house. Sebastian ends up staying with Gabi. Another best friend, Cindy gets pregnant by German, “one of those guys who knows he’s super hot and assumes girls HAVE to like him.” Gabi witnesses the birth of Cindy’s baby and wonders “how something so utterly disgusting can be so utterly beautiful at the same time.” Later, Cindy will confide a secret to Gabi that will cause la gordita to turn (justifiably) violent.

Gabi’s family is also a mess around her, and she must endure, explain, and overcome them. Her father is a methamphetamine addict, who is missing from home for days at a time. Gabi loves and hates her mother, who harangues her about her weight and constantly admonishes her to keep her ‘ojos abiertos y las piernas cerradas.’ Gabi listens and doesn’t listen to her mother’s advice, yet it is the mother who ends up pregnant after having unprotected sex. Beto, Gabi’s younger brother, skips school to paint graffiti art, and seems lost without his father. At the end of senior year, as Gabi is applying to the University of California at Berkeley, she must take whatever steps are necessary to go beyond this family and her life at Santa Maria de Los Rosales High School.

Gabi is in pieces in more ways than one: with emotions that contradict each other, with expectations and pressures that pull her every which way, with “jiggly goodies” in awkward dresses, and with crushes on boys she thinks she likes and those she learns to love. She is trying to put her self together, like a jigsaw puzzle, making mistakes and discovering solutions on the fly, her heart on her sleeve, with a verve that often astonishes the reader. If this is not one of best contemporary books about the teenage soul, I don’t know what is. 

Perhaps the best achievement of Isabel Quintero’s “Gabi, a Girl in Pieces” is what it says about what is ‘good’ and what is ‘bad’ about teenage sexuality, and how many adults are captive to a moral system that often denies them their best sense of self. You can be responsible, you can be honest about who you are and what you want, and you can empower yourself, if you can only survive the treacherous shoals of those teenage years. Like Gabi, you will need a razor-sharp wit and family and friends, as long as they don’t screw you up too much. You will need a ferocious independence, even when you see yourself with so many faults and limitations. Finally, you will need an integrity that demands you be true to your emerging self, always.

(This book review originally appeared in the El Paso Times on April 19, 2015.)