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Title details for Nepantla Familias by Sergio Troncoso - Available

Nepantla Familias

An Anthology of Mexican American Literature on Families in between Worlds

by Sergio Troncoso
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"A deeply meaningful collection that navigates important nuances of identity."—Kirkus Reviews, starred review
2021 Texas Book Festival Featured Book
Nepantla Familias brings together Mexican American narratives that explore and negotiate the many permutations of living in between different worlds—how the authors or their characters create, or fail to create, a cohesive identity amid the contradictions in their lives. Nepantla—or living in the in-between space of the borderland—is the focus of this anthology. The essays, poems, and short stories explore the in-between moments in Mexican American life—the family dynamics of living between traditional and contemporary worlds, between Spanish and English, between cultures with traditional and shifting identities. In times of change, family values are either adapted or discarded in the quest for self-discovery, part of the process of selecting and composing elements of a changing identity.

Edited by award-winning writer and scholar Sergio Troncoso, this anthology includes works from familiar and acclaimed voices such as David Dorado Romo, Sandra Cisneros, Alex Espinoza, Reyna Grande, and Francisco Cantú, as well as from important new voices, such as Stephanie Li, David Dominguez, and ire'ne lara silva. These are writers who open and expose the in-between places: through or at borders; among the past, present, and future; from tradition to innovation; between languages; in gender; about the wounds of the past and the victories of the present; of life and death.

Nepantla Familias shows the quintessential American experience that revives important foundational values through immigrants and the children of immigrants. Here readers will find a glimpse of contemporary Mexican American experience; here, also, readers will experience complexities of the geographic, linguistic, and cultural borders common to us all.
Includes the work of
David Dorado Romo
Reyna Grande
Francisco Cantú
Rigoberto González
Alex Espinoza
Domingo Martinez
Oscar Cásares
Lorraine M. López
David Dominguez
Stephanie Li
Sheryl Luna
José Antonio Rodríguez
Deborah Paredez
Diana Marie Delgado
Diana López
Severo Perez
Octavio Solis
ire'ne lara silva
Rubén Degollado
Helena María Viramontes
Daniel Chacón
Matt Mendez

  • Creators

  • Series

    Wittliff Collections Literary

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    April 19, 2021

  • Formats

    • Kindle Book

    • OverDrive Read

      • ISBN: 9781623499648

    • EPUB ebook

      • ISBN: 9781623499648
      • File size: 2494 KB

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Kirkus

      March 1, 2021
      An anthology featuring Mexican American writers negotiating life in between cultures. In an anthology that feels long overdue, Troncoso gathers 30 Mexican American writers to relate their accounts of what it means to be an American or, more often, what it means to not feel fully American. The anthology, which is divided into fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, contains mostly never-before-published works woven together by the common thread of "nepantla," a Nahuatl word that means "mutual place" or the "in-between." Alex Espinoza discusses being rejected due to his queerness, viewing his experience through the lens of machismo and alcoholism, two powerful forces that he notes often exist in tandem. In a short story, feminist poet ire'ne lara silva explores the concept of "crossing over" in Mexican culture, both literally (to the U.S.) and in the afterlife, while Octavio Quintanilla's short poem conveys the fear of law enforcement that can often haunt immigrants long after they arrive in America as well as the constant threat of deportation. The liminal spaces in which these moving, sometimes heart-wrenching stories take place range from the geographical to the metaphysical. Often, the literal borders erected to keep out Mexican migrants become metaphors for a deeper struggle to find the meanings of us and them. Many of the writers express a frustration at being either "too Mexican" or "not Mexican enough." The rejection from both sides foments a desire to belong to something uniquely apart from either, giving birth to a diaspora that embraces the idea of existing in several worlds. "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." Other contributors include Sandra Cisneros, Reyna Grande, Francisco Cant�, and Stephanie Elizondo Griest. A deeply meaningful collection that navigates important nuances of identity.

      COPYRIGHT(2021) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Formats

  • Kindle Book
  • OverDrive Read
  • EPUB ebook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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