Our Migrant Souls: A Meditation on the Meanings and Myths of "Latino"

Name: Our Migrant Souls: A Meditation on the Meanings and Myths of "Latino"
Author: Héctor Tobar
ISBN: 9780374609917

Héctor Tobar

award won

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Our Migrant Souls: A Meditation on the Meanings and Myths of "Latino"

Héctor Tobar

award won

score

Our Migrant Souls won the Kirkus Prize for Nonfiction and was named one of The New York Times' 100 Notable Books of 2023 and one of Time's 100 Must-Read Books of 2023. In Our Migrant Souls, Héctor Tobar delivers a definitive and personal exploration of what it means to be Latino in the United States right now. "Latino" is the most open-ended and loosely defined of the major race categories in the United States, and also one of the most rapidly growing. Composed as a direct address to the young people who identify or have been classified as "Latino," Our Migrant Souls is the first account of the historical and social forces that define Latino identity. Taking on the impacts of colonialism, public policy, immigration, media, and pop culture, Our Migrant Souls decodes the meaning of "Latino" as a racial and ethnic identity in the modern United States, and gives voice to the anger and the hopes of young Latino people who have seen Latinidad transformed into hateful tropes and who have faced insult and division—a story as old as this country itself. Tobar translates his experience as not only a journalist and novelist but also a mentor, a leader, and an educator. He interweaves his own story, and that of his parents' migration to the United States from Guatemala, into his account of his journey across the country to uncover something expansive, inspiring, true, and alive about the meaning of "Latino" in the twenty-first century.

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