#NuevasPáginas: Hidden American Histories
With Désirée Zamorano author of 'Dispossessed'
Hey Book Franz,
How are you holding up? In case you missed my previous issues or are new here, before we jump into a new author interview/book feature, I want to check in on you. I also like to see this as my weekly reminder to check in with myself. So please feel free to reply out loud to yourself, reply in the comments, or you can always feel free to reply to this email, too. I truly believe community sustains, and I’m grateful to be able to be in community with you here.
At this moment, I’m feeling a bit like one of those crying gifs floating around the internet, which might come as a surprise to my wife, who asked me just yesterday how I’m doing. My response yesterday was, “I’m doing GOOD,” and I really felt like I meant it. This morning, though, I woke up tired and feeling irritable. Thanks to THERAPY (in my Beyoncé renaissance voice), I was able to identify that emotion. So today was all about making space for two things: feeling irritable at just about everything and anything (without judgment or actions) and feeling sadness at the fact that I didn’t wake up like my yesterday self.
I think for me, the hard thing to remember with all the madness we are collectively seeing and experiencing is that it’s normal that my feelings are fluctuating. I can’t always be the self that is “doing GOOD” without also making space for all the parts of me that aren’t doing so well. I walked a lot today, and that helped. I also was able to ask myself, what might that part of me that feels irritable need? And that felt like a good step toward continuing forward.
Another good step…..sharing with you all a few things that have brought me some joy these past few days:
Things bringing me joy
Celebrating someone else. Earlier this week, my wife had a pretty big meeting/presentation. I got to tune in and watch her. Seeing her show up and “kill it,” even though I knew how nervous she was, filled me with so much pride and joy.
THERAPY. Period. That’s the post lol.
Picking up a book a friend of mine gushed about while we were in that bookstore. The friend’s name might be familiar to you because she’s an incredibly talented writer/author — Jamila Minnicks, author of Moonrise Over New Jessup. Jamila and I were discussing what books we’ve been reading after her phenomenal conversation with fellow writer and friend Irvin Weathersby Jr, author of In Open Contempt: Confronting White Supremacy in Art and Public Space. Jamila mentioned how she’d read Love by Toni Morrison several times and said something to the effect that she reads Toni Morrison’s collection because she considers herself a student. That made me run over to find a copy and purchase it immediately. I wish I could remember exactly what and how she said it, but the point is her words shifted something in my system. It made me want to grab a highlighter and pen and get to studying, too. So, in the evenings, with a highlighter and pen close by, you can find me curled up with Love under a reading light. That has brought me so much joy that when I wake up, all I can think about is getting to the end of the day, so I grab my book, reading light, pen, and highlighter.
More bookish friendships! The internet’s favorite Dad, AKA
(and one of my favorite bookish people on the planet) announced their book tour stops this week. Guess who gets to CLOWN around with them in D.C. to talk about their hilariously-tender-lesbian-clown-novel? ME- this Sagittarius clown right here. Jokes aside, Stop Me If You’ve Heard This One is the first book I read and loved this year. If you haven’t heard of it or haven’t added it to your TBR yet, you MUST. It’s a book I urge everyone to pre-order this year. I’m deeply honored not only to get to chat with Kristen but to be able to call them my friend and Dad #goals. I did a little write-up Stop Me If You’ve Heard This One for TODAY’s 50 books we can’t wait to read in 2025 and here’s what I said about it:
Working at an aquarium and pet store in Orlando, Cherry Hendricks dreams of becoming a full-time professional clown. But she can’t seem to get out of her own way — that is it seems, until she connects with Margot the Magnificent, an established lesbian magician, via a dating app. This is a hilarious and ingenious novel for anyone who’s ever felt like a misfit.
If you find yourself in Washington D.C., on March 19th at 7 PM, come hang out with us and my bookshop girlfriend- Loyalty Books —for every queer and bookish evening. Register here.
What is something that has brought you joy today?
In bookish love,
P.S. In case you missed last week’s issue, make sure to check it out too! It comes with graphic novel recommendations:
#NuevasPáginas is a space that aims to amplify and spotlight Hispanic/Latine/x authors with newly published books. The goal is to connect readers to their next favorite Hispanic/Latine/x authored book through a mini casual get-to-know-the-book-and-author interview. So please help me connect to more readers. So that together we can continue to build the love/support of Latine literature!
Without further ado…our special guest author for today’s Nuevas Pagina issue is…Désirée Zamorano author of Dispossessed!
(Photo credit student Ana Sosa)
Could you tell me a bit about where this photo was taken? Is it special to your book in some way?
The photo is taken at California State University, Long Beach, where I teach our hidden American histories. My students, the majority of whom are planning on being elementary school teachers, inspire me semester after semester. Each year we read about history not taught k-12. I wrote this novel, in part, for them.
Tell me about your book without telling me about your book - share any literary inspirations behind your book! If there are none, the gap you wanted to fill in the literary canon with your book
Our (Mexican) American history is rarely represented in texts, movies or novels. I kept waiting for a great American novelist to tackle the mass expulsion of Mexican Americans and Mexican Nationals in the 1930s. After waiting years, I realized I needed to write the story I desperately wanted to read.
At Cal State Long Beach each semester I teach students who plan to be elementary school teachers. I revel in opening the eyes of my students, to these and other historical injustices that they are not typically taught k-12. I do this not to depress or overwhelm them, but to light a fire under them to make this country, this world, a better place.
For years I had been baffled that there is not a novel out that addresses these issues. And I kept waiting to read that novel. Year after year I would teach part of this, the expatriation of Mexican Americans and Mexican nationals, alongside other events, until in 2018 I finally realized that I would have to write that book. The novelist I had been waiting for was me.
A few years ago I watched the documentary No más bebés produced by Virginia Espino that documented the sterilization of women in LA County USC Medical Center in the 1960s and 70s. I knew about this practice in other parts of the world, in other parts of the country, but in my state and county? It is appalling.
What are two central themes in your book that you connect with the most and why?
My themes are family separation and the endurance of family love because these resonate with me on an emotional level.
What conversations do you hope your book stirs up?
Most people have no idea that two million Mexican Americans and Mexican nationals were ejected from this country in the 1930s. Let me underline that: US Citizens were kicked out of our country. We are the only demographic this has happened to. I hope there are conversations around why this is something that is not commonly known. We cannot maintain a democracy when we are ignorant of our history. These dramatic events impact us to this day, on who we consider a “citizen” or worthy of immigration and who we do not. The fact that we build a wall on the southern border and not on the northern. The fact that DACA dreamers are citizens in all ways except a birth certificate.
In addition to the historical themes, I hope people connect with the dignity of my characters as they continue to build their lives.
What was something you learned while writing your book? In what ways did it change you?
I began this novel in 2018. Soon afterwards the US government began separating families at the southern border. As painful as this was, I learned how contemporary and relevant this historical fiction novel is, and how important that more people know about it.
If a book was home, where would your home be?
A humble cottage, surrounded by flowering shrubbery, in Chavez Ravine (now Dodger Stadium)
If your book was a famous musician who would it be?
It would be the Trio Los Panchos- whose gorgeous vocals and instrumentals pluck at the listener’s heartstrings, as I hope my story will.
What comfort food could a reader pair with your book?
Mounds of pork chile verde, with rice, beans, and piles of slightly charred flour tortillas, a call back to both Lizette and Amparo’s cooking.
In what ways has access (or little to no access) to Hispanic/Latinx/e literature defined you as a writer?
I came of writing age before Sandra Cisneros was an icon, before the internet of connected communities. I could not find myself in the written world-my first published stories had no sense of ethnic background, and, ironically, won awards. When I sat down to write my novel, I anticipated spending years with my characters. I wanted them to be like me, like the world I knew, my community, with all of our complexity. I wanted visible representation, I wanted to deepen our portrayals. Four novels later, The Amado Women was published. This year, Dispossessed is published.
Where can readers keep up with your work?
At my website - please sign up for my newsletter and explore the links to my selected works! Instagram and Twitter: @ladeziree
The Amado Women will be re-released in 2025 by Lee and Low Press, and the University of Nevada will be publishing a collection of my short stories in 2026.
Thank you to Désirée Zamorano for taking the time to chat with me about her book! Please please make sure you purchase a copy (or request your local library carry a copy) #SupportLatinxLit!
Désirée Zamorano is the author of the highly acclaimed literary novel, The Amado Women. An award-winning short story writer, her work is often an exploration of issues of invisibility, injustice or inequity. Her writing appears in Alta, Catapult, and The Kenyon Review. Her novel Dispossessed from Rize drops September 10.
Synopsis for Dispossessed: Manuel Galvan is separated from his parents and sister during the mass expulsion of Mexicans and Mexican Americans in the 1930s. He grows from a small, lost and confused boy into a wandering and angry teenager pushed out of high school and into the dockyards. Later as a loyal, passionate husband he is a man searching for a life of value and dignity despite his losses. Set against the backdrop of (Mexican) American history in Los Angeles, forced deportations, the demolition of Chavez Ravine, sterilization of Latinas, student protests and rising political consciousness, this story spans his life, from 6 to 60, and his search for his missing family, the missing pieces of his life.
Thank you for this opportunity, Lupita!
Un abrazote
thank you for some joy. I am not "doing well" today. i'm overwhelmed by the world and specifically living in FL doesn't help.