"Nepantla Familias explores life in the liminal spaces between borders. The essays, poems, and short stories in this anthology, all by Mexican American writers, present the conflicts — internal and external — that occur in these spaces between nations, cultures, and languages. They raise questions like: How does someone who straddles two worlds fit into either? Is it possible to live in both? What is lost when someone chooses, or is forced to choose, one world over the other? The answers vary, but in the attempts to find them, a main theme emerges: the power of storytelling to work through pain and forge identity."
Wednesday, July 16, 2025
'New' Book Review of Nepantla Familias
Friday, November 15, 2024
Nepantla Familias on Texas Public Radio
"A deeply meaningful collection that navigates important nuances of identity." —Kirkus Reviews, starred review
Saturday, May 20, 2023
Nepantla Familias Wins IPPY Award
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."
Tuesday, April 11, 2023
Nepantla Familias Wins Award for Cover Artwork
https://www.hofferaward.com/da-Vinci-Eye.html#.ZDVdGBXMLG8
Wednesday, January 5, 2022
Book Riot and 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.'"
Sunday, January 2, 2022
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
Tuesday, December 21, 2021
Austin American-Statesman and Nepantla Familias
Friday, December 17, 2021
Humanities Texas and Nepantla Familias
Thursday, September 30, 2021
Sergio Troncoso on PBS with Pati Jinich
"Currently reading Nepantla Familias: a phenomenal anthology of Mexican American literature on families in between worlds by @SergioTroncoso. Super recommended!!"
—Pati Jinich of Pati's Mexican Table on Twitter
https://www.pbs.org/video/de-sergio-tc2zb7/

Tuesday, August 24, 2021
Nepantla Familias: Must Read Fiction
Erin Popelka of Must Read Fiction talks with Sergio Troncoso and Octavio Solis about Nepantla Familias: An Anthology of Mexican American Literature on Families in between Worlds (Texas A&M University Press). We talk about what nepantla means to both authors, and how this in between creates illusions, conflicting loyalties, and also transcendence. We also talk about both of their pieces in the collection as well as highlights from some of the others writers in the book.
Monday, August 9, 2021
Nepantla Familias: Elliott Bay Book Company
https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?v=1733284733522502&ref=watch_permalink
Saturday, August 7, 2021
Nepantla Familias: Skylight Books in Los Angeles
https://skylightbooks.podbean.com/e/skylit-nepantla-familias-group-reading/
Saturday, July 10, 2021
Literal Magazine Interview with Sergio Troncoso
Wednesday, July 7, 2021
Sergio Troncoso with Brad King, Downtown Writers Jam Podcast
Please take a listen to my wonderful conversation with Brad King of The Downtown Writers Jam Podcast from Pittsburgh, PA. I loved our easy, free-flowing talk. We connected with each other as we dove deep into my history in Ysleta, Texas on the United States-Mexico border, how I became a writer, and how my working class upbringing has informed my writing as an outsider. Thank you, Brad King.
Friday, June 18, 2021
Nepantla Familias: Bookworks in Albuquerque
The independent bookstore, Bookworks in Albuquerque, featured Nepantla Familias: An Anthology of Mexican American Literature on Families in between Worlds (Texas A&M Press and The Wittliff Collections) at a recent online event. As editor, I moderated a panel with three contributors, Sheryl Luna, Matt Mendez, and Daniel Chacon. I hope you enjoy it.
"In his introduction to the anthology, Sergio Troncoso says he believes the feeling of nepantla is a universal one. “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 these pages . . . And anyone who has crossed any border to create who they are . . . and suffered the consequences for it—they will find their fellow travelers, their kindred spirits, in these pages.” I think he is absolutely correct. Monoculture is a myth, and one of many fictions I hope to see dismantled in my lifetime." ---Elizabeth Gonzalez James in Ploughshares
Tuesday, June 15, 2021
Pati Jinich on Nepantla Familias: "Super recommended!!"
At the end of May, I traveled to Ysleta (my east side neighborhood in El Paso, Texas) to visit my mother on her 86th birthday and to eat tamales and tacos with Pati Jinich (Pati's Mexican Table) at La Tapatia in Ysleta. Pati was shooting a PBS series called "La Frontera," and she invited me to talk about the border, its people, and La Tapatia, which I had suggested as our restaurant. She is such a remarkable human being, and my impression is that she cares deeply about the people and culture of the borderlands. I gave her a copy of Nepantla Familias: An Anthology of Mexican American Literature on Families in between Worlds (Texas A&M Press and The Wittliff Collections), which I edited.
I returned to New York City, because I have deadlines and a host of responsibilities particularly with the Texas Institute of Letters. I'm the current president. So on June 12th, Pati tweets on Twitter and posts on Instagram, "Currently reading Nepantla [Familias]: a phenomenal anthology of Mexican American literature on families in between worlds by@SergioTroncoso. Super recommended!!"
I'm grateful for her support. She didn't have to do that, but she did. I find that these gestures of kindness are what I remember many years later. Thank you, Pati, for the excellent conversation and for reading Nepantla Familias. I wish you safe travels. (Apparently "La Frontera will air sometime this summer, in late July or August.)
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Sergio Troncoso and Pati Jinich at La Tapatia in Ysleta, Texas. |
Thursday, May 6, 2021
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
Saturday, April 24, 2021
Rumpus Interview: Nepantla and Radical Empathy with Sergio Troncoso
https://therumpus.net/2021/04/the-rumpus-interview-with-sergio-troncoso/
Monday, April 19, 2021
Op-Ed Essay in Houston Chronicle on Nepantla Familias
"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."
Tuesday, April 13, 2021
Words on a Wire Interviews Sergio Troncoso on Nepantla Familias