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

 

 

A Peculiar Kind of Immigrant's Son Makes HipLatina's Must-Read List

A Peculiar Kind of Immigrant's Son among the "18 Must-Read Books By Latinx About Latinidad" by HipLatina Magazine. Thank you Laysha Macedo. I'm so grateful that these stories about immigrants keep resonating with readers across the country. This book is a collection of thirteen stories about immigrants and perspectivism: we are many different selves, and yet we are one, or we struggle to be one. In that struggle we find out who we are and why.

https://hiplatina.com/books-about-latinx/

Sergio Troncoso on PBS with Pati Jinich

On October 15th on PBS: "In Ysleta, Texas, Pati Jinich visits La Tapatia, a restaurant serving border-influenced tortilla, tamales and tacos since 1950. She sits down with acclaimed author, Sergio Troncoso – known for his many books and essays on border life – to discuss what it’s like to live in the middle of two cultures."  

"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/

 

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.

 https://youtu.be/kcOeBjMQkUc

Nepantla Familias: Elliott Bay Book Company

Elliott Bay Book Company from Seattle hosted a discussion and reading of Nepantla Familias: An Anthology of Mexican American Literature on Families in between Worlds (Texas A&M University Press and The Wittliff Literary Series). I had a fun and irreverent conversation with Octavio Solis and Domingo Martinez, both authors in our anthology. Please support independent bookstores in your community: they are so essential to nurturing independent literary voices and to creating a local literary community.

https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?v=1733284733522502&ref=watch_permalink

Nepantla Familias: Skylight Books in Los Angeles

Independent bookstore Skylight Books in Los Angeles featured Nepantla Familias on their podcast. I moderate a discussion with David Dominguez, Alex Espinoza, and Reyna Grande. They also read from their pieces in Nepantla Familias: An Anthology of Mexican American Literature on Families in between Worlds (Texas A&M University Press and The Wittliff Literary Series). Listen to a lively discussion!

https://skylightbooks.podbean.com/e/skylit-nepantla-familias-group-reading/

"Dust to Dust," by Sergio Troncoso, Texas Highways

Here's my essay "Dust to Dust" about growing old in Ysleta, my mother, the struggles and hopes of immigrants, and the values they shared in this country. In the August 2021 issue of Texas Highways magazine.

"Ysleta with a “Y” is where I grew up, where I went to Ysleta High School, and where my heart always returns when I need to heal, when I want to hug my mother. Ysleta is a first principle for understanding my soul—or as Aristotle would define it, a basic proposition that cannot be deducted from any other proposition. Ysleta is where I began, where I was formed. This community is at the edge of the edge of the United States, and I became an outsider and iconoclast in this country because of it. My mother belonged to the desolate landscape of Ysleta, yet she yearned to go beyond it. I admired her, yet when I left home, I knew I was traveling farther physically as well as philosophically than she ever could."

https://texashighways.com/culture/people/essay-growing-up-and-growing-old-in-ysleta/

 

American Book Review Interview with Sergio Troncoso

Frederick Luis Aldama interviews Sergio Troncoso in American Book Review:

“You are your own best experiment. If you’re digging honestly into yourself, you’re also looking at the problems and issues that that make up the human condition. So I think my ideal reader begins with someone on the border who loves to read. But I also think of readers beyond the border, those who have left and those who have come back, because many do precisely that.”

(Volume 42, Number 4, May/June 2021, pp. 14-28.)

https://sergiotroncoso.com/news/americanbookreview/Sergio-Troncoso-American-Book-Review.pdf

Literal Magazine Interview with Sergio Troncoso

Sergio Troncoso's interview in Literal Magazine: Latin American Voices on Nepantla Familias:

"What stands out for me in all these works is how these writers are comfortable with uncertainty, how they embrace it, and how they find themselves in the fog of adopting the in-between. I think when you get too certain about who you are, you stop thinking, you stop looking, your curiosity starts to disappear. It’s difficult to live in uncertainty, but it’s also the most lived life."

 

https://literalmagazine.com/a-conversation-with-sergio-troncoso/

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.

https://thewritersjam.com/episode-138-sergio-troncoso/