On Childhood Migration from Central America--In Conversation with Javier Zamora

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  Dates & times
  Category Special Event
  Age Groups Adult
  Location Zoom

 

On Childhood Migration from Central America--In Conversation with Javier Zamora

McKinley Memorial Library is pleased to announce we are in partnership with the Library Speakers Consortium (LSC). The Consortium is a group of libraries that pool resources to hire well-known fiction and nonfiction adult, children's, and young adult authors to speak to their patrons. All programs are broadcast live (on Zoom) and recorded for later viewing. You can access our LSC webpage to see a list of upcoming speakers and view past recordings. You can also SUBSCRIBE to monthly event email reminders about current and upcoming speakers from the Library Speakers Consortium!


To register for this virtual event, please CLICK HERE. You do not need to have a library card to register.

Tune in for a special conversation with New York Times bestselling author Javier Zamora as he chats with us about his riveting tale of survival and perseverance as told in his award-winning memoir Solito.

Zamora’s adventure is a three-thousand-mile journey from his small town in El Salvador, through Guatemala and Mexico, and across the U.S. border. He will leave behind his beloved aunt and grandparents to reunite with a mother who left four years ago and a father he barely remembers. Traveling alone amid a group of strangers and a “coyote” hired to lead them to safety, Javier expects his trip to last two short weeks.

At nine years old, all Javier can imagine is rushing into his parents’ arms, snuggling in bed between them, and living under the same roof again. He cannot foresee the perilous boat trips, relentless desert treks, pointed guns, arrests and deceptions that await him; nor can he know that those two weeks will expand into two life-altering months alongside fellow migrants who will come to encircle him like an unexpected family.

Solito provides an immediate and intimate account not only of a treacherous and near-impossible journey, but also of the miraculous kindness and love delivered at the most unexpected moments. Solito is Javier Zamora’s story, but it’s also the story of millions of others who had no choice but to leave home. Register today to learn more about this gripping and moving story!

To find the book, please CLICK HERE.

About the Author: Javier Zamora was born in El Salvador in 1990. His father fled the country when he was one, and his mother when he was about to turn five. Both parents’ migrations were caused by the U.S.-funded Salvadoran Civil War. When he was nine Javier migrated through Guatemala, Mexico, and the Sonoran Desert. His debut poetry collection, Unaccompanied, explores the impact of the war and immigration on his family. Zamora has been a Stegner Fellow at Stanford and a Radcliffe Fellow at Harvard and holds fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry Foundation.