Our Migrant Souls

“The master writer puts on his maestro cap to give us memoir, media criticism, meditation, travelogue, history lesson, and so much more, in a style and pacing with all the brilliant nuances and hues that Latinos exemplify.”—Gustavo Arellano, author of Ask a Mexican

“Our Migrant Souls is an important contribution to the growing body of work offering answers to a seemingly simple question: What is a ‘Latino’? In precise yet lyrical prose, Héctor Tobar leads readers on a tour of the United States of America, where to be Latine often means to go unseen.”—Myriam Gurba, author of Mean

“ Héctor Tobar bursts the bubble of colonizing inhumanity contained in the ‘Latino,’ ‘Latinx,’ and ‘Hispanic’ labels. The migrant son Tobar crisscrosses the country to find stories of the buried and reviled, inspired and inspiring humanidad of the one out of every four people in the United States who bears these labels. Our Migrant Souls points to the inevitable reckoning a country deep in denial must undertake.”—Roberto Lovato , author of Unforgetting

“Unflinchingly clear-eyed, intelligent, and compassionate, Our Migrant Souls is essential reading for all Americans. Héctor Tobar peers into the fractured kaleidoscope of Latinidad and reveals that an identity is forged by history and by each of our unique stories. Generous in its expansive analysis of how empire and constructed ideas of race trickle through our veins, Our Migrant Souls is also heartfelt, poetic, and intimate. Tobar delivers a brilliant, honest, and necessary book about race when we need it most. It is a
salve for the times.”—Carribean Fragoza, author of Eat the Mouth That Feeds You

"Lyrical and uncompromising."—Publishers Weekly (starred review)