Héctor Tobar in conversation with John McMurtrie

LIVE! From City Lights welcomes Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and novelist Héctor Tobar as he celebrates the release of his new book "Our Migrant Souls: A Meditation on Race and the Meanings and Myths of ‘Latino’".

In conversation with John McMurtire, senior editor at Zyzzyva, Tobar discusses the inspiration for his book and how the characterization of ‘Latino’ has changed over the years. "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.

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". Tobar 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.

You can purchase copies of "Our Migrant Souls" directly from City Lights here: https://citylights.com/new-nonfiction-in-hardcover/our-migrant-souls-a-meditation-on-race-and-the-meanings-and-myths-of-latino-2/

This was an in-person event hosted by John McCurtrie and was made possible by support from the City Lights Foundation: citylights.com/foundation