Héctor Tobar – författare

WINNER OF THE KIRKUS PRIZE FOR NONFICTIONNAMED ONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES’ 100 NOTABLE BOOKS OF 2023ONE OF TIME’S 100 MUST-READ BOOKS OF 2023 | A TOP TEN BOOK OF 2023 AT CHICAGO PUBLIC LIBRARYA new book by the Pulitzer Prize–winning writer about the twenty-first-century Latino experience and identity.In Our Migrant Souls, 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. “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.

A New York Times Notable Book for 2011 A Boston Globe Best Fiction Book of 2011The great panoramic social novel that Los Angeles deserves—a twenty-first century, West Coast Bonfire of the Vanities by the only writer qualified to capture the city in all its glory and complexityWith The Barbarian Nurseries, Héctor Tobar gives our most misunderstood metropolis its great contemporary novel, taking us beyond the glimmer of Hollywood and deeper than camera-ready crime stories to reveal Southern California life as it really is, across its vast, sunshiny sprawl of classes, languages, dreams, and ambitions. Araceli is the live-in maid in the Torres-Thompson household—one of three Mexican employees in a Spanish-style house with lovely views of the Pacific. She has been responsible strictly for the cooking and cleaning, but the recession has hit, and suddenly Araceli is the last Mexican standing—unless you count Scott Torres, though you''d never suspect he was half Mexican but for his last name and an old family photo with central L.A. in the background. The financial pressure is causing the kind of fights that even Araceli knows the children shouldn''t hear, and then one morning, after a particularly dramatic fight, Araceli wakes to an empty house—except for the two Torres-Thompson boys, little aliens she''s never had to interact with before. Their parents are unreachable, and the only family member she knows of is Señor Torres, the subject of that old family photo. So she does the only thing she can think of and heads to the bus stop to seek out their grandfather. It will be an adventure, she tells the boys. If she only knew . . . With a precise eye for the telling detail and an unerring way with character, soaring brilliantly and seamlessly among a panorama of viewpoints, Tobar calls on all of his experience—as a novelist, a father, a journalist, a son of Guatemalan immigrants, and a native Angeleno—to deliver a novel as broad, as essential, as alive as the city itself.

WINNER OF THE KIRKUS PRIZE FOR NONFICTIONNamed One of The New York Times’ 100 Notable Books of 2023One of Time’s 100 Must-Read Books of 2023 | A Top Ten Book of 2023 at Chicago Public LibraryA new book by the Pulitzer Prize–winning writer about the twenty-first-century Latino experience and identity.In Our Migrant Souls, 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.“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.A new book by the Pulitzer Prize–winning writer about the twenty-first-century Latino experience and identity.In Our Migrant Souls, 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. “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.

Deep Down Dark is the novel that inspired the film The 33 starring Lou Diamond Phillips, Cote de Pablo and Antonio Banderas. When the San José mine collapsed outside of Copiapó, Chile, in August 2010, it trapped thirty-three miners beneath thousands of feet of rock for a record-breaking sixty-nine days. After the disaster, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Héctor Tobar received exclusive access to the miners and their tales, and in Deep Down Dark, he brings them to haunting, visceral life. We learn what it was like to be imprisoned inside a mountain, understand the horror of being slowly consumed by hunger, and experience the awe of working in such a place-underground passages filled with danger and that often felt alive. A masterwork of narrative journalism and a stirring testament to the power of the human spirit, The 33: Deep Down Dark captures the profound ways in which the lives of everyone involved in the catastrophe were forever changed. A Finalist for a National Book Critics Circle Award A Finalist for a Los Angeles Times Book Prize A New York Times Book Review Notable Book Selected for NPR''s Morning Edition Book Club

One of the Los Angeles Times Top 10 California Books of 2020. One of Publishers Weekly’s Top 10 Fiction Books from 2020. Longlisted for the Carnegie Medal for Excellence and the Joyce Carol Oates prize. One of Exile in Bookville’s Favorite Books of 2020. In The Last Great Road Bum, Héctor Tobar turns the peripatetic true story of a naive son of Urbana, Illinois, who died fighting with guerrillas in El Salvador into the great American novel for our times.Joe Sanderson died in pursuit of a life worth writing about. He was, in his words, a “road bum,” an adventurer and a storyteller, belonging to no place, people, or set of ideas. He was born into a childhood of middle-class contentment in Urbana, Illinois and died fighting with guerillas in Central America. With these facts, acclaimed novelist and journalist Héctor Tobar set out to write what would become The Last Great Road Bum.A decade ago, Tobar came into possession of the personal writings of the late Joe Sanderson, which chart Sanderson’s freewheeling course across the known world, from Illinois to Jamaica, to Vietnam, to Nigeria, to El Salvador—a life determinedly an adventure, ending in unlikely, anonymous heroism.The Last Great Road Bum is the great American novel Joe Sanderson never could have written, but did truly live—a fascinating, timely hybrid of fiction and nonfiction that only a master of both like Héctor Tobar could pull off.

Antonio Bernal is a Guatemalan refugee in Los Angeles haunted by memories of his wife and child, who were murdered at the hands of a man marked with yellow ink. In a park near Antonio's apartment, Guillermo Longoria extends his arm and reveals a sinister tattoo—yellow pelt, black spots, red mouth. It is the sign of the death squad, the Jaguar Battalion of the Guatemalan army.This chance encounter between Antonio and his family's killer ignites a psychological showdown between these two men. Each will discover that the war in Central America has migrated with them as they are engulfed by the quemazones—"the great burning" of the Los Angeles riots. A tragic tale of loss and destiny in the underbelly of an American city, The Tattooed Soldier is Pulitzer Prize–winning reporter Héctor Tobar's mesmerizing exploration of violence and the marks it leaves upon us.

Antonio Bernal is a Guatemalan refugee in Los Angeles haunted by memories of his wife and child, who were murdered at the hands of a man marked with yellow ink. In a park near Antonio''s apartment, Guillermo Longoria extends his arm and reveals a sinister tattoo—yellow pelt, black spots, red mouth. It is the sign of the death squad, the Jaguar Battalion of the Guatemalan army.This chance encounter between Antonio and his family''s killer ignites a psychological showdown between these two men. Each will discover that the war in Central America has migrated with them as they are engulfed by the quemazones—"the great burning" of the Los Angeles riots. A tragic tale of loss and destiny in the underbelly of an American city, The Tattooed Soldier is Pulitzer Prize–winning reporter Héctor Tobar''s mesmerizing exploration of violence and the marks it leaves upon us.

Previously published as Deep Down Dark: The Untold Stroies of 33 Men Buried in a Chilean Mine, and the Miracle That Set Them Free. The novel that inspired the film The 33 starring Lou Diamond Phillips, Cote de Pablo and Antonio Banderas. When the San José mine collapsed outside of Copiapó, Chile, in August 2010, it trapped thirty-three miners beneath thousands of feet of rock for a record-breaking sixty-nine days. After the disaster, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Héctor Tobar received exclusive access to the miners and their tales, and in Deep Down Dark, he brings them to haunting, visceral life. We learn what it was like to be imprisoned inside a mountain, understand the horror of being slowly consumed by hunger, and experience the awe of working in such a place-underground passages filled with danger and that often felt alive. A masterwork of narrative journalism and a stirring testament to the power of the human spirit, The 33: Deep Down Dark captures the profound ways in which the lives of everyone involved in the catastrophe were forever changed. A Finalist for a National Book Critics Circle Award A Finalist for a Los Angeles Times Book Prize A New York Times Book Review Notable Book Selected for NPR''s Morning Edition Book Club

Ganador del Kirkus Prize para Literatura No Ficción Nominado al Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence en Literatura No Ficción Entre los mejores libros del año: The New York Times • Time • Kirkus Reviews • NPR • BookPageCon su publicación original en tapa dura, Our Migrant Souls abrió nuevos caminos con su poderoso examen de las fuerzas sociales y políticas que moldean la identidad latina. Ahora en su primera traducción completa, Nuestras almas migrantes lleva el análisis definitivo y sin precedentes de Héctor Tobar sobre el significado de lo “latino” a los lectores de habla hispana, con la promesa de tender puentes entre generaciones y traspasar fronteras, ya que el libro sigue encabezando una conversación nacional muy necesaria sobre el pasado, el presente y el futuro de lo que significa ser estadounidense.Inspirado en los escritos de James Baldwin que abordan el papel de la raza en Estados Unidos, en las conversaciones de Tobar con sus estudiantes latinos y, por supuesto, en sus propias experiencias de vida y en las de su familia, Nuestras almas migrantes ofrece un valioso análisis de lo que significa ser latino en los Estados Unidos de hoy. En 2023, entre otros galardones, el libro ganó el Premio Kirkus de No Ficción, y fue seleccionado como Libro Notable del New York Times, uno de los Libros de Lectura Obligatoria de la revista Time y uno de los libros favoritos del año de NPR que “nos abre los ojos” y es “verdaderamente genial”.Al instante se convirtió en una lectura esencial, un libro icónico que ya pasa de lector a lector, provocando animadas y emotivas conversaciones en salas de conferencias, aulas de clase, salas de juntas y comedores. Por supuesto, se trata de una conversación que tiene lugar en más de un idioma a la vez, y es un libro que exige ser leído y comentado en inglés y en español. Ahora, gracias al trabajo de Tobar y de las aclamadas traductoras Laura Muñoz Bonilla y Tiziana Laudato, eso es posible.ENGLISH DESCRIPTION:WINNER OF THE KIRKUS PRIZE FOR NONFICTIONLong-listed for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in NonfictionNamed One of The New York Times’ 100 Notable Books of 2023One of Time’s 100 Must-Read Books of 2023 | A Top Ten Book of 2023 at Chicago Public LibraryA new book by the Pulitzer Prize–winning writer about the twenty-first-century Latino experience and identity.With its original hardcover publication, Our Migrant Souls broke new ground in its powerful examination of the social and political forces that shape Latino identity. Now, in its first full translation, Nuestras Almas Migrantes brings Héctor Tobar’s definitive and unprecedented analysis of the meaning of “Latino” to Spanish-language readers, promising to bridge generations and cross borders as the book continues to spearhead a much-needed national conversation about the past, present, and future of what it means to be an American.Inspired by James Baldwin’s writing wrestling with the role of race in the United States, along with Tobar’s own conversations with his Latino students and, of course, by his and his family’s own life experiences, Our Migrant Souls provides an invaluable reckoning with what it means to be Latino in the United States today. In 2023, among other honors, the book won the Kirkus Prize for Nonfiction, and was selected as a New York Times Notable Book, one of Time magazine’s Must-Read Books, and one of NPR’s favorite “eye-opening” and “seriously great” books of the year.It instantly became essential reading, an iconic book already being passed from reader to reader, provoking lively, emotional discussion in lecture halls, classrooms, boardrooms, and dining rooms. This is a conversation, of course, that takes place in more than one language at a time, and is a book that demands to be read and talked about in English and in Spanish. Now, thanks to the work of Tobar and the acclaimed translators Laura Muñoz Bonilla and Tiziana Laudato—to be published alongside the much-anticipated paperback of the original edition and in time for National Hispanic Heritage Month—eso es posible.

A new audiobook 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.A Macmillan Audio production from Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

Deep Down Dark is the novel that inspired the film The 33 starring Lou Diamond Phillips, Cote de Pablo and Antonio Banderas. When the San José mine collapsed outside of Copiapó, Chile, in August 2010, it trapped thirty-three miners beneath thousands of feet of rock for a record-breaking sixty-nine days. After the disaster, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Héctor Tobar received exclusive access to the miners and their tales, and in Deep Down Dark, he brings them to haunting, visceral life. We learn what it was like to be imprisoned inside a mountain, understand the horror of being slowly consumed by hunger, and experience the awe of working in such a place-underground passages filled with danger and that often felt alive. A masterwork of narrative journalism and a stirring testament to the power of the human spirit, The 33: Deep Down Dark captures the profound ways in which the lives of everyone involved in the catastrophe were forever changed. A Finalist for a National Book Critics Circle Award A Finalist for a Los Angeles Times Book Prize A New York Times Book Review Notable Book Selected for NPR''s Morning Edition Book Club

Previously published as Deep Down Dark: The Untold Stroies of 33 Men Buried in a Chilean Mine, and the Miracle That Set Them Free.The novel that inspired the film The 33 starring Lou Diamond Phillips, Cote de Pablo and Antonio Banderas.When the San José mine collapsed outside of Copiapó, Chile, in August 2010, it trapped thirty-three miners beneath thousands of feet of rock for a record-breaking sixty-nine days. After the disaster, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Héctor Tobar received exclusive access to the miners and their tales, and in Deep Down Dark, he brings them to haunting, visceral life. We learn what it was like to be imprisoned inside a mountain, understand the horror of being slowly consumed by hunger, and experience the awe of working in such a place-underground passages filled with danger and that often felt alive. A masterwork of narrative journalism and a stirring testament to the power of the human spirit, The 33: Deep Down Dark captures the profound ways in which the lives of everyone involved in the catastrophe were forever changed.A Finalist for a National Book Critics Circle AwardA Finalist for a Los Angeles Times Book PrizeA New York Times Book Review Notable BookSelected for NPR''s Morning Edition Book Club