Nepantla Familias: An Anthology of Mexican American Literature on Families in Between Worlds

"Such a window, such an ax, into the hard, human struggles of writers, sisters and brothers here -- resolving, harmonizing and perhaps, simply just telling their Nepantlas. These lives in-between bridges of culture, of gender, of memory and presence, invisibility and courage, of raped bodies on the precipice of healing and wholeness, of speaking versus silence, of shame in-between wholeness, of big time university life then riding back to Segundo Barrio DNA. And of mothers drifting and daughters blazing in the Now. Each page, a revelation. Each story, a valley of tears and a mountain of triumph. This Nepantla Familia will tear your heart open. You will finally get to feel like a human being. You will have humanity in your hands. One of a kind, I thank Troncoso for this anthology -- I bow before these writers of truth and love. A mega-ground-crackling and life expanding house of diamonds."--Juan Felipe Herrera, Poet Laureate of the USA, Emeritus--Juan Felipe Herrera
"Anthologies are snapshots of specific cultural moments and this one by Sergio Troncoso comes at a time of anti-immigrant sentiment and ideological polarization. As is clear from these rewarding pages, we Mexican-Americans have ancestral knowledge about that fracture. But we don't panic. Instead, we first build bridges and then cross them because we know that a life divided is, in fact, incommensurably rewarding. Kudos to the contributors for their courage to put the pieces of the bridge together."--Ilan Stavans, author of Popol Vuh: A Retelling and The Seventh Heaven: Travels through Jewish Latin America--Ilan Stavans
"Bursting with a broad range of high-quality essays, poems and short stories, Nepantla Familias offers the reader a full banquet of modern Mexican American writings on spiritual, psychological, and international borderland experiences. These award-winning writers explore the Aztec concept of Nepantla, life on a philosophical borderland that describes not only the mestizo conundrum but the reality of every human being open to the contradictions and conflicts of their own uniqueness."--Carmen Tafolla, State Poet Laureate of Texas--Carmen Tafolla
"Open this book, trace the seam with your fingertips, caress the page, and let the words linger on your lips; let them lead you to Nepantla, where we dare and dance and delight and dream and wait as we always have. What a beautiful collection! I loved it."--Guadalupe Garcia McCall, author of All the Stars Denied and Summer of the Mariposas--Guadalupe Garcia McCall