About this Event
This month, we'll be discussing In Our Migrant Souls , in which the Pulitzer Prize–winning writer Héctor Tobar delivers a definitive and personal exploration of what it means to be Latino in the United States right now. As always, our number one priority is creating comunidad. So please feel free to attend even if you didn't get a chance to finish the book this month.
Nos vemos pronto!
Where to find the book
You can find a copy of their book on Bookshop.org here
Purchase through Estelita's Library's Bookshop.org storefront, and you'll support Seattle's local Black/Brown-owned justice-focused community bookstore & lending library.
You can also find the book at Seattle Public Library in print, ebook, and audiobook formats.
About the Book
“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.
About the Authors
Héctor Tobar, now a weekly columnist for the Los Angeles Times, is a Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist and a novelist. He is the author of Translation Nation and The Tattooed Soldier. The son of Guatemalan immigrants, he is a native of the city of Los Angeles, where he lives with his wife and three children.
2026 Meeting Dates & Book Picks
- Sat. 1/31/26 - Ophelia After All, Raquel Marie
- Sat. 2/21/26 - Krik? Krak!, Edwidge Danticat
- Sat. 3/21/2026 - Defectors, Paola Ramos
- Sat. 4/25/2026 - Chilean Poet, Alejandro Zambra
- Sat. 5/2026 - Abyss, Pilar Quintana
- Sat. 6/20/2026 – Our Migrant Souls, Hector Tobar
- Sat. 7/25/2026 - Canto Contigo, Jonny Garza Villa
- Sat. 8/2026 – When Language Broke Open, Alan Pelaez Lopez
- Sat. 9/2026 – So Many Stars, Caro De Robertis
- Sat. 10/24/2026 - Malcriada & Other Stories, Lorraine Avila
- Sat. 11/21/2026 – We Will Be Jaguars, Nemonte Nenquimo
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
El Quetzal, 3211 Beacon Avenue South, Seattle, United States
USD 0.00
