The University of Arizona Press
Date: Saturday, November 11, 2023
Time: 11:15 a.m. – 12 p.m. CST
Where: Kirkus Reviews Tent, 11th Street, Austin, Texas
Across Latinx diasporas, as with other diasporas, the family unit is of paramount cultural importance. But what happens when that unit is compromised by circumstance? In this panel titled “What We Lost: Stories of Family & Womanhood, discussion with Alma García and Esmerelda Santiago,” debut novelist García speaks about All That Rises, the story of two neighboring families coming together and falling apart amongst a struggle for belonging, border politics, and secrets. Peabody Award winner Esmerelda Santiago discusses Las Madres, a commanding tale of family, disaster, and faith ricocheting between the lives of a tight-knit group of women split between Puerto Rico and the Bronx. Join these fantastic authors in a conversation about redefining family and contemporary Latinx literature. After the discussion there will be a book signing at 12:15 p.m. located at the Main Signing Tent. The Festival is free and open to the public.
Texas Book Festival Full Schedule of Events
About All That Rises:
In the border city of El Paso, Texas, two guardedly neighboring families have plunged headlong into a harrowing week. Rose Marie DuPre, wife and mother, has abandoned her family. On the doorstep of the Gonzales home, long-lost rebel Inez appears. As Rose Marie’s husband, Huck (manager of a maquiladora), and Inez’s brother, Jerry (a college professor), struggle separately with the new shape of their worlds, Lourdes, the Mexican maid who works in both homes, finds herself entangled in the lives of her employers, even as she grapples with a teenage daughter who only has eyes for el otro lado—life, American style.
