A Meditation on Race and the Meanings and Myths of
by Héctor Tobar
Critics' Opinion:
Readers' rating:
Published May 2023
256 pages
Genre: Essays
Publication Information
A new book by the Pulitzer Prize–winning writer about the twenty-first-century Latino experience and identity.
"Latino" is the most open-ended and loosely defined of the major race categories in the United States. Our Migrant Souls: A Meditation on Race and the Meanings and Myths of "Latino" assembles the Pulitzer Prize winner Héctor Tobar's personal experiences as the son of Guatemalan immigrants and the stories told to him by his Latinx students to offer a spirited rebuke to racist ideas about Latino people. Our Migrant Souls decodes the meaning of "Latino" as a racial and ethnic identity in the modern United States, and seeks to give voice to the angst and anger of young Latino people who have seen latinidad transformed into hateful tropes about "illegals" and have faced insults, harassment, and division based on white insecurities and economic exploitation.
Investigating topics that include the US-Mexico border "wall," Frida Kahlo, urban segregation, gangs, queer Latino utopias, and the emergence of the cartel genre in TV and film, Tobar journeys across the country to expose something truer about the meaning of "Latino" in the twenty-first century.
"Pulitzer winner Tobar (The Last Great Road Bum) explores in this probing, heartfelt essay collection the promises and contradictions inherent within Latino identity...Lyrical and uncompromising, this is a powerful call for all Americans to 'dedicat[e] our energy and our intellects to creating new ways of being in the world.'" —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Tobar's travels and meditations are altogether provocative and thoroughly well thought through, his account sharply observed and elegantly written...A powerful look at what it means to be a member of a community that, though large, remains marginalized." —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"Recommended for readers with an interest in sociology, anthropology, political science, and the historical context of various Latin American migrant experiences." —Library Journal
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Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Héctor Tobar is a Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist and novelist. He is the author of the critically acclaimed, New York Times bestseller, Deep Down Dark, as well as The Barbarian Nurseries, Translation Nation, and The Tattooed Soldier. Héctor is also a contributing writer for the New York Times opinion pages and an associate professor at the University of California, Irvine. He's written for The New Yorker, The Los Angeles Times and other publications. His short fiction has appeared in Best American Short Stories, L.A. Noir, Zyzzyva, and Slate. The son of Guatemalan immigrants, he is a native of Los Angeles, where he lives with his family.
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